A good inexpensive learner boat?

[scuba0_1]

If you know you want a live aboard soon don't waste your money on a boat slips ect and trying to sell it. Join a sailing club and rent them. Join a club and sign up for spots. Best way and save your money for your future boat.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by jeepbluetj

Fixing the boat is a big part of sailing/cruising unless you're wealthy enough to pay a yard to do everything.

And then you'll quickly learn that having a yard do anything means you'll learn how to fix their goofs, and figure out that you should have don it yourself to begin with to get it right.

[valhalla360]

Is your goal cruising?

If it's cruising and living aboard look for at least 30' unless you plan on your long term boat being less than 30'.

No better way to turn the wife off to cruising than by cramming her into too small of a space.

Even most 25' boats will still need a slip (you don't realistically trailer a 25' boat, set up the mast go for a 2hr sail and then reverse the processes even though it is technically possible).

[sailing_gal]

If you are near Virginia Beach, I would suggest you check out Grab Bag Sailboats- it is in Maryland, but not too far. They have a nice website that lists their boats for sale: Grab Bag Sailboats.

I purchased my first keelboat, a C&C 30, from them, they specialize in smaller sailboats that are inexpensive and good to learn on. And the, I sold it through them as well!

[Divevac]

Originally Posted by savoir

If you only want to day sail - J24

If you want to spend weekends aboard Bristol 27 or Cal 25.

In addition to this supportable plan, I suggest if you are new to the sport that you buy a laser+ dolley for $1k and have every member of your family sail it every day for 30 days over the summer in every kind of weather. Laser is available, inexpensive, durable, forgiving, fun and will teach you all the basics you need to know while building confidence and skill.

Then a J24 or Catalina 27-both plentiful and very affordable.

[Davy J]

I'll also recommend a Catalina 25. Easy boat to learn on, tender enough to let you know you need to do something. Big and heavy enough to give confidence.

Parts are readily available from a company called Catalina Direct and there is a large group of members at the C25 association that can give helpful advice on almost any situation.

C25 association forum:
Association Forum

[CShawn]

Almost exactly the same position, except substitute young adults, and grand kids. I had a couple of lakes near me that I searched continuously looking for boat ads. Ran across quite a few, but got really lucky on a 1980 Catalina 30 at a local boat club. The owner donated it to the club for their youth sailing program. I am still working on stuff, but nice to sail it when not redoing a piece of wood or replacing stuff, like toilet seals, speakers, bilge pump, etc. Check the sails, I had to get a Genoa reconditioned due to a rip incurred during sailing, probably a little my fault!

Now that I have it a marina, I see a few of my neighbors have boats for sale. Might be good to check a few in your area and see if they have some with for sale signs on them, and not posted anywhere.

I wish you luck!

[carlheintz]

There are a number of ways to approach this... my suggestion would be two boats that are great, forgiving, good sailors: Catalina 27 and Catalina 30. These can be obtained at a very reasonable price. The Catalina 27 is a wonderful learning boat, yet it can be fun for a weekender some place. The Catalina 30 is a great boat all around, and can take you out for a week if you want to. Both boats are easy to sail, easy to maintain, and hold their resale value well. I would buy a mid 1980's boat... most value for the money.

If you want to step up a bit, look at the Cal 28-II. I love mine. It's cheap, sails wonderfully, and has a great interior layout.

[roberthowell]

drop the bucks on sail time for awhile no slip fee no maintenance no insurance they have boats in va beach and norfolk and no i do not work for them i do have 2 of there boats down the dock from me and wait till u r ready buy a boat that u want to live on

[bailsout]

Any yacht clubs around? Become a prospective member. Make friends. Sail and learn on their boats.

[Stu Jackson]

Interestingly enough, the space down below is not much different, if at all, between a Catalina 25 and a 27. This is because the outboard engine design of the 27 puts the engine in the lazarette, so the two extra feet of boat length don't go towards the inside of the boat (with essentially the same cockpit length). Just a reality, both nice boats, but you should know that those important two extra feet don't get you anything in the "rest" of the boat. The C25 has the engine mounted on the transom on a bracket, easy to use. The C27 lazarette design limits the number of different engines that can be used because the well limits the space, so not all of the new four strokes can fit there.

[TrentePieds]

Quote: "Are you looking for experience living aboard, or sailing?"

Stumble is right. Living aboard and sailing are two different beasts. They can coexist, though they are not naturally compatible. The trick is to learn, and to admit, what compromises you are willing to make in regard to each.

Motor cars are the second worst waste of money there is. Sailboats are the MOST worst waste of money their is. KNOWING how much you are going to be wasting, and accepting that while minimizing the waste, is a major part of the compromising.

TrentePieds is - obviously - 30 feet and JUST big enuff for man and maid. That's BEFORE the kiddies arrive. And the pets. TrentePieds' PO, being VERY weak on the fundamental concepts, blew away five and thirty grand on a new rig including that abomination that is a mast furling main. There is NO WAY that a motorsailer with a SA/D ration of 12.5 can benefit from that when she's in the Salish Sea. She ain't a racing boat! And in the Salish, when you get to sea state 5, you just nip off into a convenient sheltered cove! Meanwhile, all the stuff that contributes to living handsomely and contentedly aboard for long periods had been totally neglected.

Well - that is my good fortune. Apparently no sailor around here would have 'er. She had sat for several years. So the price was right. VERY right :-)

There is a splendid antique phrase you rarely see any more: "Ready for sea and in all respects fit for her trade". TrentePieds' "trade" is to keep MyBeloved contended by virtue of her lovely cabin arrangements and general good looks. She does that admirably. As for me, I'll adapt. I have skippered boats that SAIL far better. But sailing well isn't TrentePieds' "trade".

So in a sense I'm in the same boat as you. Living aboard is easy in TrentePieds. But I have to learn to sail. To sail HER :-)

And the moral of the story is that living aboard and sailing are fundamentally antithetical, but with a little compromising wondrous results can be achieved :-)

To get started you shouldn't have to spend more than eight or ten grand on the purchase of a suitable 30 footer. But count on ten grand a year in moorage, maintenance and "up-grade". More if you can't do the work yourself.

In PNW and in British Columbia good 30-and- 40-year-old boats in excellent condition are a dime a dozen. I suspect that the same would be true on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes.

But blow away a coupla grand on something like a Enterprise dinghy. It'll teach you SAILING quite quickly and safely. Consider the price of it "sunk cost" and make a present of it to some deserving youth when it's served its purpose for you :-)


TrentePieds

[hamburking]

Tanzer 22.

About $1,000 cdn.

Well built, fun to sail, good owners association...you can't go wrong.

Tanzer 22 fin keel. 1976 | sailboats | Kawartha Lakes | Kijiji

[secrabtree]

Originally Posted by Withthewind

My husband and I want to live aboard in a few years. We will still have a couple teens and kids with us. What would a good practice boat be, so we can learn the ropes? We'd like to do all we can to prepare in the meantime. Is there something we could buy to help learn that is around $10k-ish? Anything I should look for or look out for? We can practice in the great lakes or Virginia Beach, as we have property close to both. Thanks.

TurninTurtle had the right idea.

Find a local SAILING club that offers sailing lessons in very small boats, like Optis. (Many yacht clubs have mainly power boats.) That is the way to learn to sail - one person boats do very little damage, if any, when you screw up. If spouses learn together on the same boat there is always the tendency to not really learn what one spouse thinks will be the usual job of the other. ("He's going to be steering so I needn't learn that well." "I'll be steering so she should learn about sail trim.") Also when something the boat speeds up "I did it" and when it slows "he did something wrong". One person boat to begin learning the basics. THEN, after the basics of sailing are learned, that is when you should start learning the teamwork of sailing a bigger boat, a keel boat.

Then, and maybe concurrently with learning on a keel boat, crew for many others on various boats AND rent various boats similar to what you think you want (That'll continually change as you try various boats.) And THEN, after you have more knowledge, that is the time to consider buying.

Most experienced cruisers know of people that bought a boat and learned on it while sailing off to, let us say, Australia. That experience was so bad that they sold the boat in Australia, divorced, moved to North Dakota and Oklahoma, and never went near salt water again.

[cwyckham]

I agree with your idea of buying a learner boat. You can certainly rent for a bit, but you won't learn how to maintain a boat and her systems that way. For me, that's a big part of the learning curve and important when it comes to choosing your "forever boat" in a few years.

Since you won't be living aboard your starter boat, you can get away with something in the 27-32' range from the early '80s. It will be cheap to buy and fairly easy to sell. Bigger, more expensive boats can take years to sell. A 1985 Catalina 27 should go pretty easily for what you paid for her as long as you kept up with the maintenance.

Here's a few articles on learning to sail, choosing a first boat, and how much a first boat will cost you.