A Woman's Needs

[JulianGullsway]

Are you being serious, maybe an ironing board, you could try asking her!!!

[Ocean Girl]

Ok boys, we will agree to disagree about this. Though my beef was with the "American" part (I guess I am feeling a bit sensitive). I agree that women want a home and men tend to ignore the simple creature comforts. Within a month of moving aboard my wonderful mans boat he commented on how nice and homey I was making the boat (a rug here, real sheets on the bed instead of a sleeping bag! etc.). We are still living with a broken head and leaky hatch when it rains, but together we will get Rain Dog cruisable. My point is, consider the amount of cruising couples out there (takes a women to make a couple!) which outnumber the lone single hander male.

Cheers, and if you want a female aboard, I hope you find her (we have a singles sailors seeking soul mate group here)
Erika

[JulianGullsway]

I agree with Ocean Girl, my wife and I have always sailed together, which is great I'am the sailor and she is the navigator, I 'am the captain and shes the Admiral, works very well!!

[off-the-grid]

Ocean Girl, you do have a very good point, but...

Look at the average age of most of those couples. Also, there is a big difference between already being a couple, and discovering that dream together vs. being a 20 or 30 something single with a boat trying to sell that dream to a land lubber, most of which, like I said in me previous post are just dreamers not doers. The rest, just look at you like you're nuts...especially the ones in that middle age bracket.

[Ocean Girl]

Grunzter, I moved onto a 23 foot Ranger at 19 (no standing headroom), my girlfriend Elise (in her twenties) was on a 20 ft gulfcoast (at one point she didnt even have cushions!), my friend Judy (college student, 20 year old)was on a twin keel 24 footer we used to take out for girls night, and my friend Sue (22) lived with her husband (newlyweds) on a 30 footer. And that is my final word!(for now)
Erika

[atoll]

as a pervious poster stated,dont choose when yr drunk.................
for the younger bloke there is a VAST pool of very eligible,younger,go anwhere,financially independent,FANTASTIC single women out there,

just watch out they may eat you for breakfast.....choose wisely ..living in a box is not for everybody.........worst case... you may be the boring stereotype............

[Curmudgeon]

I hate to generalize about the differences between the sexes, but here goes: Women generally need more "stuff." The type of stuff depends on the woman, but it generally includes cooking stuff, grooming stuff, clothes, footwear, creams, lotions and the like.

If you have the movie version of Riddle of the Sands, recall the scene in which Michael York first arrives aboard the Dulcibella. That will give you some clues.

[kenny chaos]

When I was 23, a friend and I were "kidnapped" by a couple
of biker broads who took us out to some little hotel in the desert
and kept us for two days.
Ever since then, I always wanted to go sailing. lol

[David_Old_Jersey]

Most women (99.9999999%) have some sort of nesting instinct which men don't have (to the same degree). Not to say anything "wrong" with that 0.0000001%. It's just how it is. Ignore or discount it and you will get the rewards...........

It don't always manifest itself in the same way (2.2 kids and a Volvo in Suburbia) nor always be openly admitted (or even to self) - but sooner or later they display the need to have a nest. Whether that be in Suburbia, on a boat or under a bridge

If you know they need a nest - then it only becomes a question of what form that takes, and whether it proves to be acceptable. Not a constant surprise that the she's in your life always f#ck off somewhere else to someone who can provide a nest

To catch one though you need a net. But methinks that's a different thread............

[Knowazark]

Don't know about the nesting thing, but having done an 8 day ocean passage my wife is very keen on having a warm, dry, safe and secure area out of the weather to retreat to and an opportunity to get quality sleep and hot food when off watch. Having the ability to navigate safely, get weather information to assist with routing decisions and communications equipment capable of keeping us in touch, etc is also pretty important to her. Having a well maintained vessel with adequate safety gear, spares and tools to enable a reasonable degree of self-sufficiency is a priority. I think most of all, my wife needs me to work with her, to share my experience and skills and to allow her to use her skills and experience to make sure we're able to get ourselves safely across oceans together.

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

...It don't always manifest itself in the same way (2.2 kids and a Volvo in Suburbia) ....

With more and more young women choosing careers over family, combined with an ever rising cost of living, the average family is now down to 1.7 kids. One of my daughters has proclaimed that she does not want kids, but we'll see what happens when Prince Charming rides up on his white stallion and sweeps her off her feet..... (I have a baseball bat ready so he better duck quickly

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by Knowazark

.... Having a well maintained vessel with adequate safety gear, spares and tools to enable a reasonable degree of self-sufficiency is a priority.

Err.. isn't that just plain common sense????

Originally Posted by Knowazark

I think most of all, my wife needs me to work with her, to share my experience and skills and to allow her to use her skills and experience to make sure we're able to get ourselves safely across oceans together.

Exactly. That's the whole point of having someone to share with, to back each other up and make life so much pleasanter - to make life worth living.

[Mark Johnson]

Well my lady is not typical. We meet in Key West 21 years ago, when I was there living off the hook. Pretty soon, I had her helping to do a bottom job on my boat in the local boatyard! After months or sailing "lessons", I talked her into giving up her apartment, roommate, friends, cushy job, and sailing away with me on my 28' trimaran, with a 5' wide main hull, and 4' 6" headroom!

After doing the Keys & Bahamas a while, it became obvious #1, I would have to marry her, as I couldn't do better... and #2, that my super slick, single guys, 19 knot, hot rod dream boat, (that took me 8 years to build), was going to have to GO! It was too damn small for two people, EVEN two people in love. (What was I thinking?)

Then a year to build a house. (just us and one part time friend). Now what... Build a bigger boat! (she put in about 1/3rd of the hours)... Whew, well THAT only took 10 more years. Thank God for small favors! Then, sell the house for a cruising kitty...

After 15 more years of cruising together, I have learned a few things...

In Rough weather, she gets sea sick, so stands watch, or goes to bed. (except down wind) On the otherhand, she can take most common hardship better than me, with less whining. I get bored waiting for weather! She is content to curl up with a book. I do all the deck work at sea, but she cleans the fish! I have more toys, but she has more shoes!

Having been raised on a farm, and worked for the peace corps in Africa, she can "camp" with the best of them. We shower with a 2.5 gal, solar heated, black plastic garden sprayer, and I can never quite use "only" my half of it. So I have been told! I'm not sure it's true.

So... what does a woman need???

#1 A man who washes dishes, and does his share of the housework.

#2 If there is something that she NEVER will learn to do well, hard as she might try, (like driving the boat straight forward, S L O W L Y, in 30 knots of wind, while I pull in the anchor... manually), then FIND ANOTHER WAY... like install a windlass, even if a 34' Tri isn't "supposed" to have one.

#3 And, a life that doesn't include being yelled at, even if I AM on the bow, with my back turned, in high wind. (So now, we have duplex radio intercoms on our belts, with headsets, so I don't have to yell over the screaming wind.) If we remember to put them on.

From what "I'm" told... THAT'S what women want.

Who tha hell am I to argue? Mark

Below: The little hotrod boat...

[Knowazark]

Err.. isn't that just plain common sense????

Exactly!!!! Ding ding ding, give the man a prize!!

Women sailors NEED exactly what men sailors need because they're .... HUMAN BEINGS. You all are making women out to be some wierd alien race and all you're doing is demonstrating in the clearest possible terms how much y'all don't know and probably why there seems to be a generally high rate of relationship dissolution.

For goodness sake, this is supposed to be WOMEN Afloat ... and the original question was directed toward what the women on this forum might want in a boat .... instead its full of men showing how little they understand women and making huge sweeping generalisations about women, their storage requirements, their water usage, their toilet paper consumption, the general culture of consumerism and its americocentric origins and all manner of what amounts to quite considerable amounts of pure horse s#it!

There is no magical formula or list of requirements that will suit every woman afloat .... just in the same way as there is no perfect anchor, no perfect boat, etc, etc. There is ample evidence from actual, real life women that show how wrong so many of the opinions of males can be and yet this thread rolls on spewing out more and more and more misinformed verbiage.

[Gadagirl]

Originally Posted by Knowazark

Exactly!!!! Ding ding ding, give the man a prize!!

Women sailors NEED exactly what men sailors need because they're .... HUMAN BEINGS. You all are making women out to be some wierd alien race and all you're doing is demonstrating in the clearest possible terms how much y'all don't know and probably why there seems to be a generally high rate of relationship dissolution.

For goodness sake, this is supposed to be WOMEN Afloat ... and the original question was directed toward what the women on this forum might want in a boat .... instead its full of men showing how little they understand women and making huge sweeping generalisations about women, their storage requirements, their water usage, their toilet paper consumption, the general culture of consumerism and its americocentric origins and all manner of what amounts to quite considerable amounts of pure horse s#it!

There is no magical formula or list of requirements that will suit every woman afloat .... just in the same way as there is no perfect anchor, no perfect boat, etc, etc. There is ample evidence from actual, real life women that show how wrong so many of the opinions of males can be and yet this thread rolls on spewing out more and more and more misinformed verbiage.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!