Sailing Anyone?

[angelpalgt]

I may very likely be in the minority here, but anyone out there enjoy sailing? DH and I are taking a beginner's sailing course and I think that we're already addicted. There's just something amazing about being able to practically fly over the water with the wind. Any others out there who enjoy this type of thing?

[ellidew]

me me me! Dh grew up on a sailboat! I am shameful to say that in the 7 years i have been sailing with dh i haven't done much but pick up some lingo here and there and learn when to duck (TACK!) ha ha. BUT we do go sailing quite often and are FINALLY in the market for a sailboat. Nothing too fancy or expensive and definitely used. We will more than likely spend under $15,000 and probably wont buy until this winter (or when we see something we like). Our biggest communication gap comes when i say "ooohhh... that boats pretty!" Apparently you don't buy boats based on the prettiness :)

It is a highly addictive sport and every friend (and my sister and her husband) have wanted to go back time and time again and i wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line they all buy boats (or move onto ours permanently - ha ha)!

Are you a member of a sail club?

There's just something amazing about being able to practically fly over the water with the wind.
The worst is bobbing around with NO wind whatsoever. We sail on a lake in Illinois and wind is typically hit or miss... i wish we were on either coast or (gasp!) in the ocean! There is something amazingly calming about sailing (especially at night). All your cares just sail away! (unless you are racing of course then it's a lot more upbeat)

Dh and 6 or 7 other guys chartered a sailboat in the BVI's and sailed around island to island for a week back in March. It was an all guy adventure but they are talking about taking the wives next year. :D

Can't wait to hear how your sailing classes are going. I have thought about taking classes but since dh has been on a sailboat since before he could walk i just assume learn by trial and error.

[Marie]

*waving*

Why yes, I love it. We are planning on doing a sailing school next summer since I've never really been taught, then purchasing a boat the following year. Would love to do it sooner but alas, finances do not allow.

There's nothing in the world like it.

[emmjay]

I love to sail, but I don't get the opportunity much since I now live in Colorado! I took my first sailing lessons in New York - we would go around the Statue of Liberty and under the Brooklyn Bridge during the lessons - those are some of my favorite memories of living in NYC. I took more lessons in the Gulf of Mexico with my husband, and we have chartered small boats in the Gulf as well. Actually our plan is to continue taking lessons then sail around the world when we retire. I love it - I think sailboats are so beautiful, and I love the feeling of the wind (and I HATE the feeling of no wind! :) ).

[evagatesgreen2]

I go out occasionally, still too much of a newbie to go racing though. DH crews on a local boat and they have a race this weekend. :)

[ellidew]

My FIL crews on a boat at his sail club every weekend! Can you believe that? A regatta EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND! That's insane. He owns a boat (bought it new in 1976) but it isn't fast enough for racing. He is in the market for a new boat too. Dh and i only get to the lake maybe twice a month now but when we get a boat we already discussed how to handle it. We can't possibly go every weekend so we are going to block out 1 weekend a month to go for the whole weekend and then just go over for the day or night whenever we can fit it in! We only live about an hour or so from the lake so to drive over for the day is so easy.

emmjay - I am so jealous. It would be so cool to sail around the statue of liberty and under the brooklyn bridge!

Maybe i will have to suck it up and take the lessons... or i could actually do something when we are on the boat and learn by example ;) It's more relaxing when i don't have to do anything.

Well, off to check the boat listings. We are pretty much just waiting for one we like to pop up. They go super fast! We saw one in the morning online in early spring and it was just posted that day, got there and it was sold!

Happy Sailing to everyone!

[Brandles]

DH would LOVE to learn to sail! We were fortunate to take our vacation to Put In Bay, Ohio when they were having the regatta going on (Inter-Lake Yachting Association) and it was really neat to watch.

[Stephanie]

I love sailing! I took classes when I was pretty young and then ended up becoming a sailing instructor. I taught classes throughout high school and most of college. I only taught adults in the winter, but in the summer I had all the day camps. It was so much fun! Free access to boats when we weren't working and we got paid to play in the harbor all day. It was the best. ~Sigh~

[twainny]

Hmmm, well I wouldn't say I LOVE sailing, but I enjoy it. DH takes me out when we go up to his cottage. It is fun. I tried to steer... well, I cleaned the sail (we tipped over) that was 3 years ago. I haven't tried since. Maybe over Labor Day weekend (if there is wind). 4th of July weekend was the best, we had a great wind, not too strong and it was really steady. It was sooo much fun. But DH tries to scare me (the water was SUPER cold and I HATE falling in the middle of the lake) and he makes the boat tip up super high. Okay... maybe I don't like sailing!!!

[kiddo]

I'm so jealous of you guys with boats! Our friends father owns a 90ft sail boat and he takes us out a couple times a summer off the coast of Portland, ME. There are so many little islands to hop around on. The winters he brings it down to the Bahamas (still waiting for that invite :cool: ) and this past winter it sustained about $10K worth of damage, so it doesn't look like we'll get to go out this summer :(
DH and I would love to have a boat ourselves, but alas, the bank account won't allow it. Maybe some day. I guess the next best thing to owning a boat is knowing someone who does.

[southhavenjen]

DH and I are volunteer crew on a tall ship. We are new to the sailing scene, so we are still learning, but it is a lot of fun. It is kind of intimidating, too. There is a lot to know as our particular ship is rigged with five sails and everything is done the "old fashioned way", no winches for us. :D

[ellidew]

HOLY COW! A 90 ft sail boat!!!! I'd be in heaven! We sail on much much smaller boats. There isn't even a place to put a 90 ft sailboat in the midwest! ha ha.

twainny- I have never been tipped off a sailboat before but considering i can't swim i would probably drown! :eek: My dh likes to push the limits too and see exactly how far we can lean the boat! I think it's a male testoterone thing. I am hoping that once we have kids on the boat he will ease up!

Dh's dad scared his mom off their sailboat years and years ago and she has never been back. She has a lot of anxiety/panic issues though. The story i have been told is that a storm came rolling in and they were in the middle of the lake and saw another boat struggling and tip over. FIL jumped ship to help the other couple and left MIL (a sailing novice) to man their boat on her own. She froze up and didn't know what to do and instead freaked out. Apparently it did enough damage to her that she has never been back on the boat. I don't know what their relationship was like back then but they don't particulary care for each other now and i am convinced they are only still married out of comfort. It doesn't help that his dad goes sailing from fri-sun every weekend and that his mom spends ALL of their money buying useless junk at garage sales/etc... which she says she is doing to get back at him for going sailing every weekend. To make the circle complete he says he only goes sailing every weekend to get back at her for shopping so much. It's a nasty little game they play.

southhavenjen- Yikes. That sounds fun and aggrivating at the same time! ha ha. How many crew members man the boat?

[evagatesgreen2]

DH is always lusting for a boat of his own. My dad mentioned that where he lives there are several good size boats for sale and that he may buy one and when he comes to visit bring it out and leave it with us for "storage" , DH has been drooling over the idea ever since. :o ;) :p

[southhavenjen]

HOLY COW! A 90 ft sail boat!!!! I'd be in heaven! We sail on much much smaller boats. There isn't even a place to put a 90 ft sailboat in the midwest! ha ha.

Actually, you could probably have one on the Great Lakes. I don't know if I've ever seen a sailboat that big, though, other than a tall ship.

The tall ship we crew on is 56 feet on deck, with a sparred length of 101 feet. It takes 4 deckhands plus the captain to crew her - that's bare bones. It's much easier with 6-7 deckhands plus captain. Here's a picture of her:

http://www.michiganmaritimemuseum.org/photos/images/FGW_topsail2.JPG

[ellidew]

Wow. That's a pretty boat. When dh took his trip to bvi they saw a HUGE sailboat. Something like 200+ feet. The pictures were crazy. I don't think i have them uploaded to the internet though. I think i just took one of us at the lake like a couple weeks ago. I am trying to clean the pictures off the hard drive and onto shutterfly and i am only half way through. They date back to 11_2003 and there are thousands of them! Hopefully i will have it done by the end of the weekend.

southhavenjen - How did you get involved with that boat?

Anyone else's dh talk about packing up and moving to the ocean where we can just live on our boat and do sailing excursions? I think i get that story from my dh weekly (at least!)

[angelpalgt]

DH and I are going to be joining our local sailing association. They often do some informal racing and regattas, so we'll probably get involved with crewing on a couple of those at some point just to stay sailing.

We're also starting to look for a boat. We just want a small day-sailer that we can go out and enjoy the wind, maybe picnic, etc. DH really wants a wooden boat, and I'm not opposed to that idea. He lately has been wanting to build his own boat. Here's a picture of the boat he wants to get a kit for:

http://www.swallowboats.com/storm17/storm17-3003s.jpg

He's thinking that we can build it over the winter and have it to sail in the spring. :rolleyes: I'd like something to sail a little sooner, but we'll see about what happens.

[ellidew]

Angelpalgt: Oh goodness. Don't give my dh any ideas about building a boat! ha ha. Out of curiosity what does a boat kit cost? It would be fun to do together but dh and i both have obsessive tendancies and we would spend every spare moment detached from the rest of the world until it was done.

[evagatesgreen2]

Looks like I am going sailing this weekend. DH's friend called last night to give him the dock time for Saturday and then asked if I wanted to come along.

[angelpalgt]

Sorry it took me a while to reply, Ellidew, but that boat costs roughly US$5,000, and then it'll probably be another US$800 or so for shipping since the kits come from the UK. The great thing about these kits, though, is that the hardware and sails come with the kit, so all you really have to buy is the paint for the boat to finish it.

If you're interested in looking at the kits, you can look at Swallow Boats.com (http://www.swallowboats.com). It has been awesome to work with these guys in just asking questions and finding out if this is the right boat for us. They are incredibly helpful.

[Chimichanga]

DH and I enjoy sailing, but we haven't done it in awhile.

Actually, DH is the sailer. He mentioned to me when we first started dating how he'd like to learn to sail. I got him a membership to the Milwaukee County Sailing Center that Christmas. He took a beginner's class and then we went out on Lake Michigan.

It was so much fun! He had to stay inside the breakwall since he was only Light Air rated, but it was nice. We got to use the center's boats for free and could go out all day if no one was waiting for a boat. :D

But, we built a house and couldn't keep up with the membership fees. I'd love to do it again in the next few years.

[Hangin'in]

I'm bumping this up because DH and I were recently given the boat his parents bought new in 1985. It's a 23' racing/day cruiser. It has been sitting at the end of their driveway for 7 years, unloved. DH's family used to sail every weekend, but when the kids got to be teenagers they just didn't take the time to sail. We have cleaned the boat up, and DH is going over the boat with a fine tooth comb to make sure everything is ok. We hope to put the boat in the water next spring. I know nothing about sailing. I've been sailing, but I've always been a passenger! We are planning on taking an ASA accredited class soon, and then possibly crewing on some of the keel boats that race every weekend starting in November.

I have pictures of the restoration in my blog (link in siggy). I haven't posted any of them here on CC, because they aren't in my online photo album yet.