Awed and confused

[Mirage35]

Don't bother trying to figure out what your question is - just browse the forum for a couple of months. You'll pick up lots of info about peoples' experiences and reactions.

[Stu Jackson]

Started out sailing Beetle cat boats in summer camp 1950s. 1983 bought first boat, Catalina 22 in SF. Trailer sailing got real old, real quick. Bought a Catalina 25 in 1987, SRFK, sailed The Bay, The Delta and the ocean. 1998 bought our then 12-year old Catalina 34. Sailed (motored) her up here in 2016, became a trawler with a stick here. Different sailing grounds, new experiences, new friends and ran into some old ones, too, pleasantly unexpected happening for folks I hadn't seen since 2009!


That's my short story. Want longer ones, do as suggested and start reading.


Welcome.

[SCWentz]

Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull

Don't bother trying to figure out what your question is - just browse the forum for a couple of months. You'll pick up lots of info about peoples' experiences and reactions.

That's about what I got out of this exercise. Will definitely stick to more direct questions in future. Lesson learned.

[sailingabe41ds]

My wife and I sail a 2015 Jeanneau 41DS which is a perfect coastal sailing boat in So Cal off the Channel Islands. It is big enough for both us and a guest....new enough that its clean and low maintainance with a nice clean contemporary interior. It is also small enough that slip fees and other costs are not too painful. It holds enough water and fuel for our current cruising needs.
What I dont like is that in the future we want to move to the NW and sail to BC and Alaska. My wife wants a bigger boat since it will be used as a second home. So I wish we had a bigger boat but could not justify the expenses associated with at this time.

Abe

[Tayana42]

SCW, in short, we started in our early 20s with a board boat, like a Sunfish. We kept it on the roof of our VW camper and sailed on the Chesapeake Bay. Moved on to a 24’ sailboat with a cabin we thought safer to our first baby. Sailed the east coast from the Bay to New England. Next was a 16’ trailerable sailboat in the Midwest, great for lakes and traveling long distance overland. Then we moved to North Florida and got a Cape Dory Typhoon which was great for sailing and exploring the Saint Johns River, costal Florida and Georgia. Not so great for extended stays aboard. Finally we moved to Southern California and bought our dream boat, a Tayana 42 aft cockpit, cutter rigged, real cruising boat. That is skipping lots of little boats, dinghies, canoes, wind sailors, kayaks, etc. Our cruising has been costal on both costs of the US, lakes and rivers of the heartland and Pacific Mexico. Mostly we lived in houses and sailed on weekends and vacations but finally we rented out our home, gave up our slip and took off for three magical years. Now we are land lubbers again but still, after 53 years sail as much as we like and still love it. Still learning, still loving the ocean, still charmed by whales and dolphins and bobtailed squid, still love taking our grandchildren on the adventures of their lifetimes too.

So, start. Start somewhere with some boat. Get out there and do it. Get your feet wet. Get wet.

As Isak Dinesen ( author of Out Of Africa) said, “The cure for anything is saltwater: sweat, tears or the sea.”

And From Wind in the Willows...”There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

How ever you go about it will be your own path. No right or wrong way. One step leads to another.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by SCWentz

Thanks! Any lessons from the first two cats that are influencing what you are looking for in the next boat?
That is really what I am looking for... the we want this again, and want something different for that part over there...

Don't try to find the ultimate boat the first time.

Figure out what your cruising style will be like and buy a boat to suit that purpose. Probably coastal cruising with 95% of your time at anchor or in a marina.

Lots of people try to buy the ultimate go anywhere, do anything boat and then try to bring it up to Bristol condition...and get so bogged down, they never leave the marina. Even if they leave the marina, they are often coastal cruising with the limitations of a boat designed for ultimate conditions.

Buy what suits your current purposes. Once you have a better idea of what your cruising will be like and you have experience, you can choose a better boat for future expansion of your cruising plans...if they ever to expand.

PS: be careful watching youtube of people who sold everything bought a boat sight unseen with no cruising experience and head out round the world...for every one that is successful, there are dozens who fail. They just don't put out youtube channels about their failure.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

PS: be careful watching youtube of people who sold everything bought a boat sight unseen with no cruising experience and head out round the world...for every one that is successful, there are dozens who fail. They just don't put out youtube channels about their failure.

Here is a rather sad one, she wanted to sail, he didn't, so it ended.

Pete

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ixh...VoyagingVegans

[SCWentz]

Thanks everyone,
Especially Abe, Tayana, and Mirage!
At least now, I feel at the point where I know what I didn't know when making the OP. We are in uncharted waters for us, and peeking at the path you have each taken to get to where you are is at least an avenue through our next steps (leaps?). It gives us confidence we are at least not on a wrong path. Have no worries, right now, we are specifically trying to make sure we don't put ourselves in a position where we are likely to run out of talent... or fianances.

[sailingabe41ds]

Wow..that video from Pete is a sad sad story and it is a must video for all to see. They had no sailing experience..different goals (really jonnathan wanted a boat to save mother earth to visit family and not use an airplane)....low on cash....very sad. I hope she gets a little experience and finds the right person. She is young so she still has a full life ahead of her to live her dreams.
abe

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Plus we have the old school cruisers that have crossed oceans, day sailors, fishermen on small power boats, small sailboat racers, plus new cruisers who know just enough to be dangerous.

Don't forget the old-school sailors who plink up and down coasts and never get bored with it. There's probably a lot more of us than some of those other categories.

Steve, to add a longwinded response to your original question, I grew up cruising on a small-for-cruising boat, learned to navigate using a sextant and a paper chart, never got away from the pastime even though much of my career was spent thousands of miles from the sea in countries where no one sails, took all the courses you need to take to join a club 10 years ago that allows me to daysail, weekend, and cruise on 30-40-foot boats. I will buy and hopefully live aboard--I've spent enough nights on boats to know that it's for me--when a certain family situation allows me to, which on this forum makes me a newbie and a wannabe, and I say that without bitterness or contempt. One must be humble before the sea.

Over a half century of skippering keelboats, I have had things break that I never thought could break, seen situations go wrong really quickly and somehow gotten out of them, and made mistakes that I never thought I'd make (all those navigation skills and you still run aground sometimes!!), and what's great about this forum is that most-if-not-all experienced sailors will freely admit when they messed up or don't know something. One must be humble before the sea.

The bulk of people who post here are current or former owners, and they share a lot of information about what can go wrong and how to fix it. They have a lot of advice on various products you need to buy, and one of the best uses of this forum is that the product reviews-from-experience are far, far more reliable than more-anonymous ratings on line. Even though many posters keep their identities secret, the most frequent ones have discernible personalities and quirks that make it entertaining.

For example, Thom225, whom I slightly tweaked at the beginning of this rambling post, is an entertaining and knowledgeable sailor with experience on both a racing cat and a full-keeled plastic classic. He will probably have some sort of response for my comment.

In closing, read this thing, and if you like it, toss them a couple of bucks. It's an endeavor worth supporting, and you'll get your name in lights.

EDIT: I wish I had waited to watch that video before posting. Definitely you need the right person/people for the sailing lifestyle. Or you need to be like me, and enjoy being alone.

SECOND EDIT: Now I've got "Dazed and Confused" stuck in my head. Thanks for that.