That new guy from Michigan??

[lefty801]

I know, Michigan?. I've only done a bit of cruising on the Great Lakes here in Mich. Spent all my time weekend cruising aboard my dad's MacGregor 25'. Had many a great weekends aboard. Now my dad has retired, moved to Alabama, and sold the boat. Fast forward 10 yrs. and now I'm a dad of two young boys and want to bring them up in the boating world as my dad did. I'll be starting out small, real small, like 12' small, just to introduce them to sailing. Hopefully soon we'll all graduate up to another 20 or so footer so that we can spend weekends together out on the water. My boys and I will be building our 12' dinghy together off the Bateau website using stitch and glue methods, first time attempting anything like this so we'll how it goes. Enough ramblin',

Just keep bailin'

Tom

[swagman]

Welcome Tom.
Hope the knitting stays together and look forward to hearing when she's launched.
JOHN

[knottybuoyz]

Welcome aboard Tom.

We're building a bateau.com design too albeit abit bigger, the TW28. Looking forward to watching your progress. What a great activity for a dad and his boys, building their first boat! Atta boy!

Rick

[Greg S]

Welcome! Have fun and enjoy the kids. They'll be ready to be out on their own way before you are. But they come back to what they love, and I can't imagine they will find anything better to love than building boats and sailing with the "old man".

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Tom,
Welcome aboard!! Great project for dad and sons. Let us know if you have questions. I've done stitch and glue but used 1/2" foam and glassed over it for an 11'8" sprit rig sailer I did in '82. Its still here in my yard. Needs a little bit of work but could have it up and sailing in a couple days if I didn't have 4 other boat projects going just now.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[Pblais]

I know, Michigan?. I've only done a bit of cruising on the Great Lakes here in Mich.

Spent most of my life around Lake Ontario and Lake Superior. There is plenty of water up there for some serious sailing. If you can make it a fun time with your family then you muist be doing something right. You'll find lots of Great Lakes sailors here.

[lefty801]

Thanks for the welcome. I'll be around for awhile, I've got allotta reading to do lol. Thanks for encouragement on the boat building, should be a fun project. I'll keep you updated.

Sink or swim, preferably swim

Tom

[irwinsailor]

Where is Michican are you located? I live in Holland Mi.

[lefty801]

I'm in Wyandotte. It's about ten miles south of Detroit. It's about a 20 minute drive to Lake Erie.

Tom

[slow shoes]

Originally Posted by lefty801

I'm in Wyandotte. It's about ten miles south of Detroit. It's about a 20 minute drive to Lake Erie.

Tom

Hey Tom - we're neighbors. I live in Grosse Ile.

Bill

[shellback]

Great Lakes sailor here too, Green Bay ...
I sail an Oday 27.

great to see you've got your son's involved, my son likes the bigger boat idea too, so I'm sure I too, will see him involved in our sailing this coming summer!

Mark

[lefty801]

The intent is to build our boat this winter/spring and go buy a camper this summer for some weekend camping. We'll mount the boat on top of the camper to get it there. We won't be able to go big boat shopping for a few more years, then we'll see where that takes us.

Hey Slow Shoes, glad to see we have neighbors out there. My wife and I go to Grosse Ile about once a month just take a look around. My aunt used to live on 8th st. off meridian, so we would go see her a couple times a year. Are you out of Ford YC or Grosse Ile YC?? Back in the 50's my great uncle used to have a boat at the FYC, last name of Bogle.

Shellback, O'day boats are one of my favorite boats. Awhile back before I decided to build I was looking at a bunch of O'day 13 and 17 boats, but then decided that I needed to be able to cartop whatever I ended up with.

See ya,
Tom

[slow shoes]

Originally Posted by lefty801

The intent is to build our boat this winter/spring and go buy a camper this summer for some weekend camping. We'll mount the boat on top of the camper to get it there. We won't be able to go big boat shopping for a few more years, then we'll see where that takes us.

Hey Slow Shoes, glad to see we have neighbors out there. My wife and I go to Grosse Ile about once a month just take a look around. My aunt used to live on 8th st. off meridian, so we would go see her a couple times a year. Are you out of Ford YC or Grosse Ile YC?? Back in the 50's my great uncle used to have a boat at the FYC, last name of Bogle.

Shellback, O'day boats are one of my favorite boats. Awhile back before I decided to build I was looking at a bunch of O'day 13 and 17 boats, but then decided that I needed to be able to cartop whatever I ended up with.

See ya,
Tom

Lefty, I'm not at either Ford or GI YC - we keep our boat at Toledo Beach. I like Ford, but they have you jumping through hoops, as well as a waiting list, before you can become a member. Toledo Beach is 30 minutes from my front door to the boat, which is considerably closer than where we used to be. (Leamington, Canada). It's difficult to beat the atmoshere at Leamington's marina though. Bill

[zephyr4]

We live in Grand Rapids and we did something like you.

First we bought a dinhy, then a Tanzer 22 and then a Catalina 27 to cruise in. We still have a Thistle to haul behind the car Though with the inflatable dinghy that makes three boats.

Here's a link to some of our sailing picts:

Voyages of the June Bug

[lefty801]

Cool, Toledo Beach seems to be a nice marina, plus it puts you that much closer to open water. I've been there a couple times, for various reasons. 25 yrs ago my dad and I wandered through looking at used boats for sale, 2yrs ago I was getting involved in R/C sailing and there is a small group that sails in the inlet to the marina, last year I wandered around looking for a small repairable dinghy to get me started, but then decided that starting new was a much better option. My dad and I sailed out of Lake Erie Metro park marina, right at the mouth of the Detroit river. We kept our MacGregor rigged and on the trailer in their lot and could also be on the water within 30 mins of leaving the house, that was nice.

Zephyr, nice pics, and cool vids, not very many of those out there.

Tom