How to get started Cruising!

[s/v Beth]

Every day I see a dozen posts "Should I do this or buy that? or "Is this the best cruising sailboat??" Nobody seems to know where to start, and if they do "Its too expensive!!" they all morn.
Well, inspired by a recent thread, I've got the answer for you! Get your bucket (see bucket threads for importance of having a bucket first) and a cardboard piece. Now write on it "Broken sailor, needs $$ to get home to starving kids" Or "will sail for food- please help me get aboard, bless you"
Go down to the richest marina you can find- and please look the part with a long beard, or if you can't grow that, at least a peg leg and a parrot.
Get a swagger in your stance- aka Jack Sparrow- and open your bucket to all that will help.
At first you will only get money, but one of these days someone will give you a boat! Then you won't have to worry what type- unless you want to hold out for a better one.
Good Luck and Happy Begging!

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Every day I see a dozen posts "Should I do this or buy that? or "Is this the best cruising sailboat??" Nobody seems to know where to start, and if they do "Its too expensive!!" they all morn.
Well, inspired by a recent thread, I've got the answer for you! Get your bucket (see bucket threads for importance of having a bucket first) and a cardboard piece. Now write on it "Broken sailor, needs $$ to get home to starving kids" Or "will sail for food- please help me get aboard, bless you"
Go down to the richest marina you can find- and please look the part with a long beard, or if you can't grow that, at least a peg leg and a parrot.
Get a swagger in your stance- aka Jack Sparrow- and open your bucket to all that will help.
At first you will only get money, but one of these days someone will give you a boat! Then you won't have to worry what type- unless you want to hold out for a better one.
Good Luck and Happy Begging!

Have you a free bucket...?
I would like a Copper one preferably... but will accept stainless...
at a push..

[Enrique100]

Here I'm doing wrong all this time. I thought saving money to pay for formal sailing instruction and then saving more of my hard-earned money to one day buy a boat that suits me and my family was the way to do it.

[Teknav]

You are being silly, Newt! Some folks are not too savvy in doing an internet search, in this day and age. If one does not take the time to search what he/she wants out of life, he/she will always be dependent on others forever. Would-be sailors...Before even considering sailing, read up on what you want to get into. Go to your local library borrow a book, or buy a book on sailing, or even buy a magazine with a sailboat on the cover then read, read, read. There is no magic to it! Once you've gained some knowledge, the sailors on here will gladly explain to you anything you do not understand. A few words of caution...sailing is not a cheap hobby or a way of life to pursue. Mauritz

[sww914]

I'm so stupid! I worked my ass off and sacrificed my home, my business, and most of my possessions to get here. Damnit!

[Randyonr3]

I read from those arm chair cruisers just what you have to have to go cruising, mainly bluewater and then I meet someone like Jeff, heading out on an adventure that most will only dream about.
With a hand full of change and a boat that most wouldn't cross a lake in, we gave him our blessing as he left the dock headed out. That was a hundred miles inland from Sanfrancisco
Last report was he had crossed into Mexico and was seen sailing around Turtle bay.
A couple people here on CF have reported.
So how do you get started..... If you are thinking about it, you've already started...

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Teknav

...borrow a book, or buy a book on sailing...

Nah, nope, nada, zip, zilch.

It simply doesn't work.

Every time I suggest this on a sailing forum, I am roundly taken to task. "The reason for these sailing forums are for people to ask questions." How silly of me to think people could actually, in this day and age, do their own homework and research!

And, of course, suggesting they may try to use the search engine on any internet forum, to look up, oh, say, "electrical wiring diagrams" really gets the juices flowing.

The "best" ones for me, though, are the "What's the Best....?" questions.

[Celestialsailor]

Funny thing is...no matter what advise you try and give them (often times from personal experience) they hear what they want to hear. "I really need a 40+ft. boat for myself, future runway model wife and future children that I will have in 10 years, so we can sail around the world in 12 years after I get out of school in 4 years. Oh ya...I don't want to spend a lot of money".
Probably 1 out of 5 are serious. This is all ok. It's actually quite entertaining at times.
To me, the ones who start off introducing themselves in "Meets and Greets", seem to hang in there longer. Ultimately, it's my choice if I want to participate in all the hoopla.

It's almost like we need an area they can enter on the forum that says..."Start here". Cluing them in on some reality.

[Teknav]

The meaning of the "best" in anything sailing is: Must be simple, rugged, cheap and can be handled by someone with an IQ of 70. In reality, all four factors are mutually exclusive. Mauritz

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Teknav

Must be simple, rugged, cheap and can be handled by someone with an IQ of 70. Mauritz

Thanks for the 'Plug' mate....

[Rocketman]

How to get started Cruising?

1. Start with the dream.

2. Determine your minimum requirements. For example I met a guy in Key West that had a row boat, a tarp, and a few sticks for a mast with hemp rigging that had completed half of the great loop.

3. Do it.

[bobconnie]

We started out with a 7/10 finished boat, 500 bucks and 2 kids, got a little lucky along the way, and are able to be still doing it ! could we have gone on this long with out finding a money tree? I don't know, but Im sure we would have some way or another!! Ya gotta love it to stick with it !! some cruise a yr or so some less and some of us just keep on going, I hope to stay at it till theres no more days left !!

[s/v Beth]

Ah, you guys are all off topic again- sending my thread this way and that (cept Boatman, he tried to get a bucket for free) Begging is what its about! Work will just get you off topic- and make you think about something besides your dream. Lets all hold hands now and stare into the sky and say "I want a boat that will float, I want a boat that will float...."
( Yes, I am staring into the snow again- can you tell??)

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Every day I see a dozen posts "Should I do this or buy that? or "Is this the best cruising sailboat??" Nobody seems to know where to start, and if they do "Its too expensive!!" they all morn.
Well, inspired by a recent thread, I've got the answer for you! Get your bucket (see bucket threads for importance of having a bucket first) and a cardboard piece. Now write on it "Broken sailor, needs $$ to get home to starving kids" Or "will sail for food- please help me get aboard, bless you"
Go down to the richest marina you can find- and please look the part with a long beard, or if you can't grow that, at least a peg leg and a parrot.
Get a swagger in your stance- aka Jack Sparrow- and open your bucket to all that will help.
At first you will only get money, but one of these days someone will give you a boat! Then you won't have to worry what type- unless you want to hold out for a better one.
Good Luck and Happy Begging!

Come on now!!! When I asked 5 years ago people here gave me a completely different story. Now I find out they were just a-holes that wanted to waste my money and time.

[Teknav]

Whatever floats your boat! Mauritz