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From: Dwight Yachuk (no email)
Date: Mon Dec 06 2004 - 10:25:51 EST
Hi Jerry,
You don't say how much if any sailing experience you have. I see you have raced J24's. Much experience there, feeling confident?
If you haven't sailed keel boats much your first priority should be to get as much experience on a boat as possible, even if this means just on your local lake in central california (hasn't dried up yet has it?).
What boat to buy? First I'd suggest a racing boat (such as the J24) but you may already have the experience you could learn there, especially if you have raced for a number of years. If not, a racer will get you lots of experience tacking, jibing, sailing on all points of sail and learning how to trim the sails properly, something you don't learn from a course but from experience.
If not a racer, then a pocket cruiser. This will give you experience living aboard and more importantly, experience maintaining a pocket cruiser. One with a furling jib, a wheel and an inboard diesel will be overkill for a lake but that's what you want to learn on. If it sounds like I'm stressing experience you are right.
You can buy boats in the 25 foot size very cheaply and should be able to sell them later for what you bought them for.
Next I'd recommend an intermediate cruising course down in the caribbean somewheres. I think the American Yachting Association (AYA?) offers them. You'll get great experience being on blue water for a week and you'll get to live on a largish boat, probably 36 footer or bigger.
I'd suggest the coastal nav course to start and joining lots of discussion forums to learn about various boats. Check out http://www.sailnet.com for their various forums (like this one).
Lastly, get out sailing on as many different boats as possible. Oh yes, the next boat you buy won't be your last one. Think of it as an intermediate step. Don't look for bargin basement project boats, they'll cost you too much to upgrade. Look for a boat that some owner has lovingly maintained or has just come off an extended cruise. Check out yachtworld.com for boats and comparable prices. Then offer them 40% less ;)
What boat to buy? Ah, that's the topic of a different thread.
dwight
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 11:05 PM
To:
Subject: [world-cruising] new to the group
I am another newbie to this group. But I can already see there is a
lot of info to be gathered here, so thanks in advance. I am in the
central valley of California, I have 53 months to go till
retirement. I am a 49 year old single father with a son who will be
22 when I retire. I plan to go cruising as soon as the first
retirement check hits the bank! In the mean time I have set several
goals to be acomplished prior to that date. If anyone has any
comments I would greatly appreciate them. The list so far is as
follows:
Take USCG coastal nav class (started this week)
Celestial nav class
Ham radio license course
Scuba class
Marine Diesel repair class
Blue water sailing class (I have raced J24's but realize Bluewater
is Different!)
Read, Read & Read
Oh yea, I almost forgot BUY BOAT
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