Learning to Sail

[masimcox]

My wife and I are currently researching yachting as a retirement option in about 3-4 years time. Do you think it is worth buying a smaller daysailer to learn to sail whilst we are planning our retirement? Thanks in advance.

[GordMay]

Greetings and belated welcome aboard the CF, masimcox.

[masimcox]

Thank you Gordmay no posts for a while, seem to have been reading so much over the past couple of months, I forgot I could post too!!!!

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by masimcox

My wife and I are currently researching yachting as a retirement option in about 3-4 years time. Do you think it is worth buying a smaller daysailer to learn to sail whilst we are planning our retirement? Thanks in advance.

Depends on what you mean by a small daysailer. In general getting a small boat is just a money waster. The learning to sail part of cruising is the easy part. Sailing is really pretty easy. The difference between just sailing (i.e. good enough) and sailing well is small and the lesson between will only partially carryover between a little daysailer and a cruising boat. I expect the small boat people to attack my position and I'm not going to spend with the battle.

Here is the path my wife and I took:

- We took ASA lessons to bareboat level on a 36' C&C
- We joined a local sail club at a level that got us time on what was basically old 33' Cals. We sailed pretty every weekend Sat & Sun on those for 3 months at end of the season in the Northeast
- We brought our first boat, a Cal-39 the next Spring. We sailed that for 2 years but knew within the first 3-4 months that it was not the cruising boat we wanted (this became a $15k lesson). We learned a lot on the Cal, some about how to sail and lots about how to fix boats.
- Wife got our current boat and sailed in on weekends for 5 years till we stopped working.
- We have been living full time and cruising on our current boat for 31 months now.

Sailing is easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Learn the basics, buy a good cruising boat, go cruising in slow short steps and gain experience and increase your boat activities as you become comfortable.

[masimcox]

Thanks Sailorboy1, that’s good information, one thing I have learned over the past couple of months reading articles and forums is that there are many different opinions, no right or wrong, just different, thanks again

[thomm225]

I think it depends on how you like to learn. If you enjoy learning on your own so you can concentrate and learn by doing, getting a small day sailor is a great idea. That is what I did plus I used the attached chart and read a few books

The boat I learned on in the early 90's was an old sailing dinghy that I sailed around in one of the TVA Lakes in Mississippi. Then I went directly into racing sailboats with Hobie 16, then a newer Hobie 16, then a new Nacra 6.0, new Nacra F17, then the old Bristol 27 Cruising boat I have now

I learned boating as a teenager and into my early 20's on old power boats I owned for use in the Chesapeake Bay and the Ocean and ICW near Morehead City North Carolina while fishing. This includes anchoring, navigation to some degree, balance on boats, engines, and trust since many of my boats had plywood bottoms that flexed a couple inches when they hit waves at speed

[Yellow bird]

Originally Posted by masimcox

My wife and I are currently researching yachting as a retirement option in about 3-4 years time. Do you think it is worth buying a smaller daysailer to learn to sail whilst we are planning our retirement? Thanks in advance.

3-4 years is a lot of time to learn sailing, so no problems for you.

A couples of tips
-learn the basics with some courses by professional schools (it’s easier and faster than doing it selfmade), but then start sailing, and sail as many miles as possible on your own (eventualy the first times you can rent a boat with a good skipper/instructor)
-The best way to waste money on boat is to buy a boat without having clear ideas,
you have time, so rent different types of boat (changing kind of boat: aft cockpit/center cockpit, cruiser/racer, fullbatten main/furling main, and so on…),
and when you will decide to buy the boat you will know well what will be the best one for you!

[thomm225]

If you are the kind of folks that like a challenge, learn to race. Sailing a cruising boat is easy. Racing is hard especially if you want to be in front.

Many cruisers just end up motoring around in the ICW and rarely raise sail

You can even get a Laser or a Lightning and race on the local lake or in protected waters

Beach Cat racing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4emdfoTvNKk