Just Bought Our First Real Boat

[tmtownsley]

Greetings!

I've been reading this forum for over a year but have been hesitant to join as I didn't feel I had much to contribute, plus I've seen ya'll can be pretty harsh on newbies. It's been a wealth of information so far though and I appreciate being able to mine this forum for info.

My sailing experience so far has been about 5 years owning a Hobie 16 and Sunfish although I sold those about 5 years ago. I then took ASA 101, 103, and 104 classes with the intent to charter in the Caribbean. For the past 4 years I've been "partnered" with a guy on his Newport 30 on Lake Ray Hubbard in Dallas before my wife and I finally bought our own boat about 2 months ago. We bought a 1987 Catalina 34 on Lake Texoma and absolutely love it!

In the two months that we've owned it, we have refinished the floors, recovered the interior cushions, and removed the fuel tank to repair a leak before I reinstalled it. It's a nice boat but we want to make it nicer. We just moved the boat yesterday to a bigger marina on Lake Texoma with an active sailing club and look forward to getting to know other sailors and continue to improve our sailing skills.

We have also done a bareboat charter in the BVI a couple of years ago when we got engaged and then did a bareboat charter for our honeymoon last year in Grenada. Our Goal is to move to a boat as liveaboards in the next 5 - 7 years, somewhere on the coast, and then eventually cruise full time.

Thanks for having us as part of the forum.

Travis and Tara

[ssanzone]

pft. if you have completed 101, 103 and 104 you are more experienced than 86% of the people here.


welcome!

-steve

[Prairie Chicken]

Congrats! Welcome to the Forum.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Boy howdy...

Ya'll ain't seen harsh treatment 'til we run across a lurker who finally posts...


Sounds like you guys are havin' a blast... and exactly how it should be... As previously mentioned... 101/103/104 gets ya a fair leg up on most here...

Start honing your "having too much fun" meter with your new club...

And WELCOME!

[sailorboy1]

"real boats" rock!

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
A Sunfish is a real boat.
Since you are now a seasoned sailor and have access to a nautical dictionary did you refinish the floors or the cabin sole?
Just yankin' your chain a bit. I think you've done it the right way by moving up and taking courses interspersed with charter and small boat ownership.
kindest regards,

[ontherocks83]

Congratulations on the boat!

Here is a Catalina parts and info website I found that may be helpful to you during your upgrades/maintenance

http://www.catalinadirect.com/

Have fun in your adventures