Hello!

[Docsail]

Just dropping by to say hello and introduce myself. Mid thirties guy and his wife getting ready to start sailing. Here to read, , discuss, and hopefully get advice (and give it, once we have experience to offer). Thanks and look forward to chatting with you all!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Docsail.

[tkeithlu]

You've been welcomed aboard and therefore blessed by the truely remarkable Gord May, he who can answer a wider range of questions than anyone else on the forum. You probably already have some skills that are needed; there's a lot of transfer from the outside, so don't hesitate just because you're new.

[skipmac]

Hello and welcome.

Have any sailing plans yet? What part of the world?

[Docsail]

Thank you!

[Docsail]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Hello and welcome.

Have any sailing plans yet? What part of the world?

I’m getting ready to buy my first boat in Jacksonville Florida. Getting folks’ input on boat selection was part of the impetus for my joining. I’m planning to get something very small (as I’ve heard repeatedly this is the best way to learn to sail well). I’ll be going into more detail about my needs and concerns in another thread on the appropriate part of the board.

[Docsail]

Originally Posted by tkeithlu

You've been welcomed aboard and therefore blessed by the truely remarkable Gord May, he who can answer a wider range of questions than anyone else on the forum. You probably already have some skills that are needed; there's a lot of transfer from the outside, so don't hesitate just because you're new.

Thanks for that. Really appreciate the warm welcome and the assistance figuring out who’s who around here ��

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Docsail

I’m getting ready to buy my first boat in Jacksonville Florida. Getting folks’ input on boat selection was part of the impetus for my joining. I’m planning to get something very small (as I’ve heard repeatedly this is the best way to learn to sail well). I’ll be going into more detail about my needs and concerns in another thread on the appropriate part of the board.

Well it seems like we are neighbors. I'm in Gainesville but keep my boat in Green Cove Springs (at least when I'm not sailing somewhere).

I'm leaving for MA this weekend and won't be back until late Oct but if you need a hand checking out a used boat let me know.

How small? Yes absolutely a small boat will sharpen your skills with sail handling plus cheaper to buy and store, maintain, easier to dock, etc but if too small will you use it as much? I found when owning a trailer boat that the hassle to haul it to a boat ramp, step the mast, launch, etc was frequently too time consuming and I ended up not using it much. If you plan on doing any overnights on the boat a really small boat can be light living in a small pup tent.

[Docsail]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Well it seems like we are neighbors. I'm in Gainesville but keep my boat in Green Cove Springs (at least when I'm not sailing somewhere).

I'm leaving for MA this weekend and won't be back until late Oct but if you need a hand checking out a used boat let me know.

How small? Yes absolutely a small boat will sharpen your skills with sail handling plus cheaper to buy and store, maintain, easier to dock, etc but if too small will you use it as much? I found when owning a trailer boat that the hassle to haul it to a boat ramp, step the mast, launch, etc was frequently too time consuming and I ended up not using it much. If you plan on doing any overnights on the boat a really small boat can be light living in a small pup tent.

What an incredibly kind offer! Thank you, and I very well may take you up on the offer to help check out a used boat, as long as you’ll let me buy you a drink in compensation. We’re actually moving to Jacksonville in mid November, so the timing would work out great.

Regarding the type of boat, I’ve had some ideas but I’m happy to take suggestions and criticisms. I’ve been leaning toward a Hobie Wave. Since the discussion has gone ahead this direction, I’ll lay out my reasons here rather than starting a new thread for now.
- we had a ton of fun sailing one 5 or 6 times in the past
- can handle two people
- can also be single-handed
- can store in my garage
- can almost certainly untrailer, launch, and trailer it alone (wife’s work schedule means she will only be able to join me half the time, at best), and fairly quickly
- can take It on the ocean (as compared to something like a laser which I have read is generally inappropriate for anyone below an advanced sailor to have on the ocean)

Now I totally hear you you on the issues with the trailer boat situation, and that is indeed a concern. We’re backpackers, so sleeping in a small place is no worry for us. I guess that does bring up a question: at what point is a boat too big to give me that rapid feedback that would help me learn?

I’d looked at boats like a Potter 19, but wasn’t ready to commit to recurring storage fees. I therefore haven’t researched much on that end, and don’t know enough about the sailing world to know what kind of hassle and expense we’re looking at when having someone else store our boat.

[S/V Adeline]

Originally Posted by Docsail

What an incredibly kind offer! Thank you, and I very well may take you up on the offer to help check out a used boat, as long as you’ll let me buy you a drink in compensation. We’re actually moving to Jacksonville in mid November, so the timing would work out great.

Regarding the type of boat, I’ve had some ideas but I’m happy to take suggestions and criticisms. I’ve been leaning toward a Hobie Wave. Since the discussion has gone ahead this direction, I’ll lay out my reasons here rather than starting a new thread for now.
- we had a ton of fun sailing one 5 or 6 times in the past
- can handle two people
- can also be single-handed
- can store in my garage
- can almost certainly untrailer, launch, and trailer it alone (wife’s work schedule means she will only be able to join me half the time, at best), and fairly quickly
- can take It on the ocean (as compared to something like a laser which I have read is generally inappropriate for anyone below an advanced sailor to have on the ocean)

Now I totally hear you you on the issues with the trailer boat situation, and that is indeed a concern. We’re backpackers, so sleeping in a small place is no worry for us. I guess that does bring up a question: at what point is a boat too big to give me that rapid feedback that would help me learn?

I’d looked at boats like a Potter 19, but wasn’t ready to commit to recurring storage fees. I therefore haven’t researched much on that end, and don’t know enough about the sailing world to know what kind of hassle and expense we’re looking at when having someone else store our boat.

Storage is an issue you need to explore and decide before you commit, you don't want to be caught by surprise. It really depends on location. It has been said a boat is a large hole in the water in which you tend to throw enormous amounts of money. In fact, in many places that hole becomes a vortex on land. When we had our Dufour 27, it was $170 in a slip, $300 on the hard. Our Islander 44 was $200 in a slip, $400 on the hard. We were in a location where square footage was limited and prices reflected that. We were able to get out current vessel for practically a song as there was NO storage available and the owner had to get rid of it.
Never owned a trailer sailer, but that eliminates the storage issue. I would opt for the largest i could find that fits your requirements of 1 person launch and setup, but can offer no useful opinions.
Welcome to the forum

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Docsail

What an incredibly kind offer! Thank you, and I very well may take you up on the offer to help check out a used boat, as long as you’ll let me buy you a drink in compensation. We’re actually moving to Jacksonville in mid November, so the timing would work out great.

Regarding the type of boat, I’ve had some ideas but I’m happy to take suggestions and criticisms. I’ve been leaning toward a Hobie Wave. Since the discussion has gone ahead this direction, I’ll lay out my reasons here rather than starting a new thread for now.
- we had a ton of fun sailing one 5 or 6 times in the past
- can handle two people
- can also be single-handed
- can store in my garage
- can almost certainly untrailer, launch, and trailer it alone (wife’s work schedule means she will only be able to join me half the time, at best), and fairly quickly
- can take It on the ocean (as compared to something like a laser which I have read is generally inappropriate for anyone below an advanced sailor to have on the ocean)

Now I totally hear you you on the issues with the trailer boat situation, and that is indeed a concern. We’re backpackers, so sleeping in a small place is no worry for us. I guess that does bring up a question: at what point is a boat too big to give me that rapid feedback that would help me learn?

I’d looked at boats like a Potter 19, but wasn’t ready to commit to recurring storage fees. I therefore haven’t researched much on that end, and don’t know enough about the sailing world to know what kind of hassle and expense we’re looking at when having someone else store our boat.

Don't know about the wave but the boat I referred to was an original Hobie 18. Took two people close to an hour to rig but I'm sure with practice I could have cut that in half. However unless you can leave it somewhere you then have to reverse the process to go home. For me round trip from house to a close boat ramp and back added two hours or better to a day sail.

But I didn't have to pay to store the boat. Like all things boat there are tradeoffs.

What size does the quick feedback end? Well it's a linear progression and has not exact cutoff. Small boat like a Sunfish you catch a big gust and don't dump the main sheet in time you go swimming. I think this will apply to almost all boats under about 20' that have no keel or ballast. You still get good feel and feedback in slightly larger boats, even a ballasted boat like the WW Potter. Had a friend that owned one and it was a great little boat but definitely like living inside a small pup tent. That isn't a problem if you're just sleeping there but cooking and other activities are really, really snug. They spent one very miserable weekend when it rained the whole time so they spent two days in a tiny room with barely sitting headroom and not even room to swing a cat.

So the decision is what do you want to do with it? Just go out, sail around and go home or get something you can weekend on?

By the way, I learned to sail on a 36' boat and don't feel like that size hampered the process too much.

[Docsail]

Originally Posted by S/V Adeline

Storage is an issue you need to explore and decide before you commit, you don't want to be caught by surprise. It really depends on location. It has been said a boat is a large hole in the water in which you tend to throw enormous amounts of money. In fact, in many places that hole becomes a vortex on land. When we had our Dufour 27, it was $170 in a slip, $300 on the hard. Our Islander 44 was $200 in a slip, $400 on the hard. We were in a location where square footage was limited and prices reflected that. We were able to get out current vessel for practically a song as there was NO storage available and the owner had to get rid of it.
Never owned a trailer sailer, but that eliminates the storage issue. I would opt for the largest i could find that fits your requirements of 1 person launch and setup, but can offer no useful opinions.
Welcome to the forum

Really appreciate the input. Even though we’re very fortunate and in a fair financial situation for our age, those fees are still alarming. Thanks for putting some hard numbers to that aspect of my considerations, though I’ll check around our area for some numbers locally, too.

[Docsail]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Don't know about the wave but the boat I referred to was an original Hobie 18. Took two people close to an hour to rig but I'm sure with practice I could have cut that in half. However unless you can leave it somewhere you then have to reverse the process to go home. For me round trip from house to a close boat ramp and back added two hours or better to a day sail.

But I didn't have to pay to store the boat. Like all things boat there are tradeoffs.

What size does the quick feedback end? Well it's a linear progression and has not exact cutoff. Small boat like a Sunfish you catch a big gust and don't dump the main sheet in time you go swimming. I think this will apply to almost all boats under about 20' that have no keel or ballast. You still get good feel and feedback in slightly larger boats, even a ballasted boat like the WW Potter. Had a friend that owned one and it was a great little boat but definitely like living inside a small pup tent. That isn't a problem if you're just sleeping there but cooking and other activities are really, really snug. They spent one very miserable weekend when it rained the whole time so they spent two days in a tiny room with barely sitting headroom and not even room to swing a cat.

So the decision is what do you want to do with it? Just go out, sail around and go home or get something you can weekend on?

By the way, I learned to sail on a 36' boat and don't feel like that size hampered the process too much.

For now, my intention has been day sailing. I would absolutely love to have a boat I could overnight/weekend in eventually, but for now, the financially responsible thing for us (as much as any decision relating to a boat could be called financially responsible has seemed to be garage-storing a very small boat. I’ll look around at the Jacksonville storage market, and maybe it’ll be a little less egregiously priced than I’m thinking. It would open up our options a ton if I didn’t have to personally store it in our garage, and had a simple mechanism for getting it in and out of the water by myself (which I understand is usually an included part of the storage process).

[S/V Adeline]

Originally Posted by Docsail

Really appreciate the input. Even though we’re very fortunate and in a fair financial situation for our age, those fees are still alarming. Thanks for putting some hard numbers to that aspect of my considerations, though I’ll check around our area for some numbers locally, too.

When we broke down on the ICW, work requirements meant we would have to leave her on the hard until we could gather more funds. Outer Banks, NC I was quoted $1600/month, must pay 6 months in advance!!!
I almost died of sticker shock. Luckily we met someone who knew someone and found affordable accommodations, but that is when it finally sunk in just why we were able to get her so cheap.

[Singularity]

Originally Posted by Docsail

Just dropping by to say hello and introduce myself. Mid thirties guy and his wife getting ready to start sailing. Here to read, , discuss, and hopefully get advice (and give it, once we have experience to offer). Thanks and look forward to chatting with you all!

Welcome.

I'd echo the earlier posts about really the need to make sure the first boat is quick/easy to set up and take down. If you've not been on a Laser or Sunfish I encourage you to take one out before buying a beach cat or otherwise spending more money. It only takes like 5 minutes to setup or takedown a Sunfish after you've done it a few times and this is huge when it comes to asking yourself some mid afternoon "how 'bout I go for a sail." Beach cats are adrenaline fun while Sunfish are not boring unless you're doing something wrong. Main problem with a Sunfish is that it will forever spoil you with it's simplicity to fun ratio, and perhaps they're not impressive/sexy to onlookers.

All in I'd suggest you'd get more sailing in on a pocket monohull and save more cash in the process (nothing to upgrade on the tiny boats)...building a greater desire for making the next boat a cuddy cabin or even smaller cruiser with more money for the acquisition.

Good luck.
Note:
https://jacksonville.craigslist.org/...178935099.html
https://youtu.be/2AwrTrg-kN8