Aspiring Sailor - Looking to Learn

[beingnotthinkin]

Hello All!
My name is Patrick and I am so happy to be here. My wife Michaela and I have been traveling the U.S. in a self converted van for the past year.

As much as we have loved living in a van, we have started discussing taking our travels to the water.

I have started reading and learning as much as I can about sailing but only have a small amount of experience on a sailboat (grew up with a smaller power boat), with one night being an absolutely amazing experience and the next day being very seasick. Not going to let that stop me though

We have plans to travel a lot of the west coast this spring and summer and would love to meet up and learn more about sailing.

Any recommendations on good places to rent a small sailboat (hobie cat was recommended from a friend) to start learning on would also be very welcome.

Have been having a lot of fun reading posts and learning more. I hope to see you on the water one day!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Patrick & Michaela.

[tkeithlu]

Welcome to the forum, beingnotthinkin and spouse.

A Hobie cat is a sports boat. Fast, tricky, fun, and all that, but not really in the direction of cruising. More common for beginners is the 25 or so foot pocket cruiser or overnighter. That leads you into navigation, docking, and a bunch of other skills.

The west coast has lots of sailing schools. There are forum members who could make recommendations, given a known port.

Best wishes to you.

[beingnotthinkin]

Thanks All!

Tkeithlu, I will look into that.

And yeah, any recs on sailing schools that would maybe have a weekend class or something would be fantastic.

I have been given a lot of advice of "go to your local sailing club" but a tad hard when we are living a mobile lifestyle.

[Adelie]

Welcome.

I would suggest updating your profile with your general location and your boat make & model or “Looking” in the "Boat" category. This info shows up under your UserName in every post in the web view. Many questions are boat and/or location dependent and having these tidbits under your UserName saves answering those questions repeatedly. If you need help setting up your profile then click on this link: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3308797

I would happily help more if the link above is not enough.

My 2cents is to get a Laser if you can load it on top of your van to learn to sail.
If you are in the San Diego area I could take you out and gas on at length about sailing.

[beingnotthinkin]

Thank you Adelie!

If I end up near San Diego I will definitely reach out!

Been looking more into sailing lessons as I think it might be the quickest way to get started.