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27-12-2023, 14:20
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2023
Posts: 4
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Greetings From SoCal
New to the forum...and hoping to be new again to sailing in 2024.
I'm 63, retired engineer, married, live near Ventura California and have some sailing experience. I've done half a dozen bareboat charters and owned a Beneteau 440 for 8 years back in the late 1990's early 2000's. Was working hard at the time and had not enough time to enjoy it. I've done only coastal sailing, never blue water.
Now with more time, I'm looking to get back in. We have lots of nice coastal cruising here, including the Channel Islands and even stretches down to Mexico and the Sea of Cortez. Not sure if I'd want to do more than that. But with time...perhaps. I also want something I can use as a second home...near the ocean. Nothing better than waking up to the ocean air and a cup of coffee. I could see spending 20-30% of my nights there, either on a dock or at anchor at a "local" destination.
We are thinking about a 40ft cat, ...maybe 5-7 years old. We like to roominess of a cat, and the performance is a nice upside. Just started the search. One challenge I'm seeing is the availability of options on the West Coast of the Americas. It's slim pickings compared to Florida or the Carribean, and the prices seem to be ~30-50K higher in the $300-$400K range that we're considering. While east coast is cheaper, in that option I need to transport the boat So Cal. Both time and money.
So...any advice on how to "get back in"?
Buyers broker?
Comments on transport ...time and cost?
Thoughts on ~40ft cats?
Charted vs private owner?
Thanks to all.
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31-12-2023, 13:35
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2021
Location: Southern California
Boat: Bavaria 38E
Posts: 420
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Re: Greetings From SoCal
Hi, thanks for your post. Welcome to this forum. You're inquiring chiefly about boat selection but your selection obviously should include serious consideration of how you and family will use it.
Most likely, you'll need liveaboard status to spend many nights aboard at your slip. Without it, marinas generally limit overnight stays to 72 h per week (i.e., 3 nights). Yes, on average that would be more than 30% of nights, but most folks prefer several more consecutive nights aboard at a time if away from home. The marina can "enforce" whatever restrictions it announces, so there could be some occasional laxity in lengths of stay. But, in any case, permitted liveaboards on one's dock eventually report a slip holder's "excessive" overnight time aboard.
There is typically a waitlist for liveaboard slips. There is also restriction in some marinas that one must already have a slip in the marina from which to transfer to a liveaboard when one becomes available. Big catamarans and monohulls > 46 ft have the fewest number of slips available to begin with. So, getting started on your plan might meet some "headwinds" regarding slip availability in southern California, something that I'm sure you'd wish to factor in.
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31-12-2023, 14:46
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2021
Location: Southern California
Boat: Bavaria 38E
Posts: 420
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Re: Greetings From SoCal
Likely or planned destinations and frequency of travels thereto should also affect consideration of boat selection. Except for long-distance cruises to Baja and MX mainland, most cruising will be "local" as you say. If not to another marina along the CA coast, then we're talking the offshore islands. Chiefly, Santa Catalina and Santa Cruz islands. Catalina coves at 70 to 90 n.mi. distant from Ventura Harbor will prove the most accommodating for catamarans, in my opinion. A family might have many years of enjoyment visiting Catalina.
Santa Cruz Island reachable at only 18 n.mi. from Ventura Harbor also offers many beautiful coves, but there are no mooring cans and no services. Personal watercraft must anchor, sometimes with bow and stern anchors deployed together. It can be very challenging anchoring. We often see large catamarans out there, but anchoring them appears to be a bit more involved as they usually must lay to a bridle; whereas, monohulls have a better option not to deploy one. However, the catamarans appear to offer more comfort through the 24 hr cycle without severe rocking during the night.
Reaching either island destination, or destinations along the coast such as San Diego Bay, typically involves several hr of motoring or motor-sailing if wishing to avoid night-time transits. The wind patterns during summer with the long daylight periods are usually favorable when heading in one direction, toward east or southeast; rarely west, southwest, or northwest. A heavy boat just does not do well in generally light summer winds. May as well be comfortable while motoring. A big (40 ft) catamaran can provide that!
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01-01-2024, 06:21
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 3,037
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Re: Greetings From SoCal
Slip availability has been an issue in California for decades which you're undoubtedly aware given your ownership history. Assuming you've solved that for your home berth, if your local cruising plans include other marinas (Santa Barbara, MDR, etc), you may want to evaluate whether a cat could be accommodated.
Having been a liveaboard and sneak-aboard in several California marinas, I don't think you'd have an issue with staying aboard frequently as long as you have a legit address nearby. Harbor masters aren't stupid and they genuinely like people to enjoy their boats as long as they don't take advantage of the situation.
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01-01-2024, 20:21
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Redondo Beach, CA
Boat: 1990 Oyster 55
Posts: 468
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Re: Greetings From SoCal
The choice of a catamaran vs. monohull for predominantly southern CA cruising definitely requires understanding of the availability of slips and moorings of the requisite size for the mainland and Santa Catalina.
On the mainland side there are few available anchorages, slips for cats are in high demand. Yacht club facilities may be an option. Seeking membership may be helpful.
For Santa Catalina there are extremely few viable anchorages, most of the viable spots have mooring balls rented from the mooring service. Cats and monohulls over 50 feet severely limits the allowed moorings which they will assign you. Most of the mooring fields reach out to 80 or 90 feet of water and they require anchoring more than 100 yards off the mooring fields. There are some more remote roadsteads which are reasonable anchoring (little harbor is beautiful)
For the rest of the Channel Islands I would think that the lack of roll at anchor would be a wonderful choice.
Both are a great choice, just think about your use case carefully 😊
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02-01-2024, 16:07
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2023
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 21
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Re: Greetings From SoCal
Looks like we are very similar--early 60s SoCal and getting back into sailing! I am down in the LA area, but make it to Venture and Santa Barbara now and then. I look forward to hearing how your hunt for a boat progresses!
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02-01-2024, 19:20
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Redondo Beach, CA
Boat: 1990 Oyster 55
Posts: 468
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Re: Greetings From SoCal
Quote:
Originally Posted by botanybay
The choice of a catamaran vs. monohull for predominantly southern CA cruising definitely requires understanding of the availability of slips and moorings of the requisite size for the mainland and Santa Catalina.
On the mainland side there are few available anchorages, slips for cats are in high demand. Yacht club facilities may be an option. Seeking membership may be helpful.
For Santa Catalina there are extremely few viable anchorages, most of the viable spots have mooring balls rented from the mooring service. Cats and monohulls over 50 feet severely limits the allowed moorings which they will assign you. Most of the mooring fields reach out to 80 or 90 feet of water and they require anchoring more than 100 yards off the mooring fields. There are some more remote roadsteads which are reasonable anchoring (little harbor is beautiful)
For the rest of the Channel Islands I would think that the lack of roll at anchor would be a wonderful choice.
Both are a great choice, just think about your use case carefully 😊
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Feel free to PM if you want to talk boats or get together. I plan to be sailing up your direction over the summer and will be at Catalina as much as I can. Now have an long term assigned mooring and need 55 nights to make break even compared to buying as you go
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02-01-2024, 19:35
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2020
Location: SoCal
Boat: 35' Alden Design Cutter
Posts: 682
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Re: Greetings From SoCal
Now with more time, I'm looking to get back in. We have lots of nice coastal cruising here, including the Channel Islands and even stretches down to Mexico and the Sea of Cortez. Not sure if I'd want to do more than that. But with time...perhaps. I also want something I can use as a second home...near the ocean. Nothing better than waking up to the ocean air and a cup of coffee. I could see spending 20-30% of my nights there, either on a dock or at anchor at a "local" destination.
My suggestion is to pick up - "The Cruising Guide to Central and Southern California: Golden Gate to Ensenada, Mexico, Including the Offshore Islands"
A great resource
We are thinking about a 40ft cat, ...maybe 5-7 years old. We like to roominess of a cat, and the performance is a nice upside. Just started the search. One challenge I'm seeing is the availability of options on the West Coast of the Americas. It's slim pickings compared to Florida or the Carribean, and the prices seem to be ~30-50K higher in the $300-$400K range that we're considering. While east coast is cheaper, in that option I need to transport the boat So Cal. Both time and money.
So...any advice on how to "get back in"?
Buyers broker?
Comments on transport ...time and cost?
Thoughts on ~40ft cats?
Charted vs private owner?
Thanks to all.
SoCal is limited on slips, even more so on slips for 40ft Catamarans. Check around and find this out before you go too much further.
The difference in price between the East Coast and the West Coast happens to be almost exactly the cost of transportation. Remember, though, CA isn't the only West Coast. Your West Coast goes pretty far South.
Another option is to find your ideal Cat and sail her back to California (Once you find her a place to stay. Your adventure awaits.
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07-01-2024, 15:09
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#9
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: La Ciudad de la Misión Didacus de Alcalá en Alta California, Virreinato de Nueva España
Boat: Cal 20
Posts: 21,624
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Re: Greetings From SoCal
Welcome to CruisersForum!
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.
__________________
Num Me Vexo?
For all of your celestial navigation questions: https://navlist.net/
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