First boat that will teach me what I need to know...

[ferrailleur]

I'm currently buying my first keel boat and I'm 74 year-old!
It's a Catalina 27 to be sailed on the upper Chesapeake Bay.
Owning your own boat is priceless.... of course you have to pay for the marina and hauls out and everything but the rewards are great in self-esteem and sense of accomplishment.
Just my two cent.

[scarlet]

I love this question!! It was almost 5 years ago (after a life changing year) that I wanted to retire on a sailboat, and cruise the world. My husband thought I had completely lost my mind, but after a few months, he was on board. Neither of us had ever been on a sailboat. We decided we had 5-7 years to get ready. We decided one gloomy weekend day to take a ride to a marina about an hour away to look at some sailboats, and talk to some people.. and see if we could meet some people who may be willing to take us out on a the lake. Long story short.. we bought a sailboat that very day. How did we decide on a boat? The one we found (an O'day 22) was only $3000... we could pay cash for that.. It was cheap enough, and old enough that if we totally screwed up and sunk it... no big loss.. (LOL) it was small.. with a very simple sail plan.. it was trailerable... and it just looked easy enough to learn on. It has been a great boat for us to learn on. At this point I wish we could buy a bigger one, but we are saving for our cruising boat.

After 4 years.. we have learned to sail our little boat.. gotten 4 ASA certifications... raced... Chartered... and are only about 2 years out from taking off on your dream.. So, I'm excited for you to partake on this journey... having a plan, dream.. goal for your life, brings direction.. excitement and joy to your life. You will love your direction..

[Lihuedooley77]

You have received some excellent suggestions from knowledgeable and experienced sailors.

Totally agree with lessons through a certified sailing club or association. And sailing their larger vessels 30 ft on up.

Several reasons with some additional ideas.

1. You will learn boat systems, problems, emergency situations, and safety and even fire fighting.

2. Before you blast out there and purchase boat, you would be sailing the club's boats on lessons and then on your own. You will find the type and make of vessel that best suits you. And there is a lot to that, topside and below decks. Learn and sail those various boats, and discover what feels good to you.

3. You will learn standing rigging and become very familiar with running rigging, and how it is rigged and what you feel comfortable with. Even to placement of winches, and securing running rigging lines, and ease of reefing the main, and the different reefing systems on different boats.
You will learn about down hauls, travelers, cunninghams, out hauls, and even adjustable backstays. And roller snarlers that actually work .

4. I know you are lake sailing, but some lakes are huge and the weather can rise up and whip your okole. Learn how to not only check wx reports, but to look at wind direction, cloud formations , water conditions, and barometers. All important clues.

5. I will not get into a full on sailing school sylabus, there is so much to learn. Also, as with anything in life, check out the referalls and reviews, written and verbal of the different sailing clubs and associations. Go to the marina, and look over their fleet, and get a sense of their attitude, and the morale of the staff.

You want good instructors who actually care and are dedicated to their profession. They should give you no slack, but still be civil . They should be U.S.C.G. Licensed, a six pac is up to 6 passengers....takes 360 days, documented sea time just to take the written. For more passengers, it takes a 100 ton license, and that requires 720 days at sea documented time.

Go with the pros.

I know of what I speak, as I was a sailing and motor vessels instructor, charter captain, delivery skipper, and leader of flotilas not only ocean passages to our off shore islands in socal, and coastal sailing , but Tahiti, Tonga, and much of the Caribbean.

It took me five years to get my sea time ( 720 days) just to sit for the day and 1/2 written for my original 100 ton. All of our instructors were USCG Licensed captains. Point being, getting licensed instructors who paid their dues and had the persistence and dedication and drive to become USCG captains would be an important factor.

Do all sailors need to get a captains license, of course not, only if they intend to work for hire .

Point being, learning first from a certified sailing club with structured courses and qualified USCG captains, is a good plan to help people to be a safe sailor who practices seamanship . Plus, it is a good idea to get personal on the water experience on many different vessels before you plunk down several thousand dollars for a boat you are not familiar with .

That is all up to each individual, we can only suggest .

Welcome to the sailing life .

[thomm225]

If you are not the type that wants to make learning sailing/boating a job like with formal training courses/classes, it can easily be learned by yourself

When I started boating, I knew the three R's for navigation and how to keep a lawnmower engine running

When I decided to buy a sailboat to race and to learn sailing, I bought a Hobie 16 and used the chart in the link below to know how to adjust the sails.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sail...me9cKDEjSpD-M:

Then I sailed and raced a lot as Skipper plus read a lot about racing and sailing Beach Cats from all the magazine articles and books I could find

[liquidice]

Originally Posted by JMitchell

I'm in the same position as the OP. When I read your reply my initial thought was "thats great advice". Then I went online to and looked up rental costs $200 for a 4 hours rental of an old Catalina 22. Larger and newer boats only get more expensive. I can buy an identical boat for $3900 or less. Thats less than 10 days of practice sailing, any time I want, as long as I want before I'm on the cash+ side of that equation.

As much as I like your idea of learning on other people's boats, I can't "invite myself" to go sailing, and the people I know with boats just arent going sailing that often.

Anyway, I'm following this thread in the hopes of gaining more knowledge before I consider making a move on anything.

Great reply! I sense we are kindred spirits. I got into CF after I bought my first boat. There are many great resources here, and I might have done some things differently had I known. This is my 4th season sailing on Lake Michigan out of Chicago on a Catalina Capri 25 that I acquired for a low price on craigslist. I have learned a lot about sailing and even more about boat ownership. I will share some of my insights.

1) annual storage/mooring/launching/hauling
These costs go up, seemingly logarithmically, based on length and location. After the initial purchase, these costs will quickly become your major cash outlay. I spend more annually keeping the boat as I did on my initial purchase. That’s ok, and nothing is free. However, after 4 years of care and feeding, I can see where another 1-2k (and some CF insight) on the initial purchase might have put me in something a little chunkier, maybe with an outboard motor well, that made the atomvoyages good old boats list...
The point is that you should do a costs projection/spreadsheet that goes out 3 years at a minimum. I was lucky and got a great, relatively problem free boat for cheap, but after a few years, I see I could’ve gotten something heavier, slower, and sturdier, but more in line with my long term goals, than the boat I have, and the costs would have evened out by now. Still...

2)love the one you’re with
Whatever boat you end up with, learn to love it for what it is. Learn everything about it. Max it out. Sail it as much as you can. Bring people out for a sail. Create memories. Singlehand it. Improvise an autopilot. For me, working on my boat is fun. I like optimizing the systems and making small improvements. There’s always a boat that looks like it’s more fun and fulfilling than yours. But to the guy I saw Sunday, furiously pumping on the pedal kayak and struggling with both hands on the little sail while the jetskis circled and the powerboats honked, wondering if he was leaving the harbor on purpose, my humble boat looked pretty great. Every boat has advantages. Inboard vs outboard is a big one, as are draft and mast characteristics. For me, I store mast up, which is a savings, and with an outboard on a mount, I can easily repower for hundreds by swapping out motors. 4’ of fin keel makes hauling out harder, (I pay for the crane)but sailing in Lake Michigan more comfortable. I was out and sailing for a month and a half before some of my harbor mates had stepped their masts. A bigger boat might have new things to learn about, but I have learned a lot on my boat and I imagine much of the knowledge will transfer, and the time I have spent will not have been wasted.


3)no motor, no boat
I’ve learned a lot about outboards because that’s what my boat has. If/when I graduate to an inboard, gas or diesel, I’ll learn all about it. The details will differ, but the philosophy of embracing and learning all about my motor will be the same. The fact of the matter is, launch, dock, or mooring, if you can’t move away from it after freeing up the lines, or towards it after a great sail, you’ve got a serious problem. I’m all for sailing off a mooring and for having the seamanship to sail back to it. However I’ve found that other boat owners [now my peers] take a dim view of such displays and prefer the “surer thing” of docking under power, for themselves and their neighbors. First week of May, when only one or two other boats are around, sure, sail around the harbor. 4th of July weekend? A risky proposition. My point is, regardless of sailing characteristics, if your boat has no power, you probably won’t want to leave the dock, so pick something that you think you can keep running, one way or another, by money, or sweat equity, or sheer force of will. [Turning myself into a competent shade tree mechanic for outboards over the last few years has been great for my sailing- some lucre from buying and selling outboards, keeping my boat reliably powered and even having a backup motor that I can leave in the garage or even stow, and being a sought after character at the harbor for my $.02]

I’m excited for you and the OP. Sailing has been a positive force in my life, and being a boat owner has been great. Please keep posting as you go, and fair winds.

[ferrailleur]

Originally Posted by thomm225

If you are not the type that wants to make learning sailing/boating a job like with formal training courses/classes, it can easily be learned by yourself

When I started boating, I knew the three R's for navigation and how to keep a lawnmower engine running

When I decided to buy a sailboat to race and to learn sailing, I bought a Hobie 16 and used the chart in the link below to know how to adjust the sails.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sail...me9cKDEjSpD-M:

Then I sailed and raced a lot as Skipper plus read a lot about racing and sailing Beach Cats from all the magazine articles and books I could find

great post..... READ, GOOGLE, YOUTUBE.... and stick with this forum....
Happy Sailing!

[JMitchell]

Originally Posted by liquidice

..... I have learned a lot about sailing and even more about boat ownership. I will share some of my insights.

1) annual storage/mooring/launching/hauling
These costs go up, seemingly logarithmically, based on length and location. After the initial purchase, these costs will quickly become your major cash outlay. I spend more annually keeping the boat as I did on my initial purchase. ......

2)love the one you’re with
Whatever boat you end up with, learn to love it for what it is. Learn everything about it. .......


3)no motor, no boat
I’ve learned a lot about outboards because that’s what my boat has. If/when I graduate to an inboard, gas or diesel, I’ll learn all about it. ......

I’m excited for you and the OP. Sailing has been a positive force in my life, and being a boat owner has been great. Please keep posting as you go, and fair winds.

I hope I'm not intruding too much on the OP's thread. Hopefully my thoughts here will serve to help and not distract.

You have given some excellent insight and concerns for the aspiring boat owner. My next boat wont be my first, but will be my first sailboat so its close enough! I had an '83 Searay with a cuddy. I didnt know anything when I bought it, but I certainly learned fast!