Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2011 20:10:06 -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)
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all very true......
and one does not have to go out into the big bad ocean that much to have a
great time on a good small , even modest boat.
overall ...I'd say the boats are better then many of the people operating
them.
There have been many cases of people freaking out in a storm ..
having a hard time with the boat ..
they get rescued..
a few weeks later the boat shows up somewhere with not much damage at all.
and.....one of the very most fascinating parts about it for me is exactly
'the challenge.'..
you can't just pull over and get out if things get challenging.
there is no choice other than..
one 'must' either sail it, motor it, or row it, or anchor it, or lie ahull,
or whatever ...
to keep it working safely.
I have many books on it ..one is Storm Sailing ..
A boat properly operated and fitted out on the ocean ..
can be just fine ..to the point of........if a hurricane is going to hit
...it's safer to be out there sometimes than it is to be in a marina.
For sure ..
many people think it's going to be like driving a car ...like 'sorta
automatic and easy' ..
and being on the ocean ..
you need everything going for you that you can get going ..
entire several hundred feet long steel ships have just disappeared.
you gotta know what you are doing.
and it's still a bit of an odds game out in the ocean ..
there are monster rogue waves out of nowhere..
whales have even attacked and sunk sailboats.
when I was sea kayaking ....something made am impression on me..
they said paddle near the shore ..don't go 'out there' unless it's an
intentional crossing ..
which is why I say ..
one can have a find sailboat life and experience without going out in the
big bad ocean ..
there's lots of semi-inland waters..
the entire Inside Passage in Western Canada for example..
still with hazards for sure ..
and not that crazy either.
Definitely gotta be smart about it ..
and I find that endlessly fascinating.
You gotta do the right thing ...
good boats are amazingly capable too. Ferro Cement .....people thought that
was a cheap way to a world cruiser for a while... a hippie era thing almost
..
I haven't heard much about cement boats for a while.
Not the best material generally.
Boats are endlessly fascinating.
the record small size of sailboat for an Atlantic crossing is 6 feet.
pretty extreme. Not recommended that's for sure !
I'd say real smarts can outdo cubic money in sailing any time. Easily.
Being rich is almost a liability.
Slocum's boat Spray could sail by itself for weeks at a time ..slowly ...but
by itself. He's considered the first Circumnavigator. I'd stay in safer
closer-to home-waters myself.
The sheer independence ..
the 'little world' of your own cozy boat ..
that you master.........that travels to exotic places for very low cost ..
that's the attraction.
It doesn't have to be 50 feet long going to Tahiti ..that's expensive. And
probably not as much fun as your own self-contained 'westy like' medium size
boat.
I just like doing a lot with a little..
cubic money is kinda obscene to me..
If ever there was a place where sheer smarts and creativity can bring big
rewards for modest cost..
it would be in modest to medium size sailboating . Smaller boats can do
things and go places bigger boats never could...and at 1/100th the cost too.
Find out the cost for one winch on a mega yacht ..
which could be many thousands of dollars..
that's your budget target for your entire boat and fitting it out.
and as Don said...they're just sitting around needing new owners. Quite
often. There are many, many forlorn sailboats needing a new owner badly.
And bigger is not necessarily better at all.
of course if you want 5 people on it , you want a good size boat for sure..
but for one or two people...
20 feet something is plenty.
and we haven't even mentioned multi-hulls. That is yet another part of the
sailing world.
There are even fast sailing, trailerable Trimarans with folding ammas..
and they're self-righting too. Too many moving parts though ..and they're
not cheap.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Hanson" <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011 6:58 PM
Subject: Re: Westy Now, Boat Soon? (Friday)
> On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Steve Williams <sbw@sbw.org> wrote:
>
>> For some time now, I've been obsessed with learning enough about
>> sailboats to acquire one and outfit it for living more independently.
>>
>>
>> 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/
>>
>
> I, too have had the sailing dream....but I did more, much more than read
> about it. I worked in a full service yacht yard, learned to build
> traditional wooden boats, delivered yachts for pay, was a 'rock jock'
> (paid
> amateur crew member on very high tech race boats) I built a few boats for
> myself and many for clients of that yard and others...as well as working
> the
> yard for 3 years and watching all the 'Yachties' who came through having
> work done. I worked as a rigger in La Paz, BCS Mexico, too and saw the
> 'cruising life' first hand over about 10 winters down there.
>
> Most who have the "sailing dream"....they never carry through.....95% at
> least give up after spending lots of time and money trying....There are
> literally dozens of semi-abandoned sailboats hanging neglected on anchors
> in
> La Paz harbor at the tip of Baja....People have started their 'world
> cruise'
> and got that far....then decided they really didn't like sailing....or
> they
> got scared offshore...or their "dream boat' that they'd worked on for
> years
> and years.....turned out to be a POS and didn't work very well, except
> tied
> up in a marina slip.
>
> Sailing...living aboard and traveling....it is a tough life, actually.
> You are always 'on watch'...even when anchored, things are being used,
> wearing out, you are at risk... If something goes wrong...you don't just
> pull over and fix it....sometimes you sink and die or lose the whole
> boat...If you find something that interests you ashore, you have to figure
> out what to do with the boat while you go investigate....you can't just
> shut
> off the engine and park it somewhere....
>
> I still will go sailing when I am ready for that life....but I'll go
> knowing exactly what I am getting myself in for and I will go without
> making
> some of the really glaring mistakes I saw as I worked in boatyards...
>
> One of my close friends, who's parents were weekend sailors and owned
> boats all their lives...He called me at the boatyard and asked if I could
> cut loose for a week and help Jack and Shirley (I knew them well from
> other
> sailing trips) on their shake down cruise from Ventura California to Cabo
> San Lucas....They flew me down and I went aboard the 'world cruiser' that
> Jack and Shirley had been living aboard in the Oxnard marina....It was
> awful! A death trap! Jack must have been in the early stages of
> Alzheimer's to think that fero cement tub was a world cruiser.....The son,
> John, talked me into going along anyhow...as far as San Diego or maybe
> Ensenada, so the two of us could keep Jack from killing the two of
> them...they were determined to go anyway...alone if we refused....So we
> went
> and made it to Ensenada....Jack finally realized his boat was not anywhere
> near sea worthy and we powered it back to San Diego where I got them into
> a
> friend's yacht yard to have the boat put right....They finally went as far
> as La Paz and back....their world cruise....
>
> Read up on it..talk to people who've actually done some real cruising..Go
> visit a harbor like La Paz, Hawaii, the Canal Zone, the Caribbean. Check
> it
> out closely and do go on a few sails OFFSHORE. It is a really big bad
> ocean....
> Good luck with it though....When I am ready to devote 100% of my life to
> a
> boat, I shall be off somewhere on the Sailing Life...
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