Little experience craving more!

[xcountry rider]

Hello everyone. My name is John and I live in Arroyo Grande, California. Don't have much sailing experience but I am totally obsessed. I have done a few day sailing trips out of Santa Barbara. I have my ASA 101 and am planning on 103 and 104 later this year. I spent two weeks flotilla sailing in the Southern Ionian Islands of Greece and Two weeks flotilla sailing in the Croatian Kornati Islands. What a great way to learn to sail! I am hooked. Some friends and I are just starting to talk about starting a partnership on a sailboat. We are thinking about buying something next year. Hopefully this is plenty of time for us to educate ourselves and find the right boat for us. We thinking between 27' and 34'. Is this the right size for our first sailboat. There will be three couples with out children. We would like to do day sailing, coastal cruising and trips to the Channel Islands. When we all have more skill and experience we will also probably do trips to Mexico:cubalibre

This seems like a great place to start. Thank you everyone for all of your input.

[GordMay]

WELCOME aboard, John.
Most 27 to 34 footers would suit two couples day sailing & weekending.
Three couples, at a time, might suggest a larger boat, for most people.

[swagman]

Hi Matey and welcome.

I'd suggest you stick with the smaller yacht at least for now. Chances of all 6 of you wanting to sail together for periods on end are probably remote, and the smaller it is the cheaper will be your investment and maintainance costs.

But lovely to hear you're taking this step - good luck and keep us all posted.

And both places you've chartered are really nice - go see our blog for mid last year!

JOHN

[Dave the Canuck]

Welcome aboard, John

I agree with Gord. I have a 34 footer and, while I sometimes have another couple aboard while sailing, a third couple would be problematic. But maybe I'm just a little territorial....

[xcountry rider]

Thanks guys for the warm welcome and the feed back. I really appreciate the wisdom of you experienced sailors.

I think the only time we would have all six of us would be for day sails. Overnighters will be for one or two couples. So it would be nice to have something that would actually sleep four adults comfortably. If we do an overnighter with everyone, we have talked about going to the channel islands and some of us camping on the beach. We are all in our early 30s so not a big deal to sleep under the stars on the ground.

The two different boats we chartered were a 27' Jaguar and a brand new 33' Bavaria. The Bavaria had tons of room below and would easily sleep six adults. A boat this new is definately out of our price range. Are there older boats with this type of room? Some of the things that will be important to us are: safeness, seaworthiness, good enough condition as not to be a "project", relativly low maintenance (for a sailboat) and comfort. At this point I don't think speed is a huge factor. If any of you guys have experience with boats to think about or boats to definately stay away from, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,

John

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha John,
Welcome aboard!
It would be better if you could look around at some boats that you might consider for your venture and then post the design/make of the boat under the monohull discussion board and that way you'll get many responses on what you are interested in. If I just started listing boats I don't care for I'm certain to step on some toes and make enemies of my current friends here on the forum. Saying bad things about boats is much akin to saying bad things about somebody's mother. You'll learn this as you start discussing certain boat designs with experienced sailing friends. I'd say your boat size is good and would pursue up to a 36 if you can find one in your price range. My recommendation always is fiberglass hull, aft cockpit, cutter rig (or sloop if I have to), diesel engine and 32-36 LOD.
Good luck.
Kind regards,
JohnL

[xcountry rider]

Thanks for the good advice John. That's why I'm here.

[michell]

hey john - i am a new commer and i have no sailling experience too.Why dont teach me the experiences you have.I have an intest in sailing from florida to a little island or something.
Give a few tips or some place from wher i can reffer them from.
_______
MIchell

[xcountry rider]

Originally Posted by michell

hey john - i am a new commer and i have no sailling experience too.Why dont teach me the experiences you have.I have an intest in sailing from florida to a little island or something.
Give a few tips or some place from wher i can reffer them from.
_______
MIchell

Michell,

Flotilla sailing was great for me. I got a chance to sail my own boat for two weeks. I had the safety of a group of other boats if something went wrong. The skipper from the "lead boat" even came aboard at our request and gave us some sailing lessons. The area we sailed was great for beginners, no tides and predictable winds. Our first place was the South Ionian sea in Greece. The only experience I had before the trip was once on a Hobie Cat when I was 13. I basically had zero experience when I started in Greece. I was very nervous the first day, I motored most of the way afraid to put up any sail. The crew went over how to work the sails, boat and safety information in about a half hours time. It was a lot of inforomation in a small amount of time. Towards the end of the first day I let out the Genoa (roller furling), and shut off the engine. It felt great! The next day I decided to use both sails. I had the toughest time trying to figure out how to get the main sail up. I couldn't remember which line I was supposed to pull on, just that the skipper told us not to pull on the black line. After about a half hour of scratching my head and pulling on every line I noticed the hole at the top of the main sail. Eureka! I have to tie a line to the hole to pull it up. After that I had two weeks to just play with everything on the boat.

After that trip I then took the ASA 101 class from a local yacht club. And then I did another flotilla trip in Croatia.

First of all I would highly recommend you take the course. It taught me a lot of basics and correct terminology about boats, sailing and rules of the road. Second, if at all possible I would recommend you do some flotilla sailing. I felt very safe with the other boats in the flotilla and the lead boat. The other thing I forgot to tell you about flotilla sailing is the parking. For me parking a boat was the hardest part. At the end of each day the crew from the lead boat was on the quay to help me park the boat and tie it up correctly. As the days went on I got more and more comfortable with parking. In Croatia the skipper spent several hours with me doing practice runs at the quay. I found this experience to be invaluable.

Feel free to ask me any questions. If you pm me I will give you the name of the flotilla company I sailed with both times. I would highly recommend them. Not sure if it is apropriate to post the name here.

John