First Sail on a Hunter 33, Third Sail Ever . . .

[davers]

Well, after our 2 sailing lessons, we've decided to join a "time share". We wanted to look over the contracts, and the owner offered to take us out before we signed anything, because we are running out of sailing days here in Michigan. I believe the boat is hauled out on the 15th of October. My buddy and I arrived around 6 PM at the Marina, and we were met at the boat a short time later. The boat is a 33 foot Hunter....much much bigger and nicer than the 1976 Catalina 25 we learned on. I mean...it has air conditioning!! WHAT!?! Anyway, what an amazing boat! We've only been out on the water twice before for our lessons, and having our 3rd time out on this boat was the most amazing experience!! It was sooo easy to sail, although the owner was doing most of the sail handling...it was still quite the experience! What was even more exciting...(nerve wracking) was I took over the helm once it got dark! GAH! Wow was I nervous!! I even took it back into the Marina and straight into the slip! I have to tell you, doing that in the dark when you have no idea where the Marina is, let alone your slip, is a hair raising experience! Especially when you consider I have probably 1 hour of experience at the helm! But the owner just talked me through it and I think I did pretty well! I bumped against the pilings a bit, but the owner blamed that on the wind. Wow! I am sooo geeked about this!! I can't wait for the sailing season to start up again so we can start learning more! The owner wants his instructor to take us out until he's comfortable we can handle the boat on our own, and once he's comfortable, the owner will take us out to see if he agrees! Pretty cool!! The owners of the boat we'll be...renting? buying into? I'm not sure of the correct term, but anyway, the owners are an older couple who race every now and again and would be happy to have us crew!! Jeez!! How can we pass something like this up!

Anyway! I had to get this out of my system! My significant other should be getting tired of me babbling about this pretty soon...so I needed another outlet!

Oh yea...self tailing winches...rofl! Come on!! Auto pilot! A GPS as big as a TV screen!! (not really) I can stand up straight down below!! Wow...Hurry up April!!!!

Dave

[Bash]

Congrats on the new boat, as well as a belated welcome to the forum.

Boat partnerships can be tricky, but they can also be a great way in for someone new to boating. Make sure you've got everything on paper, including what happens when the partnership is to be dissolved. You might want to spend a bit of time googling around on "boat partnerships."

[boatman61]

Hahahahahahahaaaa......
Man it sounds like you had a ball..... welcome to 'Waterworld'.. love the enthusiasim...

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by davers

I even took it back into the Marina and straight into the slip! I have to tell you, doing that in the dark when you have no idea where the Marina is, let alone your slip, is a hair raising experience!

Don't worry Dave. You will relive that hair raising experience whenever you take any boat into any new Marina.
If no one gets injured its a perfect docking!

[RiverRat]

Sounds like a great experience for you! I'm inspired!

[Ishmael]

Sounds like a good opportunity, Dave...if it's not too hard on the wallet. The owner doesn't seem overly uptight, and willing to let you learn on his boat - which is a good sign that he may be fairly easy/reasonable to deal with. The chance to crew in races, I think would be great experience. That's one thing I never did, and really wish I had when I had a chance. I think it's probably the best way to learn some good sail-handling skills.

You sound like I did about 20 years ago when I took all the ASA classes at the Boston Harbor Sailing Club! Our first few outings were on a 27' Soling, then we did some spinnaker training on a J24, then for several years I bought the annual membership to use the fleet of Pearson 26's. I worked right in the city, and would often walk straight down after work on any given day and head right out for a few hours - often for overnighters if I didn't have to work the next day. If you were lucky, sometimes you could get one of the Albin 27's (with the inboard diesel). It was so much fun.

I did my Offshore Passage-making trip on the Club's Cal 39's. They used to keep two of them in the Bahamas (Marsh Harbor) every winter, and you could sign on to crew on the trip down in the fall, or back up in the spring. I flew down there in the spring of '93 and helped bring it up as far as Annapolis.

After I moved here (to Nantucket), we bought a 1978 O'Day 27 for about $6,500, sailed it down from Providence, RI and made many trips from here to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Cuttyhunk etc etc. Then we had to get rid of it when we started planning the house, the family...

I have a little Daysailer now just to get out on the water occasionally, and my kids are now old enough to want to learn - so we're having fun with that. But I'm now saving for the next boat that can actually take us away from this island once in a while! Can't decide if I want to go relatively low maintainance with something like a newer Catalina 25, or with something that I can really fall in love with like an older Pearson Vanguard. Decisions, decisions...

[davers]

Yea...I talked to my "almost" brother in law who's been sailing since the 70's, and he said it sounds like a great way to be sure you like sailing, but he wouldn't do it for more than a year. He suggests if you like it after a year, buy an older boat.

Fun stuff!!!

Dave