Lots of good
advice here! It might seem like much of it is in conflict, but it is really all about a bunch of parallel paths you can take, and they are not exclusive of one another. A basic class would be great! Buy a day sailer? Sure, why not? If it is a well used older
boat, you will probably resell it for what you paid for it, when you upgrade. There are plenty of fixer-uppers out there for
cheap... I
live aboard my
boat, bought for $2000. And yes, it is ready to sail and I do sail it. New
boats have this whole depreciation thing going on, and you will definitely lose
money on the boat when you upgrade, so I would lean toward old
boats initially, and maybe buy your ultimate, final, this-is-it boat brand new. You can learn on your own, with a day sailer, and you can generally drag most of them home on a
trailer and not have to
lease a slip. Mine is a
dock queen that never saw a
trailer since she was built in 1976. A rough-around-the-edges boat big enough to
live aboard would be sort of jumping over the logical first step of a daysailer, but still entirely do-able. Folks that hang around
marinas are usually pretty helpful, especially if you have a cooler full of
beer on ice prominently displayed in your
cockpit and something on the gas
grill clamped to your rail. (That should be your first
purchase for your boat, for social as well as gastronomic reasons... I recommend a Magma kettle type for a small sailboat.) Get your neighbors talking to you and you will probably find quite a few willing to go out with you and
work with you on the finer (or coarser!) points of sailing.
If you are ready to pay a share of expenses, a LOT of folks will be happy to have you aboard as crew for a short
cruise or a
race. If you are content with sitting on a rail getting sunburnt to a crisp, you are
racing crew qualified! Once you are stateside, I highly recommend you follow all the previous helpful
advice on finding a crew slot. There is a subforum here, by the way, and it is fairly active. Post your qualifications even if it doesn't seem to you like you have any. Post your requirements (you want someone experienced enough that you can learn a thing or two without having to do your
learning from
serial disasters!) And definitely post what else you have to offer, like a share of
fuel and groceries, post-cruise dinner, etc! There are a lot of impoverished yachtsmen out there who would love to have a hand with the expenses. I dare say that many of them are impoverished because they have boats and have had them for a long time, and these would be the experienced guys to learn from.
The TWIC card... nice to have, sure. Other stuff like STCW mandated
training and a MMC would also be none of this is really strictly necessary for most pleasure
boating activities. What it would be good for is finding a job on the
water. You will probably want some more
money once you are a boat owner! Nice to have a few extra thousand a year to save for your first nice boat, too. As a professional mariner you will learn a lot about
safety, regulatory stuff, antipollution,
safety, general seamanship, Rules Of The Road, safety,
navigation, piloting, helmsmanship, safety, and other stuff. And safety, in case I forgot to mention that enough. A lot of it will tie in closely with your recreational
boating. Some folks will take you more seriously if you have a bunch of certifications and
documentation. Some won't care. Some won't even know what the hell you are talking about. (That's your cue to shut up about it... some people are uncomfortable whith what they don't understand LOL!)
- thought it was a supplemental into step 2.......
, if going by OPB (Other Peoples Boats) then IMO the bigger the better! Because:-
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