Cruisers With Kids in PNW?

[clausont]

We are wondering if there are cruising families in the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon. It would be nice to be able to get together with them at times so the kids could get to know each other.
Thanks

[svTOTEM]

We are a cruising family with 3 kids (-Niall, 8 -Mairen, 5 -Siobhan, 3); a little north of you though, in Puget Sound. We're leaving in 2008 for Mexico and points beyond.

We always enjoy meeting other cruising families. I don't know if we'll have the possibility to get together, but will keep it in mind if heading through Oregon. What are your cruising plans?

[TAREUA]

WE ARE A CRUISING FAMILY IN THE NORTH PUGET SOUND, WITH 3 KIDS TOO. CAVAN -8 TOMMY-6 AND SOPHIA 4. OUR PLAN IS TO HEAD SOUTH IN 2009.

[svTOTEM]

Great! Maybe we can meet this summer on the sound. Our boat is currently in Alameda, but I hope to have her here in a few weeks -weather dependant. We're on Bainbridge Island, but cruise from Olympia up to the Gulf Islands.

[clausont]

Currently we are still in the planning stages of cruising. We hope to have a sailboat in th ewater by the end of summer or next spring to do some short coastal cruises. Possibly in a couple of years, we will be ready to head to Mexico for the first time on the water. It would be great if our kids (we have 5) could get to know other cruising kids ahead of time so that they could get a good perspective of cruising from other kids standpoints.

[Charlie]

Hello All:

We have 2 kids Marina (10) and Keegan (9). Our boat is currently in Sidney BC. We are planning a cruise to Desolation Sound leaving on June 19th and returning to Sidney on June 30th for Canada Day and then the Fourth of July in the San Juans.

Clausont we will be working our way down the coast in September keeping the boat in Astoria and then coming down the coast or maybe trucking the boat from Portland.

In Oct 2008 we hope to have the boat ready to cruise Mexico and possibly beond.

[TAREUA]

Clausant, cruising with 5 kids?!! You are officially my hero. What's one more hull than a trimaran? It might be the boat to look for. My wife and I were working on the boat yesterday (what else) and we were fending off questions from the kids at the rate of about one every eight seconds. 'How could we have ever thought there were any hard parts to cruising before, without kids?' my wife asked at one point, adding to the unanswerable question backlog.
Charlie, we trucked our previous, smaller, boat to Dana Point from Newport,OR after sailing there from Seattle, and after breaking both self steering systems and a shaft coupling (on a drift net). It was a great decision for us, because we didn't have to worry about getting down the coast in Oct/Nov. and could make all the repairs to the stuff we thought we had ready before, in warm weather.
Perhaps we'll see you on the water this summer.

[clausont]

Tareua - Don't count us as a hero yet - we have yet to make it as far as the bar. Or on the water for that matter. Am I a little optimistic in thinking of cruising with 5 kids? I don't know. We will find out for sure when we start taking them all out on short day sails stretching longer here and there. As for myself and the older kids, they are ready to go anytime. Mama may be a little more hesitant. She has never been around boats very much although she did love the times that she has been out on small power boats.
We hope to buy a small monohull for some daysailing. So far the only thing that I find in the way of a project boat for this is a Catalina 27 with a stuck A-4. But I may go ahead and get that although it is a bit small. I would prefer 30' or better for daysails with the family. I think that even that may get a little cramped at times.
Any suggestions or thoughts?
Hope to see you all on the water later this summer.

[TAREUA]

Good luck with the boat search Clausont. The internet really has changed everything for the boat shopper. There are so many great boats and great deals out there, don't be in too much of a hurry to settle on a boat. My first boat and my current boat were both bought from people who intended to go cruising and then chose not to leave. That left them (and me) with an over rigged boat with brand new sails. Are you looking for a boat for now, and another boat for cruising later? You could always do your day sailing in a dinghy (fast, fun, cheap), and then wait on the cruising boat. It isn't too long of a drive to Olympia, if you want to keep your boat in an easier place to sail than the river or off the coast. The boat my wife and I originally cruised on was a 1979 Cascade 29(I saw one again recently and it looked like a canoe 'we crossed oceans in that?'), and the boat I bought last year is a 1973 Islander41. Cruising in foreign countries is all about working on your broken boat, and eventually it either breaks you, or you end up really enjoying it. It turns out I love working on boats and love making an old boat look and swim better than ever. That isn't for everyone.
I don't think cruising with five kids is any crazier than cruising with three, and it might be less crazy than crusing with one. I've always been a plastic monohull guy, but you might take a look at a trimaran too. You'll get stuck hosting all the evenings with the other cruising-with-kids boats though!

[clausont]

Tareua - Right now I am looking for a monohull in the 30' - 35' range. This boat is to be an interim boat for us to do some short coastal daysails and perhaps a short hop from one harbor to the next for maybe a year or 2. That will determine if we are ready to go fo longer cruises (I believe that we will). I have found 4 so far that I have been interested in. One 30' Newport - trying to get it hauled up here from L.A. has proven to exceed the cost of the boat and so it stil sits there. A Seafarer 31' that I have to look at still - Price? free for the taking. A bare hull, mast, sails and engine. Sounds like a good start to me. We will see.
A 37' Atkins or Atkinson with a diesel that has been underwater and then just sat (stripped hull with leaking decks)
and a 30' Lancer that has sat on the hard (on a trailer) for 15 years with the hatch open and no engine in it. But so far the owner hasn't given an answer as to what he wants for it.
For a cruising boat, I think that we will probably want a trimaran in the 40' - 45' range. But this is a long way off yet and is only a guess so far.
As for a dingy? We have a 15' Chrysler Man-O-War (Laser style) that we sail on the local reservoir, Myself and the kids LOVE it but mama is not fond of it after it decided to jump out from under her when she tried to get into it the first time (But that is another story )
While we were down in Mexico (near Ambergris Cay, Belize) last week, we took the sea kayaks out and the kids loved that also. It was alot of fun.
I will find something as long as I do not give up. And I will not give up.

[TAREUA]

WISH I'D BEEN IN MEXICO LAST WEEK, I'M GETTING PRETTY TIRED OF THE 8TH CONSECUTIVE MONTH OF CRAPPY WEATHER HERE. IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE LOOKING AT A LOT OF BOATS THAT WILL TAKE YOU TWO YEARS TO GET READY TO DAYSAIL, BUT MAYBE YOUR FIVE KIDS ARE A LOT MORE HELPFULL THAN MY THREE (LAST WEEK ONE OF THEM CONTRIBUTED TO THE CAUSE BY KICKING OVER A FULL CAN OF CETOL ONTO THE DECK).
THERE IS A BOOK OUT ABOUT A COUPLE WHO RESTORE AN OLD ATKINS SLOOP, BUT YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO HEAR IT TOOK THEM SIX YEARS! GOOD LUCK ON FINDING THE RIGHT BOAT!

[clausont]

Well, you may be right Tareua. But I hope to have one in the water by next summer. I am getting the Seafarer 31. It appears that someone already started the deck repair. I don't think that helped the cause any by the looks of it. But the boat is essentially complete with many extras and sails that are (supposed to be) in excellent shape.
Time will tell on this.
BTW - The kids and I had a great afternoon sailing on the reservoir in the little Chrysler with a brisk wind blowing. Great fun and we did not even capsize!

[TAREUA]

I sailed for years on a Chrysler Mutineer, and a good friend of mine still owns the boat. I thought they were good boats. Congratulations on the Seafarer! I saw this site Restoration and Enjoyment of a 1974 Seafarer 31 and they sure ended up with a pretty boat. Take some pictures, it would be great to watch your progress.

[clausont]

I think that we would like to have a Mutineer rather than the Man-O-War as it seems that it has a greater beam and would be a little friendlier for mama and the little kids. But we sure have a blast in the Man-O-War!
I have seen this site when I was researching the Seafarer 31 and that is what helped me to decide on getting this one as this is virtually the same repair that is needed on the one that we are getting. It helps to have a step-by-step narrative with pictures on a project like this.
As soon as I have it down here I will post pictures of it and I will go ahead and try to post one tonight.

[clausont]

Ok - scratch that one. I went and looked at in person. I don't feel that there is enough left of her for me to work with. Perhaps someone with LOTS of time, skill and money. That leaves me ouyt on all three points. The current owner was not trying to put anything over on anyone - he seemed very open and honest about the boat when talking to him on the phone and by email.
This boat is still free for the taking for anyone who wants it. But I will be looking for something a little more complete.