New and clueless... Just bought a Catalina 27 tall rig... Any advice for the newbie?

[Zensailing]

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[El Pinguino]

1/ Go sailing
2/ Avoid the shallow bits
3/ Enjoy
4/ Refer 1 and 3

Cheers.

[The Garbone]

Sweet boat. Go sailing.

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[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Zensailing.

[thomm225]

Should be the perfect boat for Pickwick Lake.

In May though, you should park it and go fishing below the dam for striper!

[psiegelnyc]

Owned a tall rig Catalina 27 for many years. A very sweet sailer. I found that with the tall rig I had to put a reef in the mailsail when it blew over 12 knots.

[Greenhand]

Assuming you had a survey to tell you about any major issues, GO SAILING.

Leave any "convenience" or "beautifying" projects until you know how you are using the boat and how it works for you.

[medicrene]

After a detailed thought and evaluation of photos...GO SAILING! Welcome aboard.

It's not rocket science to move a sailboat from one place to another. On the other hand, even rocket scientists may push their limits trying to understand every aspect of sailing.

Welcome to the club.

[Zensailing]

Thank You All for the advice and encouragement... I am taking her out for the first time this weekend... Feel like a little kid...

I know I have a lot to learn but it feels great to finally have my own boat... If I do something stupid (and I know I will) then I'll just deal with it and move on...

Thanks for letting me know to reef at around 12 knots of wind with the tall rig... Nice that I did not have to learn that one the hard way...

Y'all are great!!!!!!!!🍻


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[AKA-None]

If you haven't yet I'd suggest taking a class to pick up some handy info


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[klmmicro]

Have you had her out at this point? What did you think? Pretty awesome to be able to sail around whenever you want

[Paul54]

Look into joining the users group for the Catalina 27' s. Probably something like catalina27.org. Tons of useful information, friendly knowledgable help. Have fun.

[ozskipper]

Yeh as AKA-non recommended, some classes will help you a lot. Plus you will be able to make all the mistakes on someone elses boat and not bump, break and scrape your own. Else hire a sailing instructor to come out with you for a couple of days. It will be a good investment on money saved on gear you dont break or heads you dont injure. There are lots of stories of people trying to teach themselves then becoming disheartened as a result of constantly damaging their new boat.

But if you are really going to give it a go yourself, the very first thing you do before any sail is "check the weather". In your case, if you are sailing without experience, stick to under 12 knots for a while. At 12 knots you can start to see the little wavelets break. It will be slower sailing, but its good learning weather. Do not even attempt to go out in 20 knots.
That said, congrats on the new boat. She sure is a pretty little girl and comes with a good reputation.