What Made You Decide to Sail ?

[delmarrey]

In 1973 the price of gas went from $.29 per gl to $1.00 per gl. A 450 gallon fuel tank became very expensive to fill on a wage of $8 an hr.

Besides the sound of the wind and waves are much more pleasant then the rumbling of two large V8's.

[Tellie]

I bought another sailboat, this time a Cat, because I believe it to be part of my simple life plan. I want to be sliding in worn out, beat up, bruised, scarred, exhausted, totally spent and spending my last dollar I earned on the last day of my life. So far I'm way ahead of schedule. But the sailing eases the stress.

[Rucksta]

Watched a TV show called "Adventures in Paradise".
Capt. Adam Troy sailed a trading schooner around various
South Pacific destinations having scripted adventures.

I was hooked then along came a sabot.

Mike Nelson in "Sea Hunt" was next

Fishing, diving & Sailing. What's not to like?

My future was cast.

Nothing to do with being the son of the son of a sailor
or ancestors that would sail to England for their summer holidays.

[Benz]

When I was your age, OP, I bought a junker sailboat from a thrift store, fixed it up, married my girl, and we went sailing around the Caribbean. We had no money--spent it all to buy the boat, spent whatever we made fixing it up while living on it, and cruised on $300 a month. Everyone else had bigger boats and more money, but we were all in the same water, had access to the same fishin,' went ashore at the same places.
Sure, we suffered discomfort and privation, but we went, and the primary reason wasn't that we could afford it, or were ready, or anything: it was that we wanted to. If you really want to, you can too. You might have to give up wine and cigarettes and a dog and being warm and dry and sleeping all night and security and an iPhone, but you can do it if you want.

[HeinSdL]

With almost 10 years since the OP's last post it would be most interesting to hear what actually happened... Did he go round the world or is he still sitting on the porch smoking away happily with his dog? Probably somewhere in between.

[thomm225]

Two books did it for me.

One was a Donald Duck Golden book I "read." (looked at the pictures mostly)

And the second was Ship Killer by Justin Scott which I read while in Yuma, AZ at about 22 years of age.

I had by this time already owned 5 power boats that I used to fish in the Chesapeake By and seaside creeks Atlantic Ocean side Eastern Shore VA.

https://www.amazon.com/Shipkiller-No.../dp/1605984655

Ship Killer features a 1974 Swan 38 if I remember correctly. That boat would make most anyone want to sail back then and now

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/swan-38-ss

[contrail]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Two books did it for me.

One was a Donald Duck Golden book I "read." (looked at the pictures mostly)

And the second was Ship Killer by Justin Scott which I read while in Yuma, AZ at about 22 years of age.

I had by this time already owned 5 power boats that I used to fish in the Chesapeake By and seaside creeks Atlantic Ocean side Eastern Shore VA.

https://www.amazon.com/Shipkiller-No.../dp/1605984655

Ship Killer features a 1974 Swan 38 if I remember correctly. That boat would make most anyone want to sail back then and now

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/swan-38-ss

I remember Shipkiller, a great read!

[MicHughV]

I think I was 13 years old....when I first read about Robin Lee Graham's epic voyage around the world in his little boat...it lit a fire under me, like no other......this....I thought....I must do....

[MicHughV]

then to add fuel to the fire....out of nowhere ...a catalog appeared out of nowhere...it was a Bruce Roberts " Build your own boat" catalog.....and thus the die was cast...

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I think I was 13 years old....when I first read about Robin Lee Graham's epic voyage around the world in his little boat...it lit a fire under me, like no other......this....I thought....I must do....

His second book is very good also about how life was so strange when he got back to LA after his 5 year Circumnav.

For one thing, he didn't know how to drive, and they gave him a new Ford Maverick that he promptly wrecked.

Then he tried college but soon dropped out so he and Patti used the last of their money to buy some property in Montana and the rest is history.

https://flatheadbeacon.com/2021/03/11/sailor-at-home/

Btw, I was also able to buy the three National Geographic Magazines that featured Robin Lee Graham during his RTW Voyage for 50 cents each at a library sale.

There is one picture of he and Patti standing near a 50CC motor bike they had rented in Good Hope Africa I think. They were looking at a map I believe. This could have been late 1960's.

It looked like it would be fun to chase your girlfriend RTW and meet here and there and have further adventures. (or vise a versa she chasing him and bumming rides along the way on anything that would get her there..... to the next port of call)

[MicHughV]

I lived 500 miles from the nearest ocean and didn't know the first thing about boats or sailing...but yep....those National Geographic articles featuring Robin Lee Graham came out and I was smitten...

My dad wasn't willing to buy me a boat and do the same.....and off course, I didn't have a dime to my name...only way I was going to own my own boat...was to build it...

The heavens must have heard me, because out of nowhere, a Bruce Roberts " Build your own boat" catalog arrived at my parents house..I leafed thru' this magazine until a Roberts 38 ketch hove into sight. I didn't know a ketch from a stick in the ground, but this boat, I had to have....and the rest...as they say...is history...

[thomm225]

Well I was lucky there in that I lived/grew up about 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and 5 miles from the Chesapeake Bay, but my parents could care less about boats.

So I went fishing with neighbors and bought my first power boat at 16 years old. Boat motor and trailer $300. 16' Chincoteague scow. 40 Johnson. One of the rims disintegrated on the trip to the ramp to launch it the first time.

This was lesson one on rust.

Next the engine shut down after we got out into the Bay. Lesson two. Make sure the impeller is pumping water.

We got in by run the engine for as long as it would last before seizing up!

And the lessons continued from there.

After having so many old boats with old engines I started thinking sailboat and I had begun reading a bit about them.

First sailboat a dinghy sailor when I was age 26 and in Tennessee which is about 500 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and 900 from the Atlantic Ocean/Chesapeake Bay.

[MicHughV]

my first boat was a 40 gallon steel drum, cut lengthwise in half..fitted with a broom for a mast and a bedsheet...yep....crazy....but true...

[thomm225]

This was Laura Dekker's first sailboat.

Just a few years later she would sail RTW world on a bit larger boat.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-pos...a-boat-a-dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA60BScgmzw

[MicHughV]

yep, if the bug hits you.....it hits you....no tellin' why....I'm still at it....there have been countless times I swore I would never set foot on the ocean again...but I keep going back for more...