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Date:         Fri, 9 Sep 2011 19:08:25 -0700
Reply-To:     Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject:      Re: Westy Now, Boat Soon? (Friday)
Comments: To: Steve Williams <sbw@SBW.ORG>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=response

hot dog, it's Friday. I have some pretty solid experience with sailboats.. having owned two, and having sailed the snot out of San Francisco Bay and the Gulf of the Farallones , and 'doing sailboats' as hard as I could for 7 years or so.

for one thing .. Subscribe to Latitude 38 .. it sure should still exist. It's out of Marin County California ...Mill Valley specifically .. and that area is one of 'the' sailing , ocean cruising , and racing venues of the world.

And Latitude 38 is flat out the best overall sailing magazine I have ever seen , by far. It's free at many West Marine Stores .. it's not glassy - fancy ...it's home grown sorta .. and every kind of sailing information you could ever want. I'm sure you can read back issues on line. http://www.latitude38.com/index.lasso

whether it's rigging, living aboard, the Cruising Lifestyle .. electrical, sail rigs ....boat repair ....navigation .. you name it, it's in that magazine.

People do of course cruise and live aboard full time as a life style.. which sounds like what you might seek. That can range from a small say 20 foot pocket yacht and shoestring budget .. there 'were' even ...people who cruised the world with no engine on their sailboat even ... it can be that low cost and nearly free.... of course the there are people with half million dollar boats and it costs them a grand a month overall just to cruise around .. but you could .. you could gunkhole in all kinds of interesting waters for near free for a long, long time. A sailboat can travel for totally free of course.. just the cost of provisions , a little fuel. and if your smart and careful, and keep the boat semi-modest there's barely any repair or upkeep costs.

hey now you got me wanting that lifestyle. I would probably keep it fairly simple....even local some. But people do a whole thing anchored in Mexican bays for the winter.. taking the dinghy into town to do laundry once a week.. buying fish from fishermen who come right to their boat .. and there is the fees and bureaucratic and insurance side of it too.. and theft .. even piracy ....depending on where you go ..and how big a target you are.. it sounds like you'd want to keep it modest though.

I read about a guy in Latitude 38 ...people write in with their cruising stories .. there was a guy ...like 70 years old.....a slender and tough as could be .. he lived on grains he ground himself.. his entire budget for an whole year of living was probably less than 500 dollars.

Do it while you can ! I owned my first sailboat before I ever sailed or was on one. Big learning curve at first.. I studied everything I could ..I still have those books, I bugged everyone I could , learning all I could about sailing ...in a few years I was able to sail my boat on it's ear in rippin' winds and white caps , in total control.. oh ..another thing about sailing.. it's like fishing ..you don't think about anything else when you're doing it. it's entirely intoxicating that way. Working on the boat, like at a dock in a Marina ....usually totally relaxing .. people on boats are usually in a good mood...there are no cars right there. Some people live on their boat in marina's.... there's always some 'politics' about that .. marina's only allow so many live-aboard etc.. some people sneak living aboard at marina's ... there's anchoring out too .. those that has its risks. What I did find .. with a real boat ..like a keep type 'in-the-water' sailboat.. you have to either be sailing it somewhere.. or pay to park it in a safe place.. or anchor out, which has risks...

what I would suggest as a starter place is a trailerble ( and trailer launchable) boat with a centerboard .. If you keep it on a trailer when not using it .. and you have a place to park it...it's free. You can drive it somewhere like say Baja and sail and camp for weeks if you want... And a centerboard boat can go in really shallow water.. and if you run aground.. not big deal, you raise the centerbooard and off you go. A keep boat can be stuck ........or even have to wait for hours for the tide to go back up .

that would be the first desescion ( like gas or diesel for a vanagon ) ... a 'real' in-the-water keel sailboat ..or a trailerable centerboard boat. For power ....there's a lot to be said for an outboard engine .. far simpler systems than an inboard engine boat has.

another factor for me at least ..is where to have a boat to hang out on, live on perhaps, sail as much as possible...and where the climate is decent and it's not overly crazy or crowded with people. There's lots of nice places ........just with gajillions of people sometimes.

You should see San Franciso Bay on a good rippin' summer day .....hundreds of sail boats .. it's one of the best sailing venues anywhere.. and given the strong currents and rip tides, and strong winds at times.....and all that...they say if you can sail there, you can sail anywhere.

My biggest challenge is where to do it that's not real cold , and not too crazy at the same time.

Nomadness looks awesome. A lotta fancy sailboat there apparently. You can have more fun than they will at 1/10th the cost if you do it right ... sailboats don't have to be 40 feet or anything like that. there are 20 foot Pocket Cruisers that do just fine. Dana 20 might be one. Rugged strong small genuine cruiser sailboat.

yeah, I can get sailboat fever really badly ! get a few more vanagons fixed and sold.. find the right boat, the right people and the right place....yeah !

fixer uppers can be cheap too. Fiberglass is the best overall for rugged and easy to maintain. there's steel and aluminum .. and their wood .................wooden boats are a whole world unto themselves ...let practical but very sensual.

I had a change to get a Ranger 30 I think...some 'standard' fiberglass inboard sailboat for $ 3,000 ...needed work...but that's not too large a starting sum.. I mentioned it to someone else in california .. they said they were giving boats away like that where he was. Many just fall into not being used.. they're easy to pick up actually for not much. I'd want in the 28 foot max size probably . as they get bigger.. they carry more, are more comfortable ......go faster .. everything 'better' ...but everything costs exponentially more for it ...sails, winches, engines , system etc. Simple and modest is good. Actually....... the simpler a sailboat is the more fun and reward you will have ..by far ! Complexity is expensive and stressful. Especially in sailboats as they get bigger.

I had a 24 foot Islander Bahama keel sailboat ..very heavy duty fiberglass .. a used Jib I got for it cost 10 bucks. My kinda modestly. And you'll find the sailing community is a whole lifestyle unto itself. You can get free sailing just by crewing in sailboat races. Many sailboat owners need crew to help them operate the boat. ( though a smart fella can sail a 60 footer alone just fine ) ..

There are people that make a whole life out of being crew on cruising sailboats. Out in the ocean a boat is sailed day and night on a passage. A boat-owning couple can't do that very well by themselves.. they are always looking for crew members to help keep the boat going safely 24/7.

pmail me if you want Steve, and get Latitude 38 immediately.

Scott www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Williams" <sbw@SBW.ORG> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011 4:20 PM Subject: Westy Now, Boat Soon? (Friday)

> For some time now, I've been obsessed with learning enough about > sailboats to acquire one and outfit it for living more independently. > > Of course, that's why I bought my '84 Westy and fixed it up two years > ago. And why I keep refining its camping systems. I've been > traveling full time for two years. I've really enjoyed it. Alas, > I'm starting a full-time job next week and looking for an apartment, > but I hope to be camping most weekends and back on the road eventually. > > But even the Westy doesn't quite scratch the itch I have, to be more > self-reliant and opt out of the traditional job/debt/consume > treadmill. I've thought about building a Sprinter-based camper, > which would be easier to boondock, but adventures in campers with > tires are driven by gas, and I'm not so sure gas will be easy to come > by before long. > > So I've started reading about sailboats and the people who use them > to lead more independent, adventurous lives. I don't know whether or > when I will buy my first boat, but I'm enjoying the learning process. > > If you're curious, here's a good place to start: Nomadness, the ship > being outfitted by Steven K. Roberts, who has a long history of > adventures on recumbent home-built bikes and boats. > > http://nomadness.com/


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