Introduction for me.....

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sailaway
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Introduction for me.....

Post by sailaway »

Hi... new to site, been lurking. Will get to know some of you in the future. I have been enjoying some of the reading. Cheers! Eric
sailaway
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Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by sailaway »

HA! That wasn't much of an introduction......! I am in Tucson (most of my life) and now have sailing bug. Came across this site and thought it might be a good try to get info ( yes... newbie ) Please bear with me as I learn the many things that I need to learn. I will ask many questions and am open to all opinions. Thanks in advance, Eric
Skipper599
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Boat Name: "MACUSHLA"
Boat Type: Passage 24-30 Cutter
Location: Cloverdale in Beautiful BC Canada.

Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by Skipper599 »

sailaway wrote:HA! That wasn't much of an introduction......! I am in Tucson (most of my life) and now have sailing bug. Came across this site and thought it might be a good try to get info ( yes... newbie ) Please bear with me as I learn the many things that I need to learn. I will ask many questions and am open to all opinions. Thanks in advance, Eric

Hello Eric; and welcome to the forum.
It would appear most of the members must be out on the water and are not monitoring the posts. I would be out there too IF my boat were in the water. It is not, simply because it is still under construction.
Where on earth would you be sailing in Tucson? - - - I have a b.i.l. lives in Tucson. He took me all over the place last year when I made my first ever visit - - - I saw lots of Cactus but no water - - - just wondering! - - - I did see a big old sailboat in a storage yard on the outskirts of Tombstone. It was named "Donnybrook" and the hailing port was Seattle - - - Looked like he kinda lost his way home.

Tell us more about yourself. What type of sailing do you want to do? eg: Lake sailing or deep sea? Have you bought a boat yet or even started looking? There are so many great deals on used boats, it shouldn't be too hard to find what you are looking for if you're in the market.
I am: Bob of Wight.

s/v 'Ros Na Cosquin'
a 'Passage - 24'

There are good ships, there are wood ships, and these ships sail the sea

But the best ship, is friendship and may this always be! ... ... ... A prayer from Ireland.
sailaway
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Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by sailaway »

Well, I am 12 years out from retirement. Have done so many motorcycle adventures I am now kind of bored with it. Someone from work recently made it off his 20 year probation and took off to the sea and it has got me to wondering. I have no experience, I have read about crewing to gain some insight and experience. I like the idea of another adventure, and have read many scare stories and many happy stories. I do know from travels on bike that it is what you make of it so that's the underlying motive for me when I get overwhelmed with to much info on the web! I have only seemed to narrowed down any kind of opinion on type of boat, and that I would prefer it to be solid fiberglass ( deck as well?) Something in the 30 - 35 foot range. Be able to go anywhere, meaning ocean passage, sail decently. That being said I am still trying to figure out all the different terms of tall rigs, and the different keels and rudders, tiller vs wheel, sloop,ketch, etc (all still confusing to me at this point)! Found a local sailing club, and they have a meeting ( I will attend ) soon. Hopefully I can make some contacts and start gaining some knowledge. My one issue is what to do while I am daydreaming.... a list of things I should be doing and in what order. I have observed, by reading as much as I can every chance I get, that I seem to be in for a huge learning curve! I have the advantage of time on my side to get where I need to be with the time I have to do it (12 years as opposed to 1 or 2 years )! My only downside is that I think, I have right up front ,is that whatever boat I purchase, may be the one and only boat I ever purchase.....(sigh). Maybe I will have 2 boats .... but, that seems to put me under the gun to at least find a good solid starter boat....for 20K or less. The other thing that keeps rolling through my mind is the fact that some of the boats I have been looking at are going to be another decade older when I get around to the issue of making the purchase! How long will these boats last? (70's vintage).
I am the proverbial newbie and don't want to come right out at this early part of my interest and start asking lots of silly questions but I really don't seem to have a place to turn to out here other than the web and library. The more I look, the more questions I have.....dang! So, I will stop in and frequent the boards and ask questions!!

Eric
sailaway
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Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by sailaway »

Oh! Here is my first question then.... I have read many articles on what boats are best. Okay. So when i look up a mentioned boat ( an xyz 30 for instance ) i get on some models, a dozen and a half different variations of the same length! aaahhhhh.......( more confusion! : ) I just keep plodding along looking, looking, looking.........

eric
Drew
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Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by Drew »

There really is no "best" when it comes to boats. Any design or size is simply a different package of compromises. Not to say that some are not better than others but the intended purpose defines the needed characteristics.

An analogy with cars:

Tasks:
Haul dirt
Save gas
Go fast

Cars:
Prius
Dodge Ram
Corvette

Each of the vehicles does one of the above tasks well but is poor at the other two. It is the same with boats. More complicated but the same theory.

As the above ramble obliquely alludes to; define the requirements prior to selecting a specific boat design or size.

Drew
captphil416
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Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by captphil416 »

Eric; Well you have sure opened the can of worms. You will get plenty of advice most of it contraticdory. I took this same journey as I live in Denver. My choice started with the idea that I wanted a boat that would take care of me despite any errors of judgment I might make. After 3 false starts I settled on a Peason Triton, which filled the need with yeoman sevice. Any boat with Carl Alberg's name attatched and adequite room will fill the bill. There are always the Westsails, and many of the Allieds ( Luders 33, Princess, etc.) will fill the bill. If you can find one, the Nicholsons are great boats. The Nicholson 32 is a classic, and the 35 is a sweetheart, but the 31 is almost a Bristol Channel cutter at a fraction of the cost. ( see J0hn vigors 20 small boats to take you anywhere) Contessa's, Hallbergs, the list is endless. Mostly have fun and make sure you understand every system on your vessel before heading off shore. Fair Winds Phil
TritonSean
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Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by TritonSean »

If you can afford it, you can't beat an Alberg 30... if you can't quite afford that extra two feet. I would go with a Pearson Triton
that's my two cents.

Sean
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Rachel
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Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by Rachel »

I think Drew made a good point. There is a huge world of different boats and purposes. It's kind of like golf clubs, only in golf you can easily buy/carry/maintain a whole bag of different clubs. With boats, you mostly have to choose one club (boat).

To continue the golf analogy, if you could only have one club, it would behoove you to know if you were going to be making mostly long drives vs. mostly putting, or etc.

Again as Drew said, all boats are compromises. You truly can't have it all in just one boat.

Even for seasoned boaters, it's often really hard to know how you will end up using a boat. Oh sure, sometimes you KNOW "I'm going to coastal cruise Florida each winter and that is it, and I need to be able to tow my boat behind X vehicle," or "I'm going to circumnavigate non-stop via the great capes."

For people with this specific focus and knowledge, it's "easy." For many of the rest of us, it's not quite as clear. Or sometimes you *think* you know how you will use a boat, you get one and start using it, and find out that you use it (or wish you could) in a completely different way. Another variation is the person who wants to circumnavigate, but who will be living in Omaha and raising a family of five for the next 20 years. The globe-girdler can potentially be a ball-and-chain in this scenario, as it won't be much fun to sail on small local lakes, and it will require storage/maintenance, and plans might change over two decades.

Of course on the other hand, some people like to get a boat and work on it over that 20-year-period. It's okay to like working on it as much or more than sailing it; where it can be a detriment is if you actually would prefer sailing and have a project - or if you prefer working on projects, and have a sailable boat instead (this one does not occur nearly as often ;).

Boats like the Triton and Alberg 30 are great boats, but they are only one of the myriad of ways to skin the cruising-boat cat, and may or may not be the right boat for you. Frankly, if I had a "larger" budget, I probably would choose something else --- or at the very least consider options.

Most fiberglass boats are going to have cored decks, and they have them for a reason: Fiberglass is "floppy." For a solid fiberglass deck to work as well as a cored one, it has to either be very thick/heavy (and that is weight above the waterline); or it has to have some sort of support beams. A cored deck, on the other hand, can be very stiff and light in comparison, and with no beams to contend with belowdecks (not that beams are bad).

In the grand scheme of buying and outfitting a sailboat for cruising, even fixing a cored deck is not necessarily a deal-breaker in my opinion. A big job for sure, and one that should be reflected in a purchase price and/or boats with compromised decks eschewed. But if you rule out cored decks altogether, you will be ruling out the vast majority of fiberglass boats (by the way, once deck penetrations have been sealed properly, a cored deck is unlikely to become saturated; it's just that many were not sealed properly at the time of construction).

I think if I were you, and trying to absorb and make sense of many features of boats/rigs/styles/terminology, I would get a good book for my library. The Internet is fabulous, but a reference book will lay it all out, and for me would make it easier to sort through things to get the big picture.

Right now I don't have time to look up any titles, but perhaps others will chime in; and I can try to post later tonight with some suggestions too.

Rachel

PS: Although it may seem like double/wasted effort, if you have 12 years to go, I might suggest getting a small/"non-serious" boat, in basically ready-to-sail condition, that you can learn on. I think this would give you some idea of whether you like sailing at all (some people find they don't), and you would also rather quickly begin to form opinions on things you like and don't like. Also you would probably find yourself better able to judge how similar other people's values/outlook were to your own, and this would help you to weight the various opinions you read online or in books, or hear on the docks.
Skipper599
Candidate for Boat-Obsession Medal
Posts: 302
Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:48 am
Boat Name: "MACUSHLA"
Boat Type: Passage 24-30 Cutter
Location: Cloverdale in Beautiful BC Canada.

Re: Introduction for me.....

Post by Skipper599 »

Currently, there are four Alberg 30's for sale on Vancouver, BC, CL. Three are in Point Roberts WA, while the third is in the Gulf Islands BC $12,500 19,500 and $20,000 respectively. All look like a "good buy" or should that be "good bye" - - - to your money?

Look, you can't take it with you, and if you're as fed up with all the doom and gloom as many of us are, buy the boat and go sailing - - - NOW.

Seen on Vancouver BC Craigslist

Aug 5 - 1 Sailboat - 3 different prices - $12500 (Point Roberts)

Jul 30 - 1966 Alberg 30 - $12500 (Point Roberts)

Jul 19 - Ocean Dreams but on a Budget? - $20000 (Point Roberts) pic

Jul 13 - 30 ft Alberg sail boat - $19500 - (Maple Bay) pic
I am: Bob of Wight.

s/v 'Ros Na Cosquin'
a 'Passage - 24'

There are good ships, there are wood ships, and these ships sail the sea

But the best ship, is friendship and may this always be! ... ... ... A prayer from Ireland.
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