small boat cruising?

[rtbates]

Originally Posted by Lostmt

Hi,
I am think of buying a 1973 23' Clark San Jaun. It has main, jib, spinnicker swing keel. Would this be a good sailboat for an older person to learn to sail on the Texas coast. No major cruising just up and down the coast.

Thanks

Absolutely. Simply start with easy day sails and expand as you gain confidence.

[Lostmt]

Thanks for the reply. I'll look further into this one I know that is for sale.

Take care

[hatteras]

Take a look at, Solo-Sailor....One Woman's Solo-Circumnavigation of the World
This young lady is about to sail around the world in a Flicka 20' on New Years Day 2008 !

[Lostmt]

I hope she makes it. Nope on the 21'' as the refit would cost 3 grand or so on the one I looked at yesterday. Still looking.

[oldsalt_1942]

I was the lucky owner of a Kaiser 26. I know that most have never heard of it, but there were only 26 ever built and I had #24. I did see one other in Marathon, FL. The Kaiser was extremely sturdily built and very traditional lines.

This story goes back to '91 when I was looking for a boat to sail to Belize. I spent months looking for something suitable and learned that there were a lot of boats out there that I didn't want to own. I traveled from the middle Keys to Tampa Bay and Melbourne. (I should say that at this stage of my life I had been a professional skipper of yachts and small commercial craft, sail and power for 18 years and spend another half dozen years repairing them. I'd also recently completed a trans-Atlantic on an 85' ketch I'd been running for four years in France and Spain. I knew what I was looking at with a critical eye.)

One day I went to a small marina on the Miami River to look at a Hershoff 28. Nice boat, loved the classic lines. But she had some rot in the cockpit and a couple of other places. Not much, and nothing I couldn't fix myself. But I didn't want to spend the time and the money would be better used in the sailing kitty.

There were three docks at the marina, and at the end of one was a lovely little red sailboat. She sported a nice teak bow sprit and handsome stainless steel railings. a CQR was hauled up tight in the sprit and the chain attached to it lead to a manual windlass. An oversized Danforth was lashed down on chocks set in between a set of jack stays that ran back to the cockpit. A clistening stainless steel tiller was topped off with some fancy knot work.

She had a trunk cabin with six opening ports that I could see and she sported a pretty wine-glass transom. A Navic self-steering vane sat on her pretty transom along with an outboard motor bracket. Actually I counted that a plus since it would be less expensive without a diesel.

She had a nice dodger over the main hatch area. The hatch had doors instead of drop boards. A small solar panel sat forward of the hatch.

I probably spent an hour looking over every inch of that honest to god "pocket cruiser" and was very envious of whoever owned her.

About a month later on a Friday morning I saw a blurry picture in Sailboat trader for a 26 footer, and though a little smaller than what I was looking for, I called the number.
I was told that where the boat was kept wasn't available on the weekends and the broker agreed to meet me first thing Monday morning.

When we got together the broker asked me if I knew where such and such marina was and it was the same one where I'd looked at the Hershoff. We got to the marina and walked down to that beautiful red sloop. "There she is," the broker said. I couldn't believe it! The sailboat also came with a 10' brand new hard-bottom Avon and an 8 hp Suzuki oil-injected engine. Inside there were 2 VHF radios, single sideband receiver, clock, barometer pencils, dividers and even a flute which I used to play when I was in high school.

The main anchors had 125' of chain rode. And there were two other smaller anchors in the lazarette. She had a mainsail, 150 genny, a working jib and a storm jib.

Bottom line? Are you ready for this?????? $6,000.00 for everything!!

I added a two burner propane stove to the sea swing stove, put netting in the life lines, did her bottom (full keel drawing 4' and a rudder you could have turned into a table and sat four comfortably).

I took off for nine months and went to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala and back to Fort Lauderdale. I lived on her (she had 6' headroom and I'm only 5'9" tall so she was plenty big enough for me) for another 5 years. It broke my heart when I fell in love, moved on shore and sold her. Now I have neither broad nor boat. Woe is me!

But I retire in about 6 month and am on the hunt again. If I ran across another Kaiser 26 I'd buy it in a heartbeat. She balanced so well that when tweeked just right she'd sail for hours without the windvane or toucing the helm.

[Amgine]

Love the story, Old Salt 1942! It's tales like this that make me regret this coming spring...

After some repairs on the hard, and some beautifying, my Cape Dory 25D will be going up for sale... <sigh> I've had 4 lovely seasons, but plans for the long distance cruise just keep getting delayed. She's much to blue a boat to keep her at the dock, so maybe someone else will be able to taker further than I have time for.

[Liberty28]

We're in the process of purchasing a Liberty 28 cutter. Only approximately 30 made. Factory finished and 6-tons of stability. We're shipping it down to Port Charlotte for storage. We plan on driving down in the late fall and spending our winters in some lower latittudes! Marinas look cheap when you compare the costs to land-based accomodations. Spend a month in Key Largo during the races and work our way up to Key Largo, where we used to live. Gawd, not working (as in retirement) is great!!!

[oldsalt_1942]

Don't know if it's mentioned on any other threads, but absolutely the best book ever written about small boat cruising is Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach : A Philosophic and Practical Approach to Cruising. It may change your life...within reason their philosophy is "take the boat you have and GO!"

[oldsalt_1942]

Should have mentioned the authors: Don Casey and Lew Hackler and off course it's available on Amazon and other sites.

[dcstrng]

<The Thoreau Approach…>

Yep, good book -- I’ve had that book in my library for many years… over all I agree with `em on most counts, my only quarrel is my sense (and it’s only that, don’t recall them ever saying it…) that the “going small” is almost a creed with them, and they often seem to gloss over the pure utility of smallishness in trying to emulate an aquatic Walden’s Pond experience… nonetheless a good read, and I thumbed through it again in the last month or so…

When my bride and I happened onto our semi-derelict, lilliputian Bristol, I have to admit I thought of is as mostly a transitory experiment and a steppingstone back to larger craft, but as we’ve puttered away with her, the little boat is growing on us and I think we’ve pretty much changed to the point where we enjoy her for what she is… pretty hardy, a tad utilitarian in some areas, but sea-kindly and compared to my larger boats a piece of cake to work on – not to mention, everything just costs less, anchors, chain, rigging, sails, you-name-it… in some cases a lot less…

[s/v Breakaway]

Originally Posted by oldsalt_1942

Don't know if it's mentioned on any other threads, but absolutely the best book ever written about small boat cruising is Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach : A Philosophic and Practical Approach to Cruising. It may change your life...within reason their philosophy is "take the boat you have and GO!"

That is also one of my favorite books, can go back to it from time to time to re-read a section.

Old Salt - nice tale about your boat; enjoyed it. Take care

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by s/v Breakaway

That is also one of my favorite books...

A few other writers who seem to be able to appreciate the “down-to-earth” and “unpretentious” are Peter Tangvald, the Pardy’s of course and Bernard Moitessier. They don’t all necessarily advocate smallish craft, but they do seem to be comfortable sailing the less complicated vessel … which is easier to do in the limited real estate of reality-sized craft, than in larger vessels where (speaking for myself) one seems tempted to fill up all that space with titillating things; glittery, shiny, technologically avant-garde or complicated … The Pardy’s seemed driven to yacht finish and the bright work on their vessels shows it, but Tangvald and the better known Moitessier seemed to prize rough and ready effectiveness a bit more…

[Delezynski]

Rtbates,

YOU CAN DO IT! CD is a nice boat. You might take a look at our web pages, Nor'Sea Guenevere's Adventures, main page.

Jill and I moved aboard our Nor'Sea 27 in 1996 in the San Francisco Bay area. We are now cruising Mexico.

GO FOR IT!
Greg AND Jill

[Squeaks]

I might as well throw my hat in this ring too.
Back in the late 70's my wife and I trucked our 23-ft twin-keeled English Westerly (5'10' headroom) up to Puget Sound for 5-months of wonderful cruising. Two years later we trucked her to Texas for 2-1/2 years of great cruising to Maine/FL/NY barge canal. Wouldn't trade that experience. The small size was never a problem but might have been if we had taken office jobs instead of more casual work. Still looking to sail the "big boat" (Golden Gate 30) to Mexico and have the Westerly or similar for summers in Puget Sound.
Keep it simple!

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by Delezynski

You might take a look at our web pages ...aboard our Nor'Sea 27

Yep – these were on my “to do” list – thanks for the reminder… was as much intrigued by the Nor'Sea 27 as anything… can’t imagine ever cruising those waters, but the priorities of successful voyages without the assistance of a full cruising-condo always intrigues me