i'm 42 and would like to own and sail my own boat......but there does'nt seem to be a beginners article or help on the site.....surely there must be enthusiastic sailers out there in cyber land who would be willing to start me off in the right direction and others to????
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 Hi Anthony We are planning to run a series of beginners' articles on TheMainSail. Watch this space. In the mean time, the best advice is to do as much reading about the subject as you can: RYA Go Cruising and RYA Manual of Seamanship and numerous other books and publications listed on the RYA website would be good for starters. Also get as much sailing experience as you can. It's important that you sail on lots of different boats before deciding which is the right boat for you. Join a sailing club and put a card on the notice board volunteering your services. Racing skippers are always looking for crew, and even if you plan to cruise, not race, this is a really good way of picking up lots of experience and free instruction! Also it is well worthwhile doing the RYA qualifications, theory and practical, before buying your own boat. There are an awful lot of skills to master, from boat handling and navigation to the "rules of the road", safety equipment and boat maintenance. Contact an RYA approved sea school near where you live and have a look at the courses on offer. They may seem expensive, but buying a boat in expensive, too - and it is important that you do as much preparation as you can to make the most out of your investment. You should have a very exciting and enjoyable time ahead. Good luck! Cathy
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 | TMS Poloshirt winner |
27/09/07 21:26
hello A. J. 3 Following on from Cathy's wise words, I would advise you get down to your local club(s) and find some all the year round yacht sailors who would welcome you crewing during the winter and thereby you pick up the practical experience ready to enjoy the next summer (if we ever get one again in the U.K.). Scotty
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Hi Anthony. I have just put up the first of the promised articles: Beginners start here Next I plan to add one about the RYA training syllabus. And then there will be a series about what to look for when buying your first boat. Hope that will help. Or are there any other specific subjects you would like to see covered? Thankyou for your interest. Cathy
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Hi Anthony I am somewhat older than you but only recent to sailing. also president of local Disabled Sailing Association. I skipper a small (20ft) Felicity sailing vessel in the Torquay to Dartmouth area. If you are in that area you will be most welcome to come and join me in taking the boat out and even to giving the disabled members a trip for an hour or two. We do a very practical approach to sailing from basics up (I now hold a RYA coastal skippers ticket and my wife is doing the day skipper course) Email me on michaelrh4@hotmail.com if you are interested. Michael Harrison.
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Maybe I am in the right area to make a cry for help. I plan to sell up and sail in about 2 years with her indoors and am on track with training. I am desperately searching for a good seagoing boat to buy in the New Year that will allow us to get oodles more experience before we buy a biggy. The wish list consists of a boat (not a trailer sailer) in good condition with ... grp hull (over 27 ft) slab reefed main with lazy jacks (lines led back to cockpit) furling genoa inboard diesel seperate loo wheel rather than tiller steering reasonable electronics package ready to sail away with fenders warps etc I am based in the south sort of between Portsmouth and Chichester and can get along the south coast fairly easily to have a look see. With a budget of circa £8,000 to £10,000 there must be a few out there. The question is where do I find such boats advertised? The glossy mags tend to be a bit short on ads for them. Any ideas? If so please email me at t.j.millward@hotmail.co.uk. Many thanks Tim
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
07/10/07 19:48
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
07/10/07 19:51
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Having just gone through boat buying with our Disabled Sailing Association I can sympathise with your search requirements. First and most heavily uderlined advice... once you see/find a boat you think you like GET A SURVEYOR IN !! That may seem like an expensive hobby but it will very likely save you oodles in the end in both time and money. After trawling the ads and the local yacht brokers (and some not so local) we came across a selection of Westerly Centaurs. 26 footers circa the 60's to 70's and priced between £8500 to £15000. We fell for one at £10,500 and after a survey (most cautionary one it was) we did a bargaining and bought at £9,500. A great sea kindly, go anywhere in any weather boat. We have found a broken main stay, rotten topping lift , expensive fault in starboard bilge keel, a series of untimely and embarrassing engine failures resulting in now having to replace it completely. Check the price of a new Volvo for yourself, you won't believe us. Lots of annoying little leaks around the topsides when it rains and sundry other little niggles not worth the writing of but irritating all the same. By the way, the surveyor did warn us that the engine was somewhat on the ancient side, but we were in love with the boat and cash was not in the most abundant supply. However we will have a great boat when all is done (is it ever?) There you have it. Your quest for a realistic family vessel for around £8,000 or a little over is to my mind, optimistic. You could be buying a lot of heartache. If you are willing to put in the work and the cash you might get a bargain, but please take care, the wrong un would put paid to most of your best dreams. Best of luck Michael
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Hi Tim, I am afraid that I have to agree with Michael that your "shopping list" is rather ambitious for your declared budget. As he says, for £10,000 you can expect to get a 25-26 footer "of a certain age." And you must be aware that taking on such a boat is bound to require significant additional expense: it will probably need new sails and new running rigging (say £2,000 together) and possibly a new engine (even more) as well as any structural attention. Again, Michael is absolutely right. Do invest in a survey. The surveyor will uncover any potential problems, and will almost certainly give you the ammunition to haggle the price down, saving more than his fee. He can also save you from making a distrous mistake. The other thing to be aware of when buying your first boat is just how much extra stuff you will probably have to buy: lifejackets, binoculars, handbearing compass, handheld VHF, GPS etc. You need to budget say £500- £1,000 for that little lot. (But you will be able to take it with you when you buy your next boat!) But don't let this put you off! It is a great idea, as you plan to sell up and sail, to buy a boat to practise on before you go. And congratulations for getting "on track" with training. Hope you find a boat that suits your needs - and enjoy!
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Hi Tim and Hi Cathy Just to heap up the devil's advocacy here's the latest. We now have the Centaur hauled out for the new engine refit. Hauling out has revealed one bilge keel almost stripped of the recent epoxy painting so greatly boasted of by the last owner. Similar but not quite so bad on the starboard side. Faults in the genoa which fortunately we can fix ourselves as we have a seasoned sailmaker in our group of volunteers. Odd spots of the new epoxy flaking all over the topsides and we are looking very carefully over the rest of it while she is aground and available. Advice to be added...... Beware the new coats of paint....especially the home applied epoxy. I could be a hell of a job to get it off and start again. We reckon best to strip the old stuff yourself and then you know you have a reasonable foundation. That's what we did with our smaller vessel and so far it seems ok. As you live on the south coast perhaps you could get down to the Torquay area and we could let you look our vessels over and see for yourself. Just give us a reply through this route and we will arrange it. sincerely Michael ps. thanks Cathy for your support ...appreciated.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
09/10/07 19:54
 Just never be taken in by looks-neither I nor my surveyor noticed that my boom was on upside down;genoa furling wrong way such that UV strip was not doing its job-£300 worth of repairs to sail;very worn shackles;terminal engine waterpump;almost terminal high pressure oil pipe etc etc -the list to restore to as new is long.BUT my boat was almost thirty years old.Just try to be as open as possible and do not get blinded by looks.In my case both myself and the Surveyor who fell for my boat were to some extent blinded by looks. Several years ago there was for sale a very well known 70ft.Robert Clark designed steel boat with beatiful classic lines that had belonged to a well known public school-asking price around about £70,000-I managed to get a copy of a survey.You could poke your finger thru the deck underneath its mahogany planking;the bow was getting ready to fall off as was probably the keel. It had been sold by the school in in late 1990s for less than £30,000 and one of the brokers who I knew reckoned that even then it was worth no more than about £15000 as a boat requiring a major refit/repairs. So as usual BUYER BEWARE Phil
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 Tim I think wheel steering will seriously limit your choice in this size/age/budget - why is this important to you? I'm not sure I can think of a wheel option on boats that old but I'm sure some one will think of one Be prepared to be broke forever :v) I love my 1972 Pintail dearly but she sucks up all the spare money and still need love/money.
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Anthony May be worth looking at some dingy sailing to get some feel for sailing at lower cost and with less risk and less cost. You can see if the variations in sailing conditions are what you expect. Whetever - get some training before you sail alone - much less likely to scare your crew and so have a longer sailing career
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 I once owned a wheel steered yacht, a Verl 27. Beautiful boat, and a fast passage maker, known as a cruiser racer and comfortable with it. Built in 1976 I bought her in '85 needing some work, mainly TLC. She cost me £8500 after a favourable structural survey, but I only kept her for two years because something much more desirable came along...the Macwester Seaforth! Another thing, a deep keeled yacht is/was not the best thing here in the North West, too many drying harbours. Things are different here now though with a profileration of marinas.
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Dear Anthony,I wonder if you are anywhere near the East Coast(Woodbridge Suffolk)? If so I have a 25ft Folkboat which I have been restoring over several years.It is nearly ready to launch next spring. If you are near enoughto help with th final works, and youare interested I can help you laern abouyt sailing and when(if) we feel you are confident to sail in the River Deben to start with you can have half the use of her . Dennis Hawes 01394 386325
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Apologies to Anthony for being slightly off the main topic. I just wanted to say to Tim that I don't think he should dismiss all boats under 27ft as trailer sailors. There are some very competent boats in the 22-24 ft area (mainly the older designs I would propose) with some impressive voyages under their keels. I think you are much more likely to hit the stated budget with a boat of this size more or less ready to go. Obviously space on board is more limited and wheel steering is probably out of the question. However, if the aim of the first boat is to gain experience without over stretching the budget then adjusting the size down a little would still allow a lot of experience to be gained but leave more cash to put towards the long term cruising objective. Last year(?) Practical Boat Owner ran an excellent series called 'Blue Chip Boats' that reviewed a fair number of older boats from 17ft to 40+ ft with guide pricing and what problems to look for. Well worth getting hold of if you can. Also worth getting 'The Rya Book of Buying Your First Sailing Cruiser' for advice on the technicalities. Anyway, I have probably taken up more space than my limited knowledge would justify so I'll make room for more esteemed colleagues.
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All that you say Paul makes perfect sense. I have owned yachts from 18'6" up to 37' and each one has had something good about them. There are so many 'pocket cruisers' that have made long voyages, so it is not the size that is the main criteria, but the crew. This means they should get the experience and the knowleldge, learn how to handle the boat and just use common sense. Of course size does come into as far as stowage and comfort are concerned, but as the Dutch say...'the smaller the boat the greater the fun.'
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 Hi Tim, I agree with most of the above - your budget is a bit slim for over 27 ft. However, it's not impossible. Don't expect, or look for, anything wonderfull below decks. Learn to cope with the situation as you find it - that's a big part of sailing. As to the rigging, you should set it up yourself. Lazy jacks - very necessary - are easy, but there are many different ways to do it. You should learn about this by doing it yourself. The same goes for all other aspects of the boat - self sufficiency is vital to long distance cruising, and sorting out your 'starter' boat will help you to get the right thing when you buy 'the big one' as well as give you the experience. I assume that you want wheel steering as you expect your big boat to have that and want to get the appropriate exterience - that's a good point. There's a lot more to it than just learning to sail - best to do that in a dinghy anyway. I've returned to dinghy sailing in the last couple of years and my cruiser sailing has improved no end!
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Now, Anthony, This blog seems to have wandered off your needs. Or has it? Come back to us and let us know how you're getting on. Regards, Ben
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