New world adventure

[Yimmortal]

Remember I’m in the theoretical learning and planning stage, I’m not getting in the water tomorrow.....

[TrentePieds]

If you are in Utah, then start here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFw29VCutjM

TP

[thomm225]

Utah is fine if you are near one of the lakes there.

If so, get a small sailboat (soon) with at least a sloop rig.

Almost any size will do from a 19' Lightning on up.

Home - International Lightning Class Association

You can sail all summer and learn

[john61ct]

Steel is ideal for crashing into things but unrealistic for most.

Better to use your learner boat to practice avoiding such adventures.

Some are passionate about old wood boats, but classic plastic is the way to go for 99.99% of sailboats on the water.

The skills you learn in a boat you can stick on a trailer, even a little Laser, are directly transferable to single-handing a bigger live-aboard next year.

"Go small, go simple, go now!" Pardeys, great reading.

[thomm225]

Here's an experienced sailor on a relatively calm day and is still having trouble sailing his boat singlehanded

There's lots to learn and a lake is a great place to start

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRVPakXBP-I

[BostonSailer]

My wife and I are a year into our sailing careers. We stumbled on the idea while down in the Bahamas with our sea kayaks, staying at a marina condo where we started to talking to sailors, or they started talking to us. Folks were interested in the folding kayaks we travel with.

From the idea, we began reading everything we could get our hands on. Sailing seemed a natural extension of sea kayaking, maybe a bit more comfortable. : ) I loved talking to sailors who came down the coast from Nova Scotia each year to the Bahamas. Travel, exploration, thinking ahead a decade to retirement and, most of all, the thrill of learning. Sailing is such a deep activity. Once you learn the basics, a world is unlocked that you kind of knew was out there, but glimpsed sideways through media, books and tales from a friend of a friend.

We took a class last spring and joined a community sailing club here in Boston and spend each weekend sailing Boston Harbor in a 24ft sloop. It was kind of like learning to ride a bike in Times Square, but you really get to understand the Colregs quickly when you're out there with sailboats, tugs, water taxis, ferries and cargo ships. It was sad to do our last sail on Halloween. We lasted a week or so and then started thinking about next steps. We decided to charter a boat in Antigua with an RYA Yachtmaster and get our next levels of certification and actually live on a boat for a week. Loved it. They do get small after a week, but much easier than tent camping from a sea kayak.

A few weeks later we bought a boat. We'd been looking around since the summer and like you, didn't want to buy something that would require a lot of work to sail. We found the perfect boat, a Hans Christian 38, down in South Carolina and have spent the winter learning its systems from the previous owner. We've hired a delivery captain to sail with us back to Boston and are looking forward to the next stage of learning.

All of this to say that we, too dream of sailing the world. But until we have the time and skills to do so, we're going to love sailing where we live. The sailing community is good people. Welcome!
Chris