Speaking of sailing

[Digital_photog ★]

A few pictures of our boats.

Don't have the Oday any more still have the Catalina that I am standing on to take the pictures.  A friend now owns the Oday.

A foster girl who lived with us for 4 years on the Catalina

Hobie 16

 

 

[Wilbur ★]

That Catalina is a small live aboard!

[Digital_photog ★]

7 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

That Catalina is a small live aboard!

C22 the longest we have stayed on it at one one time is 2 weeks. it was crowded with 3 girls between 10 and 15 and 2 adults. The single guy we bought it from lived on it a whole summer after his divorce.

[jsharr ★]

Catalina 22s are the Chevy Malibu / Ford Crown Vics of sailing.  Plain jane and you can find one anywhere and if you know what you are doing, you can make one go pretty fast.

 

[jsharr ★]

And I was going to impress all the non sailors by identifying your C22 by the main sheet alone.

 

[Prophet Zacharia]

I sold our O'Day 25 last fall. We summer (weekends) on a Pearson 33. My 6'5" 15 year old son made this upgrade a necessity.

Still have a 17" Mobjack at a more local lake, but the wind there isn't good during the time of season when you don't mind getting wet. I should probably move it to Erie, too.

[MickinMD ★]

In the late '90's I wanted to go 50:50 with my sister's family on a sailboat for about $10,000. I wanted to learn to sail, get into the amateur sailboat races run out of Annapolis and Baltimore, etc.

They weren't interested in learning to tack, etc. They wanted us to get a 197 HP V-6 inboard/outdrive 21' pleasure boat with a "cuddy cabin" for a port a potty, or sleeping for two if we went far enough away from the marina. The only sailing stuff they had to know is red-right-returning: red buoys should be on the right [starboard] side of your boat when returning (going upstream).  The tri-hulled boat cost $25,000.

I liked that idea, too. We'd be able to fly 50 mph over the Chesapeake Bay to hit the spots where newspaper fishing expert Bill Burton said fish are being caught. We even took a 1-day, 8-hour community college course from Bill Burton himself for $50 including lunch.   We learned the proper techniques for trolling, chumming, and dropping lines over the side. We learned the tricks for fishing the Bay in good weather, bad weather, along the deep channel that runs the length of the Bay to the Port of Baltimore, and which way the fish migrate and when.

BUT...when Bill Burton asked each one of us why we had signed up for the course and one guy said, "I'm tired of paying $100/lb for fish," we should have realized there were some things we hadn't considered.

Still, it was a lot of fun for several years. We burned about 70 gallons of gasoline and if at least four of us went fishing, $20 each for gas was fine.  Then came gas price increases. By 2008, gasoline bought on the water was approaching $5/gallon and it was costing $300 each time we went out. Our boat was named the "Reel Busy," and we considered renaming it "The Money Pit."  About a year later we sold it - we weren't using it enough.

Sailing would have worked!

 

[Dottleshead ★]

 

[jsharr ★]

12 hours ago, MickinMD said:

In the late '90's I wanted to go 50:50 with my sister's family on a sailboat for about $10,000. I wanted to learn to sail, get into the amateur sailboat races run out of Annapolis and Baltimore, etc.

They weren't interested in learning to tack, etc. They wanted us to get a 197 HP V-6 inboard/outdrive 21' pleasure boat with a "cuddy cabin" for a port a potty, or sleeping for two if we went far enough away from the marina. The only sailing stuff they had to know is red-right-returning: red buoys should be on the right [starboard] side of your boat when returning (going upstream).  The tri-hulled boat cost $25,000.

I liked that idea, too. We'd be able to fly 50 mph over the Chesapeake Bay to hit the spots where newspaper fishing expert Bill Burton said fish are being caught. We even took a 1-day, 8-hour community college course from Bill Burton himself for $50 including lunch.   We learned the proper techniques for trolling, chumming, and dropping lines over the side. We learned the tricks for fishing the Bay in good weather, bad weather, along the deep channel that runs the length of the Bay to the Port of Baltimore, and which way the fish migrate and when.

BUT...when Bill Burton asked each one of us why we had signed up for the course and one guy said, "I'm tired of paying $100/lb for fish," we should have realized there were some things we hadn't considered.

Still, it was a lot of fun for several years. We burned about 70 gallons of gasoline and if at least four of us went fishing, $20 each for gas was fine.  Then came gas price increases. By 2008, gasoline bought on the water was approaching $5/gallon and it was costing $300 each time we went out. Our boat was named the "Reel Busy," and we considered renaming it "The Money Pit."  About a year later we sold it - we weren't using it enough.

Sailing would have worked!

 

Sailboat owners are always looking for crew.  Most sailing clubs will have a "need crew" board.  I learned to sail sitting on the rail of a Merit 25 that raced on a local lake.  Slowly learned all the positions on the boat.  Soon other boat owners were asking me to crew for them.  I could sail several times per week and all it cost me was gas to drive to the marina.  We won some races, had a lot of fun, drank some beer and made life long friends.  My wife and I  bought a boat,  raced it, won some races, drank some beer, made more friends, and then we had kids and the sailing slowed way down.

I can still find a ride whenever I want one and still sail in a few regattas every year.

You should head down to the marina and find a ride.