Have to start somewhere.

[mikakuja]

Hello everyone from British Columbia Canada. I have joined this forum as a first step toward our dream of one day owning and cruising a Catamaran. We are not experienced sailors and are starting our journey from the bottom, with no expectations. We do have some boating experience but have not owned anything bigger than a 16ft runabout with a 50hp outboard.
This year's goal is to join a local yacht club and complete the introduction to sailing courses followed by a crew course for beginners. Of course we will continue take more advanced courses and take every opportunity to get out on the water that we can. We are also tossing the idea around of picking up a mono hull weekender to gain experience on prior to taking the plunge into a life changing purchase.
I will more than likely have a ton of questions for you, and from what I have seen of this forum there is a lot of knowledgeable people here.
I look forward to sharing our adventures and hope that I might be able to contribute something along the way..

BTW, our dream cat is a Leopard 40 owners edition.....

Mike

[Celestialsailor]

Welcome to the forum. You're going about it the right way...May all your dreams be realized.

[chris mac]

Hello, I'm not too far off. I'm by Edmonton Alberta, fresh water lake sailing here. Although not now as we are having a spring snow storm:@
We will be in Vancouver this may chartering a lagoon 38. It's beautiful sailing through the gulf islands.
The leopard 40 is a nice cat, but don't make up your mind yet. Once you saw get some experience your tastes might change, or be reinforced. Keep an open mind and just enjoy every chance, and every boat you can get on.
The secret to becoming a good sailor, and knowing what boat you want, is to sail every chance you get, on every boat you can.
After all its" the dream" because it's so damn fun and fulfilling:-)
We have a mono here, and enjoy summers with her. It definitely helps with practise. You could also join a local yacht club doing club races, crewing, or charter.
In short, welcome to the forum from a fellow Canadian.
Oh, and you have some great options for courses in Vancouver. We used "ocean forest voyaging" for comp crew and day skipper cert, and are chartering with Coopers. So far happy with both.

[Adelie]

Welcome.
Why a cat?

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Mike.

[mikakuja]

Thanks for the welcome everyone! Chris Mac, we were looking at Coopers and simply sailing for our courses and cruising programs. I will also have a look at Ocean Forest Voyaging as I had not heard of them. I am actually pretty excited to get started and get some time on the water.

Why a cat? Well, quite simply it just suits the type of sailing we want to do. As we plan to live aboard for several years we drawn to the cat's more stable platform, and to be honest the idea of not leaning all the time is appealing to us, lol. We also like the space a cat provides to move around freely and entertain family and friends when we are able. Not that we have anything against a mono hull, it is just less appealing to us at this point in our lives.

We are keeping an open mind and are not steadfast in our decision on the Leopard, we do however like it's overall styling based on the research we have done. When the time comes to get serious and purchase something our decision will more than likely be dictated by what is available at the time. Basically our overall decision will depend on the general condition of the cat and track record of the manufacturer. There are other cat's we like as well, Lagoon included. As for the length, the 40ft was what we considered to be the minimum length that we would consider....

[Caolan]

Well met!