58 and learning to sail

[LTDsailing]

Congratulations on your retirement! Learning to sail will open up lots of possibilities to you! If you are interested in doing a live aboard sailing course in the Caribbean - take a minute to check out our website: Caribbean Sailing School and Skippered Yacht Charters | LTD Sailing

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you with your sailing plans.

Beam winds,

Chris

[UrsusMajor]

I'm 56 and in the same place almost. (Not yet retired!) The USCG Aux gives training classes and I've found the members are willing to talk sailing and boating at length.

[Smokeys Kitchen]

I took my first sailing class when I was 58. My wife and I then joined a local sailing club and finished going through the ASA series up to 105 (Coastal Navigation). The classes were pretty good for getting an overall look at how all the sailing stuff works, but the thing that really got us the biggest bang for the buck was going on several of the race series that the club participated in. It increased our working knowledge exponentially in just a short period. We would also take one of the club boats out for 2 weeks in the summer (besides weekend sailing) and do a trip that we planned ourselves in the local San Juan or Gulf Islands. The racing experience really helped us to get a good handle on how to sail the boat and the summer cruises allowed us to focus on trip planning and navigation.

[chuckr]

At 55 took my first sailing lesson - ASA101 - then followed up that with a vacation for a week and more ASA lessons -- then I chartered a couple of times and then bought a brand new 40' Jeanneau DS40 -- that was a long time ago - now 30k nm later, a sailing both sides of the Caribbean, a 2 person Atlantic crossing and now enter year 4 in the Med all we can say is

Just do - take the lessons and push the boundries -

[denn]

Originally Posted by mrichmon

I'm 43, had a desire to learn to sail since a teenager.

This past Feb my wife and I took one week off work to earn our ASA 101 and ASA 103 qualifications. There is a lot of stuff to learn in these courses and we are just about comfortable with taking a boat out by ourselves.

For me, starting to learn to sail has been a great decision. I thoroughly enjoyed the classwork and the couple of days I've been out since then as crew.

Finding a club that holds events for non-boat owning sailors, or building a network of sailing friends is very helpful. The more opportunities to get out on the water, the more you will learn.

Good luck.

my wife & i are doing the same this July here in NJ. she's 50, i'll be 47. nervous but very excited! learning all the new terminology is a bit daunting

[Sailor Doug]

Buy a 14' laser or sunfish and go sail it in any local pond. Inexpensive and as the boats get bigger they are easier to sail but the mistakes expensive.


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[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Sailor Doug

Buy a 14' laser or sunfish and go sail it in any local pond. Inexpensive and as the boats get bigger they are easier to sail but the mistakes expensive.


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this is a long standing dispute on this board. I do not agree - we had never been on a sailboat until we took asa lesson in dec 2000 and mar 2001. we chartered a few times then bought a brand new Jeanneau DS40 in 2003. We never looked back. We have sailed the east coast of the usa 2 1/2 times, all the Bahamas twice, from the usa to mexico to Colombia to Jamaica to Trinidad to Antigua to a 2 person crossing of the atlantic to now enter year 4 in the Med.
We may not be the greatest sailors around but we are good enough to get around so far

[Vronsky]

Looking back, I would have started with motorboating, i.e. learning how to handle/manoever a motorboat. Sailing is no rocket-science, but becomes even easier if you already know how boats work and behave.

[Sailor Doug]

Originally Posted by chuckr

this is a long standing dispute on this board. I do not agree - we had never been on a sailboat until we took asa lesson in dec 2000 and mar 2001. we chartered a few times then bought a brand new Jeanneau DS40 in 2003. We never looked back. We have sailed the east coast of the usa 2 1/2 times, all the Bahamas twice, from the usa to mexico to Colombia to Jamaica to Trinidad to Antigua to a 2 person crossing of the atlantic to now enter year 4 in the Med.

We may not be the greatest sailors around but we are good enough to get around so far

What is the dispute? For $500 you can buy a small sailboat, sail it for a season and likely sell it for $500. It is not the only way and not the complete way but a good starting point.


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[TurninTurtle]

I tend to recommend renting until you know you are going to sail enough to be worth buying.

Lessons help.

Some rental places want some indication you know what you are doing before you rent the boat.
For the small beginner boats its usually just a few questions on basic operation and how to tack (so they don't have to tow you back in)
For larger boats they may require some level of certification.

You can rent a Sunfish for a day... learn quite a bit. Dump it a bunch of times and have fun.

Rent something the size of a Laser and learn some more... I'd dump it once just to get the feel, but they aren't as easy to get back upright solo. (longer, heavier mast)

Rent the size you think you want... From dumping the smaller boats you'll have a bit of a feel for when to unload the sails to prevent going over.

Remember that if you buy a boat with fixed keel or above about 20 ft even with a swing keel... trailering and stepping the mast for a couple hourts of sailing can get to be annoying and you'll probably want to rent a slip.
This is where people get in trouble... they buy a boat that has to be in a rented slip and don't use it.
It becomes a hole in the water demanding to be filled with money and it leaks.

Too many boats sit tied up, never used, slowly rotting. By the time you quit paying the slip fee the boat is in bad shape and the marina getting a lien so they can auction/sell it ends up with them having it hauled off for demolition.

So... RENT until you prove you will use it enough to really be worth buying.

[MDCurrie]

great input from all. i really appreciate everyone advice and comments. We have booked our first 3 day over night adventure in May on a 30 foot Hunter with Skipper for 3 days of sail training and living on board. I am excited about getting out of the slip and into the blue.

[Mirage35]

Have a great time and let us know how it goes.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by MDCurrie

great input from all. i really appreciate everyone advice and comments. We have booked our first 3 day over night adventure in May on a 30 foot Hunter with Skipper for 3 days of sail training and living on board. I am excited about getting out of the slip and into the blue.

Bully on you -- have a great time and learn learn learn you young whipper snapper