Inexperience Family to begin Live-aboard.

[chuckr]

I should not post on this but I will -- first we have been underway for 9 years and now in the Black Sea. When we came down the ICW the last time we met a young family that came into Elizabeth City NC in a bit of a blow. trying to get into one of free slips they had wind on one side and current on the other - they really had no idea what they were doing and it took most of us there to get them in but not before they rammed the dock at full speed. It was their first time down the ICW and they said their radio did not work and they had other problem - a group of South Africans did a lot of rigging work as it was not in good shape, I worked on their radio that simply needed to be turned on and they did not know how, they decided to head down the ICW at dark and were talked out of it. They got a call from the Coast Guard that they found their dingy that they lost in NY harbor. It goes on from their. At time we have taken sailors under our wing to help them along but we wanted no part of this family. after a lot of talking from various sailors there and the EC folks they decided that they were over their heads and decided to stay in EC and learn.

You and your family must become a team and work together to accomplish what you want to. And in my opinion the best way is to find a ASA course for the family with a skilled capt that makes you work as a team and learn to sail together and back each other up. Some days this is the greatest life imaginable and some days the worst. Thankfully the great far outweigh the worst.

As above find a ASA charter class in the Carib with a cat and learn together.

As for cat vs mono - hum well 45deg is just nonsense -- we sail a Jeanneau DS40 with a 5' draft (a bit more now as we have her loaded down with lots of extras) and if she heels 15 deg we reef as she does not sail well. We try to keep the heel at about 10 deg or so and it is comfortable and fast for us. But we know a lot of cat owners who would sail nothing else. But remember your cost will go up as you got 2 of everything and the haulouts are a lot more expensive.

as for cost we have put 7 years of cost data out there for some sort of reference for others.

[Medge]

Originally Posted by chuckr

I should not post on this but I will -- first we have been underway for 9 years and now in the Black Sea. When we came down the ICW the last time we met a young family that came into Elizabeth City NC in a bit of a blow. trying to get into one of free slips they had wind on one side and current on the other - they really had no idea what they were doing and it took most of us there to get them in but not before they rammed the dock at full speed. It was their first time down the ICW and they said their radio did not work and they had other problem - a group of South Africans did a lot of rigging work as it was not in good shape, I worked on their radio that simply needed to be turned on and they did not know how, they decided to head down the ICW at dark and were talked out of it. They got a call from the Coast Guard that they found their dingy that they lost in NY harbor. It goes on from their. At time we have taken sailors under our wing to help them along but we wanted no part of this family. after a lot of talking from various sailors there and the EC folks they decided that they were over their heads and decided to stay in EC and learn.

You and your family must become a team and work together to accomplish what you want to. And in my opinion the best way is to find a ASA course for the family with a skilled capt that makes you work as a team and learn to sail together and back each other up. Some days this is the greatest life imaginable and some days the worst. Thankfully the great far outweigh the worst.

As above find a ASA charter class in the Carib with a cat and learn together.

As for cat vs mono - hum well 45deg is just nonsense -- we sail a Jeanneau DS40 with a 5' draft (a bit more now as we have her loaded down with lots of extras) and if she heels 15 deg we reef as she does not sail well. We try to keep the heel at about 10 deg or so and it is comfortable and fast for us. But we know a lot of cat owners who would sail nothing else. But remember your cost will go up as you got 2 of everything and the haulouts are a lot more expensive.

as for cost we have put 7 years of cost data out there for some sort of reference for others.

Thanks for posting this. You are right. We need a course. My wife is looking at scheduling one now and we are supposed to go out Sunday with a guy that is moving his boat. It seems like the most dangerous thing, as far as sailing goes, is ignorance. I am trying to divest myself of as much of it as possible.

[Badsanta]

It's not just the sailing. Every year boats come limping in to our marina with fuel problems. Most the time a new to them boat. Most call a mechanic some struggle themselves I'm getting pretty good at bleading a diesel. I should start charging. Sailing is not the only thing to learn.