New sailor from Missouri

[wampler]

Just wanted to say hello from Missouri. Three years ago my wife and I took out a hobbie cat a few times on our honey moon and became hooked. We put it on the back burner for a while and have finaly decied to test the waters. We had the choice of taking lessons and renting boats on stockton lake or buying a used day boat. We decided it would be more fun to buy a small boat to learn on and test the waters a little bit. We ended up buying a sunfish ( I knot not very impressive but lots of fun) and Just love it. Its small and light enought to just throw it on top of the car and go to any of the 4 or 5 lakes in our area. We are planning on buying a larger day sailor either next year of the year after. We are not cruisers yet but are getting a small taste and want more. If anyone lives in the southen part of Missouri I would love to hear from you about you experiance in the area.

[swagman]

Congrats guys on getting out on the water.
I started on a Topper - v similar to the sunfish - and we've not looked back.

Good luck and sail safe

JOHN

[johnar]

Welcome,

I grew up im St Louis and have sail a few of the lakes as a child, so long ago it is hard to remember. I do know Carlyle lake is very nice but again have not been there in 20 years. I live in Alton right now but in 8 days i will be moving aboard my boat in FL.

With the price of fuel right now the Boat market is very soft, I forsee Sailboats sales picking up soon. But right now would be a good time to buy.

Well i wish you luck,

John

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Wampler,
Welcome aboard! I think the Sunfish is an excellent boat. Our club has 14 of them and the biggest advantage is that parts and pieces are really easy to find because the design has been around for 55 years. Also they are very easy to rig and unrig. Our students are constantly making the error of putting the boom on the wrong side of the mast thought so watch out for that one.
There were two types of kickup rudder designs. One is spring loaded and the more recent. It has many advantages over the old style. If you have the older style I'd recommend changing it but it really isn't necessary unless you do a lot of landing and launchings from the beach.
Kind regards,
JohnL

[tingera]

Hi there, sounds like fun.. My wife and I are in a similar situation except we were a little less practical.. we decided it would be a good idea to jump right into a 29' islander.. we had both sailed before on other people's boats, still collectively we really have no idea what we are doing other than the fact that we like to be on boats..