Start at the Beginning

[slfro85]

I don’t do boats. I don’t really do open water. I have lived in Florida since I was three and I can count the number of times that I have been on a boat on one hand.

So how did I end up with a sailboat on the side of my house? Easy. I love a man who always wanted a boat. On our very first date, we went to the beach. He spotted a sailboat way off in the distance, and commented that he wanted a sailboat someday. (I should have known then...)

Saturday was that someday. We brought home a 1979 AMF Paceship PY23. She’s been a bit neglected, but nothing a good cleaning and a fresh coat of bottom paint can’t fix. We named her the Abby. Yesterday we picked up the dinghy, a West Marine 10’ rigid-floor inflatable boat, and have named that that the Gail. Yes, Boyfriend is a big fan of Fear the Walking Dead.

Neither of us has ever sailed before, so we’re learning together. Admittedly, he’s a lot more enthusiastic about this than I am. But his happiness makes me happy, and that’s reason enough.

Yesterday I took some pictures of the boat so I can track our progress. I ordered a few new zipper pulls for the cushions and scrubbed the remnants of some mud dauber nests off the pillows. The log book needs some attention. It’s hardly been used; the only maintenance notes are from almost 20 years ago, and there are only five entries for parts that don’t seem to be on the boat anymore, so we removed those logs and will start fresh.

I’m looking forward to having the boat looking pretty and clean, even if I’m still hesitant about getting out on the water in it. Boyfriend wants to take it out on weekends, bring the kids out on it, make this a big part of our lives. We live about an hour from the Gulf of Mexico and happen to have a few good-sized lakes with public boat boat launches to practice on before we take it out to the Gulf.

There’s a list of tasks - in addition to cleaning, sandblasting and repainting the bottom, and getting a new outboard motor (already have a new 9.9 Mercury on order), we have some cosmetic things we want to do. I want to refinish the weathered, but sturdy companionway door, and we want to update the curtains.

There also may or may not be some damage to one of the sails. The person we bought it from didn’t do anything with it for a year, and the person HE got it from has a diagram in the document folder indicating a tear somewhere. I don’t know if that was ever repaired.

We still need to empty the cabin and deck compartments, inventory everything, and see what we’re working with. We have a lot of work to do before we get her to the water. Since we can really only work on it on weekends, it’s kind of slow going right now.

Now I have come to the end, and shall stop.

[sandy stone]

I used to own a PY23, and I really enjoyed it. Although, I kept it in the water and never had to trailer it or step the mast. My boat had some leaks around the chainplates that affected the bulkhead, so you might want to take a look at that. You got a great boat for a small family, have a good time with it.

[slfro85]

Originally Posted by sandy stone

I used to own a PY23, and I really enjoyed it. Although, I kept it in the water and never had to trailer it or step the mast. My boat had some leaks around the chainplates that affected the bulkhead, so you might want to take a look at that. You got a great boat for a small family, have a good time with it.

We’ll probably have an inspector out to look at it when he buys insurance for it. The person we bought it from said it had been stored in the water before he bought it and there weren’t any leaks, but it would be good to have it checked over on our end too.

It might be a tight fit for overnight trips with all the kids; we’re a blended family with four kids ranging from 1y to 15y, and the eldest is wheelchair-bound so getting him on the boat will require some consideration. We’ll definitely use it for day cruising, though, maybe just the two of us on weekends when the littlest is older and we can leave her with grandparents for a day or two.

[Fore and Aft]

SLFro85 pile the whole family onboard and go have some fun. It would be cruel to leave them behind. Some of our best and worse days as a family have been on the water.
When I was younger we had a client Dick who had Polio as a child and was wheelchair bound. Every time his yacht was on the hard I had the job of winching him onboard. He wore fingerless gloves and had a leather patch on his pants bum. That way he could drag himself around on deck.
Cheers

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, slfro.
Congratulations!

[slfro85]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

SLFro85 pile the whole family onboard and go have some fun. It would be cruel to leave them behind. Some of our best and worse days as a family have been on the water.
When I was younger we had a client Dick who had Polio as a child and was wheelchair bound. Every time his yacht was on the hard I had the job of winching him onboard. He wore fingerless gloves and had a leather patch on his pants bum. That way he could drag himself around on deck.
Cheers

Oh, we plan to. Just not for more than a day or two. Son is almost as tall as me and weighs close to half what I do, dependent on diapers, and traveling on land with him takes a lot of planning and prep work. He’s never been on a boat in his life.

I am looking into a lift and winch system for it to get him on board, but he’s completely immobile so once he’s on, he isn’t going anywhere. I need to find him a transport chair that folds flat so we can get him off the boat when we dock.

[boatman61]

You have a lift system with the boom.. just need to find a viable harness for him to wear.
Swing the boom out and clip him on then swing him on board using the main sheet.. you will likely need to replace the topping lift with a new one capable of bearing his weight x 5..

[slfro85]

Originally Posted by boatman61

You have a lift system with the boom.. just need to find a viable harness for him to wear.
Swing the boom out and clip him on then swing him on board using the main sheet.. you will likely need to replace the topping lift with a new one capable of bearing his weight x 5..

He already has a harness for his lift in the house; I’ll research how to attach that and look into the rest.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by slfro85

...................
................ There’s a list of tasks - in addition to cleaning, sandblasting and repainting the bottom,.......................

'just a note of caution. I've known some times when those new to boat ownership were too eager with abrasive scouring of the hull. If you take off too much of the bottom surface, blasting through the barrier coat, you can be faced with a great expense of restoration.

Welcome to the community and keep us posted of your adventures!

[slfro85]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

'just a note of caution. I've known some times when those new to boat ownership were too eager with abrasive scouring of the hull. If you take off too much of the bottom surface, blasting through the barrier coat, you can be faced with a great expense of restoration.

Welcome to the community and keep us posted of your adventures!

Oh, we plan to hire someone to do the paint removal, and possibly also the repainting. The current paint is unevenly worn and we’re more comfortable having a professional take care of that. My main concern with doing the repainting ourselves is that centerboard. I don’t think we have the right kind of trailer to lower it, so we’ll have to buy/build a cradle or just take it to someone who already has the equipment and experience.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by slfro85

He already has a harness for his lift in the house; I’ll research how to attach that and look into the rest.

Here's a video of the boom being used to remove an engine..
Because of the weight the system used is cumbersome and complicated however for you a line with a clip attached to the end of the boom will suffice, you then use either the main uphaul or topping lift to raise the boom enough for your son to clear the lifelines then swing him in and lower him into the cockpit..
One person operating the mast winch at the mast and cranking the boom up, then feeding the line in a controlled manner to lower.. a second person at the end of the boom to connect, control and situate your son in the cockpit.
As I said.. the video shows the general principle.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?v...FGkMoPXQwunXIg

[slfro85]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Here's a video of the boom being used to remove an engine..
Because of the weight the system used is cumbersome and complicated however for you a line with a clip attached to the end of the boom will suffice, you then use either the main uphaul or topping lift to raise the boom enough for your son to clear the lifelines then swing him in and lower him into the cockpit..
One person operating the mast winch at the mast and cranking the boom up, then feeding the line in a controlled manner to lower.. a second person at the end of the boom to connect, control and situate your son in the cockpit.
As I said.. the video shows the general principle.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?v...FGkMoPXQwunXIg

Thanks for that! I’ll watch it later today and save it for future reference.

[Fore and Aft]

slfro85 I wonder if you can find an old wheelchair suited to your son and then modify it to suit the cockpit seat? It's your own yacht so who cares if you have a few extra bolts with wing nuts to help hold down the seat? The wing nuts idea is so you can easily remove the seat when your son is not onboard.
This image below seems to be some sort of modified chair, that guy looks fairly mobile but that is the sort of thing I was thinking. Your biggest issue will be making sure your sons head is low enough to clear the boom.
We used to winch Dick aboard using the main halyard, but he was mobile enough to be able to fend himself of the topsides.
I like the boom idea and I could not see why you could not winch your lad onboard and onto a modified chair at the boat ramp then launch the yacht.
I just had another thought. We have Sailability here in Australia for disabled sailors and they have a crane for lifting wheelchair sailors onboard. I wonder if there is a facility like that near your boat ramp?
Cheers

[wolfgal]

Hey girl,

I'm tackling your post another angle: you love your man. you have a family. the dream is for the family to enjoy sailing together.

The thing about boats:
they can either bond a couple to eternity-and-back or smash that couple into smithereens.

Why? because, while good times on a boat are exponentially more wonderful than good times on land, bad times on a boat are exponentially worse than they are on land.

The trick to forging an eternity-and-back bond lies in truly sharing/embracing in this exponential enjoyment together, when it comes and dealing with the bad times when they come, as a team. From the get-go out there, you need to focus on forging good teamwork patterns based on mutual respect and creating a kindness dynamic in which you accomplish together and grow together.

yes, maintaining your marriage is more tricky on a boat than on land

So while he's fixing that boat, you've got a few things you need to do on your own (kids to babysitter):

You need take sailing lessons with a female sailing teacher, WITHOUT your hub.

You need to get out on the water on beautiful days and embrace the wonderfulness you will find there. And you will: even if you have never been a water person, you can appreciate so many other things. Sailing satisfies pilots, nature lovers, poets/writers, philosophers, meditators, gymnasts, athletes, nurses/docs, safety-freaks, environmentalists, minimalists, campers, mechanics, electricians, seamstresses, plumbers, stargazers, circus families, tech nuts, weather bugs, cooks... and, yes, mothers, as it will be wonderful for your kids.

And seriously, with a female teacher, you will learn so much more easily (women learn differently than men). You can learn to sail yes, but you can also learn to dock the boat. You can learn to do a few essential knots. you can learn to determine where you are (when it looks like you are nowhere) and read a compass. There are lots of skills that a teacher can teach you that will make sailing fun for you, that you can then share with the kids once on board together. Getting these skills down ahead of time will amplify your pleasure, willingness and self-confidence and (must i say it again?) SAVE your couple!

Once you feel the love for sailing, you will be on your way. But there is so much more you can learn. If you have the interest, you could learn about weather systems and navigational aids. You can learn to do repairs on the boat. boats have an array of systems to chose from: plumbing, electricity, engine mechanics, sewing, woodwork, metal work... all this is actually very interesting and doable for a female!

You know you love your man. Once you learn the basics and really enjoy sailing the boat with him, you'll see, over and over and over again, how much he adores you! Sailing lessons = a great investment!

Good luck girl!!




wolfie

[boatman1975]

Congrats and welcome! The photos are wonderful!