Yesterday, I took the first step in my sailing career. I'm hoping to take this Tiwal out every other weekend for the next year and learn the basics. Then upgrade to a 22 footer to learn the mechanics of a larger boat. I'm also going to start showing up at local yacht clubs on race night to try and gain additional experience.

Wind was really light yesterday but the addiction has begun 😍

Dad bought it in the 80s, can’t find anything about it online strangely.

My wife and I had a great time spending ten days crewing on a bareboat cat trip with some friends last year, so we decided to learn how. My previous sailing experience was minimal (a few times out on friends' 30'-ish monohulls).

They sent us the ASA 101, 103, 104, and 114 books and a link to an online 101 and 103 courses a few months in advance to study. I have to say the ASA online courses are not the greatest (my wife is a professional educator) and the tests are just poorly constructed and in some cases, just outright WRONG. I commented about this to ASA, but they ghosted me (not surprising; their customer service on ordering books and such is pretty poor and rude, even after they shipped me stuff I didn't order).

We also found some prep courses on Udemy which were pretty good I thought. We this under our belt, and some practice tying knots (thanks for the person who posted the knot coffee cup picture, we got a couple of those). My wife and I are a little competitive, so we both got in the high 90s on our written exams.

We were told to show up at fiveish and call our instructor. We're spending the night on the marina to accommodate the variety of arrival times that the other students have. We're first on so we get to choose which cabin and pick the starboard stern cabin on the Lagoon 46. While this was listed as a couples class, the other students are two unaccompanied guys. We go over the provisions and run over to the RiteWay to get a few last minute things we wanted. Instructor makes sure we know how to use the marine heads but otherwise says we're at liberty until 8AM the next morning. Several of us go out to dinner at Peg Legs.

Next morning a representative of the yacht rental company goes over the boat with us: all the systems, engines, emergency equipment, how to pump the holding tanks, etc... Instructor takes us out and talks us through raising the sails. Since we have four students (me my wife, and the two guys), we'll all take turns on different stations as we practice each skill repeatedly. I volunteer to sweat the main up so I'm on deck. We get under sail and then practice tacking on our way over to Norman Island. Pretty good wind. Get the sails down, and go to pick up the mooring ball and find the longest boat pole we have is about six feet long. I'm on the helm/engines on that one and they barely are able to snag it. It was at this point that we decide that since I'm 6'1" and have the longest arms, I'll do the hooking for the rest of the week. Off to pirates for dinner.

We come back from dinner and start up the generator and the water maker. About 20 minutes into this the noise from the water maker stops. Hmm. Do some investigation and find that no AC power is working even though the generator. Check all the breakers and such. Finally, get the cover off the generator and try the main breaker there. Nothing tripped. Flipping the main breaker on the generator itself gets a brief blip of Ac power before it dies again. Figure there is more wrong to the generator than we can fix, call the rental emergency number we were given but get no answer. Figure we can survive without AC and have plenty of water. DC house batteries are good and we have plenty of diesel if we need to recharge them. Go to bed.

Wake up the next morning and call the rental place. Since we're close they ask if we can just return so they can check it. Another lesson in hoisting the sails and a few tacks on the way back to Nanny Cay. Drop the sails and motor in. Technician shows up and determines the control board is shot. He replaces it and off we go again. Winds have really picked up so we reef the main. Lots of practice. Now we were going to try to get to the Baths but given the generator delay and the winds not really in the right direction, we get there late. We figure we'll anchor out nearby and hit there in the morning. We all got a chance to work both the helm and the windlass to set and retrieve the anchor.

Next morning we dingy over to the Baths and swim in to tour that. Last year the red flag was up so we didn't get a chance to do that (and the two other guys hadn't either). Winds were light that day and on a broad reach, so we all took practice jibing both at the helm or on the lines. Swing around and moor. Dingy over to the Bitter End Yacht Club for some drinks and then over to Saba Rock for dinner.

Spend some time doing chart instruction in the saloon, measuring headings and bearings. Get the bearing compass out and do some observations with that. Also went over our exams so that everybody got coaching on what they got wrong.

Winds weren't going to accommodate us getting to Anegada, but Margy and I had been there. We head over to Jost so everybody could go into the Soggy Dollar. Came back and spent an evening tying knots.

Next day, really windy. Reef 2 on the main and one on the jib and more sailing practice, navigating, tacking for best VMG, etc... Drop the sails and the instructor returns on deck with a fender with a life jacket tied to it and throws the "man" overboard. Tells us that twice he's had other boats "save" his man and take off with it. Anyhow, we all got a chance to do it. Except on my turn, I've got the hook to retrieve the "man" once we're in position.

Go to our final mooring which will give us a short motor back to Nanny Cay since we have an early ferry to catch to leave. After, getting shutdown one of the guys decides to go for a dip. He digs through the locker full of pool noodles, swim fins, masks, and snorkles and notices something under all that stuff. It's a boat hook that actually extends to a reasonable length. Oh well, now that we don't need it any more, we know where it is.

I fire up the barbecue and throw some burgers on for people. We had some avos that weren't ripe enough to use earlier on that seem OK, so I add some salsa, garlic, and lime juice and make a small amount of guac we can put on the burgers. After dinner, the instructor signs off all our log books.

He goes over what we're going to have to do to turn in the boat. Next morning I'm up (my job also was to fire up the coffee). Instructor tells me to go start the engines and I do so and set up a route on the chart plotter to find Nanny Cay. Everybody else is still moving slowly so he and I get the mooring lines off and I motor us over. Call for the yacht guys to come out and I sit next to the guy and watch him masterfully get us to the fuel dock and then into space about a boat length and a quarter in the marina.

Agent comes on and does the check-in procedure. We note a couple of minor discrepancies (chain counter wasn't working, but we knew that going out), the holding tank gauge on the starboard side always read empty (jokes about us needing to drink more), and to let them know that we had no further problems with the generator or anything else.

Cab shows up right at 10 and gets us to the ferry in plenty of time. Only problem is that our flight from STT-CLT was delayed by five hours. At least I got upgraded to First Class after all that.

Looking for my first boat and hoping y’all might be able to recommend some options I may be overlooking.

Criteria are:

• Under $20k
• No bigger than 30ft
• Well-suited to Southern California coastal cruising (San Diego bays as well as extended trips to SCI, Catalina, coronados, Ensenada, Channel Islands, etc)
• Easily short- or single-handed
• Sugar scoop or swim platform (this is the one that rules out a lot of otherwise good models, but I want to be able to dive off it)
• Able to sleep 4-6 people with camping-level comfort

Currently the only boats on my radar are Catalinas (250, 270, 28, 30 mk iii) and maaaybe some hunters, although their rigging gives me pause.

The Bark Europa has six squares up the mast? Can someone tell me if theyre: Course, upper/lower topsail, upper/lower topgallant, and royal?

This thru hole for the head was done by the boatyard. They used a wafer thin piece of wood to bed the ball valve, which wasn’t thick enough to use actual screws to keep it in place, so they opted for 5200.

We were doing maintenance on the head hoses and as we were trying to get the elbow off, the entire assembly started to rotate where the wood meets the base of the ball valve. It could have been a very very bad day.

Moral of the story, always inspect the work of yard before they put the boat back in the water. Tell them this upfront and let them them know you’ll take it to another yard if they won’t let you.

Hey all! I'm a new sailor but I have taken a 20 hour course on dingy sailing from OCC School of Sailing and Seamanship and feel relatively confident in a dinghy. I'm going to be vacationing in Laguna and was hoping to rent a dinghy to sail around Dana Point. I haven't found anywhere that rents small sailboats and was going someone here might be able to help. Thanks!

After buying a Hobie 16 and sailing it for a season then selling it because it wasn't worth fixing, I knew I had a new itch I wasn't gonna be able to let go for very long.

Finally came across a good deal and jumped on it!! Friend knew a friend getting rid of a M16 Scow for $150!

Now I can't wait to get back into sailing once the weather gets warm again!

I don't know a ton about this boat so any information would be appreciated!

https://preview.redd.it/zpmhnltykmge1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4d585b7f435202f226d3c726ca94778cb0d0e3de

https://preview.redd.it/qlub3btykmge1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a117691f663c6c51e9b2f24867a6902918ad32b

https://preview.redd.it/m1ywkbtykmge1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c75a5eb5eabf1012dcb154761d39570da5bce99

We're new sailors and found a great little trailer sailer to continue learning on. We have some elbow grease to put into it before we can take her out, but we can't wait!

I sail in the Great Lakes, so my boat (30’ hunter) is on the hard for the winter. I did a drive by for the first time in a couple of months. This crack wasn’t there when I pulled it out. I’m planning on painting the bottom in the spring, but does this crack look concerning?

We are coming to Seattle from Eugene via train today to get a few days in at the show. Staying a short walk away. Anyone have suggestions for must sees or do at the show or nearby? Places to get reduced price tix? We will be shopping for a liveaboard in earnest after I retire this summer.

Anyone ever sail around the world or done some serious bluewater cruising in one of these? How'd you like it? Anything you'd change?

Greetings,

Sailing Made Easy notes that when rigging a jib with luff tape, you have to wait until the sail is ready to hoist before sliding the top of the luff tape near the head into the opening ramp in the headfoil's groove. Just wondering why this is. Does it have something to do with the wind potentially getting under the sail, catching it and partially hoisting it? Thx!

Hi all, I'm a holding a French license to drive a boat (permis cotier = 11km away maximum). But I usually live in Asia, and I'm considering to rent a boat in some countries, eventually to do a run from times to times because I miss it.

Does any of you have experience with it, is it possible, does it work? Because I have never heard of a boat driving license to be international (different from a car driving license).

Thank you

My bilge is very shallow and can’t fit a normal pump. The “low profile” ones are expensive and I would have to use epoxy to keep it in which I want to avoid. I keep seeing these for bait tanks. Why not just run a tube to the bilge with a float switch and mount the pump near the through hull?

Hi all,

I am an ocean research technician working with a university and would love to have your thoughts on a project I'm working on. I am assembling a piece of oceanographic equipment that requires lead weights in order to sink properly. The fun part is that this equipment is sampling for trace metals in the water so the weights are going to have to be completely sealed off from the salt water.

I've been looking at epoxy resins/paints that are both abrasion and uv resistant and easy to paint on/cure but I'm curious what y'all would recommend for this project. We already have our weights so I'm trying to work around those/improve on our older system. Thanks and any tips/specific product recommendations are appreciated!

For reference here is a picture of the same weights we use on our older system:

https://preview.redd.it/9mdpv6ig5fge1.jpg?width=706&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8dc433b13516a5a3b0dace6f9d25a487724558db

heads up I learned how to sail in a Spanish-speaking country so some of my terminology may be off.

used to compete as a kid on Optimists but quit after moving countries. I took a course a few years back in the US and got some experience on larger 2-3 person boats. But I wanna get into sailing again and was thinking of getting an inexpensive Laser and just taking it down to the beach once in a while.

Am I getting in over my head or should I expect a relatively smooth experience.

Vessel will mainly be used in shallow water (no more than 15 feet) and primarily used for fishing. Any suggestions on what fabric to use, and what material to build the frame out of?

I'm about to put down the initial deposit for a RYA Day Skipper practical (as in, does not include the "theory" element of the class) course. My fiancée will be on the same boat doing RYA Competent Crew. We are doing this off the coast of Tuscany during the very first week of April. We will be with at least two other students, so it's not a private course. The boat, as described, is a "Varianta 44 launched in 2016." It has 4 cabins (8 bunks), 2 toilets, and was refitted this year.

To me, this sounds like a nice boat? Although I haven't seen photos, I am hoping we will have space and comfort. My fiancée is a reluctant sailer, and I am wanting this to be a very positive experience so she is willing to sail again in the future. She is also very concerned with sea sickness -- I looked for a course on catamarans but wasn't able to find any. I have around 200 hours of sailing experience (on mountain lakes near Denver, CO) and she has about 10 hours' worth.

The cost all-in is quoted at $2,900.

Does this sound like a reasonable price for RYA Day Skipper (one certification) and a separate RYA Competent Crew (one certification)? Also, do you have any recommendations for how I can help ensure this is a comfortable trip for my fiancée? If I can ensure she has a good time, it would be life changing since we will be able to go on many sail trips in the future, or travel on the seas more in general. If she has a miserable time, then my opportunities for sailing in the future will be more limited. Given those facts,

Do you have recommendations for tether lines, jacklines and harnesses for 10 meter sailboat in Europe? Which manufacturer is recommended and which web shop has best buy prices?

Thank you!

This picture is taken from the front/beginning of the boom (just aft of the gooseneck). As far as I understand galvanic corrosion is happening between aluminium and stainless steel. What’s the usual approach to prevent this from happening? Some kind of rubber or other material to isolate the two metals?

Thank you!

Bought a new trailer for Sydsulver, can‘t want to start the season…but there are a lot of things to do, guess what…

Someone brought this image in to a picture frame shop. Said it came from a placemat. Doesn’t know any more about it.

As the title says