Any boaters?

[Pahonu]

Never been a blow-boater.

"Blow boaters are only friendly when they want to borrow some Grey Poupon."

Always preferred the cruiser.

Old adage1: Best 2 days for a boater are: the day he buys it, and the day he sells it.

Old adage2: Boats are just a hole in the water that you just keep throwing money into.

Another old adage: Power boaters aren’t sailors, they’re drivers on the water. Put them in a sailboat without a motor and they go nowhere fast.

Seriously, I have both sailed and cruised for about 30 years, and I think the biggest mistake people make is in assuming how much they will use the boat given the circumstances. By circumstances, I mean how easy and quick it is to get on the water. If you have to hitch up the trailer and drive two hours to the boat ramp then you will use it less than if it’s slipped in the water a few minutes away. That’s why my wife and I made the decision to buy a small condo on a marina in Alamitos Bay, Long Beach back in the 90’s.

We knew we wanted to be on (and in) the water (she did Masters Swimming early this morning) so we prioritized it ahead of everything else. We have no yard or garage or even a third bedroom. It’s a pretty small place that most families would not choose, but we can walk downstairs and go for a paddle on one of our kayaks, or take the dinghy to lunch as several local places have guest docks. It’s mostly my son and I who actually sail together now, but we have also had so many great times over the years with friends “dock sailing” as we call socializing aboard in the slip. On occasion other neighbors are doing the same, and sometimes we go out on each other’s boats.

We pay more to live in a very small place on a marina than for a much bigger place inland. We also pay for a slip rather than keeping it on a trailer in a driveway for free. However, I honestly think that if you do the math on what we spend versus how much more we use our various watercraft, it’s not even close. Very few weekends go by where someone in the family doesn’t do something with them (Southern California weather helps). A friend of mine from work who lives inland has two jet skis which he uses MAYBE 6-8 times a year, versus my family at 40-50+, sometimes more than once in a week.

It’s funny this topic came up because my son and a college buddy went for a paddle together yesterday afternoon, and my wife and I just got back from a very late breakfast at a local restaurant via our inflatable. Nobody even left Alamitos Bay but it’s just wonderful to be out on the water and see all the activity.

[80s Big Hair]

Our pontoon boat is stored on a trailer most of the year in the boathouse because it will get wrecked by ice in the winter. Also nobody lives up there all the time and I want to keep people from stealing it in the summer. It comes out to be on the dock on our property in a small* lake when people are up there in the summer and it gets used almost everyday (dinner swims around for free in the lake). I did not put it in the water the last time I was up there because it is still sort of chilly up there (so instead I just stood around in cold water putting in a dock because that sounded pleasant). I will probably be back up there on Tuesday so maybe it will be warm enough to take a picture of it in the water. I'll take a picture of the small sailboat for Pahonu to analyze as well. Also if you have jet skis Pahonu your boat count increases from 5 to at least 7 (still not sure I should be including kayaks and rowboats).

*The lake seems small to me, but I am used to the Great Lakes so I have a wacky frame of reference.

[Pahonu]

Our pontoon boat is stored on a trailer most of the year in the boathouse because it will get wrecked by ice in the winter. Also nobody lives up there all the time and I want to keep people from stealing it in the summer. It comes out to be on the dock on our property in a small* lake when people are up there in the summer and it gets used almost everyday (dinner swims around for free in the lake). I did not put it in the water the last time I was up there because it is still sort of chilly up there (so instead I just stood around in cold water putting in a dock because that sounded pleasant). I will probably be back up there on Tuesday so maybe it will be warm enough to take a picture of it in the water. I'll take a picture of the small sailboat for Pahonu to analyze as well. Also if you have jet skis Pahonu your boat count increases from 5 to at least 7 (still not sure I should be including kayaks and rowboats).

*The lake seems small to me, but I am used to the Great Lakes so I have a wacky frame of reference.

I don’t have jet skis, that was a friend of mine I work with. Without kayaks, I have the Columbia, the Achilles, and the Sabot, so three.

Maybe I can figure out what the sailboat is?

[Chris109]

Ok, which of you sailboaters is this? You know it's NOT the boat's fault so why take it out on the poor thing?

[terryfromkerry]

As Bugs Bunny would say ......
"What a maroon"!

[T.Q.]

Ok, which of you sailboaters is this? You know it's NOT the boat's fault so why take it out on the poor thing?

I'm strictly my little skiff with 150hp.

[80s Big Hair]

The small (14 foot) sailboat for everyone to be in awe over. I am not up there now. These pictures were taken the last time I was contemplating selling it.





The trailer needs new tires.

[Pahonu]

The small (14 foot) sailboat for everyone to be in awe over. I am not up there now. These pictures were taken the last time I was contemplating selling it.





The trailer needs new tires.

That’s an American 16 center board dinghy.

https://www.shortypen.com/?boat=291&d=A ... merican-16

The company was really known for building the Aqua Cat 12 catamaran, probably the second most popular cat after the Hobie 16.

https://sailboatdata.com/builder/americ ... glass-corp

[80s Big Hair]

Thanks for the information re: the sailboat Pahonu. You may own it for a mere $1,000 if you pick it up in northern Wisconsin. Since I doubt you have the slightest interest in doing that I will sell it somewhere up there. It should not be hard. The area has lots and lots of lakes and is very touristy in the summer. Maybe boats are so plentiful up there that the market will not allow a decent price. I will see. It does me no good taking up space in the boathouse regardless. It seems like a nice starter sailboat.

[Pahonu]

Thanks for the information re: the sailboat Pahonu. You may own it for a mere $1,000 if you pick it up in northern Wisconsin. Since I doubt you have the slightest interest in doing that I will sell it somewhere up there. It should not be hard. The area has lots and lots of lakes and is very touristy in the summer. Maybe boats are so plentiful up there that the market will not allow a decent price. I will see. It does me no good taking up space in the boathouse regardless. It seems like a nice starter sailboat.

Hard pass! My dinghy sailing days are long gone.

[Reef monkey]

"Blow boaters are only friendly when they want to borrow some Grey Poupon."

It only seems that way to stinkpot drivers because they whizz by too fast to see sailors waving back

I know there is a stereotype of sailors being Thurston Howell III types, but I've known sailors from all walks of life, and generally they're a very friendly community, welcoming to anyone who respects the sea and the rules of the road. If anything, I've found the unfriendliness to flow more from powerboaters to sailors than vice versa. The barrier to entry, knowledge-wise, is so much lower for powerboats than sailboats, you get a lot of people who don't respect safety on water, don't know the rules of the road, I've had to fall off, even jibe, to avoid powerboaters who didn't give way to me (getting hit by a wake from a too-close powerboat in the middle of a jibe is never fun), powerboaters who get impatient that I'm tacking upwind to get up the narrow channel into our cove, and gun it to zoom around me, even though it's a no-wake zone. And there are the "clever" comments, like the time I was just barely making headway to make it out of a marina surrounded by tall houses that blocked most of the wind, a powerboater tied up at the fuel dock drawled "yur gunna git a speedin' ticket!" So droll. And yet, running into these same kinds of powerboaters on the water, I've helped them push their boats off sandbars when they've ignored markers indicating shallow water, I've radioed the tow boat when they've run out of gas, didn't have a VHF, and didn't know who to call on their cell phones, even gave them some of my extra drinking water for while they waited, (and usually resisted the urge to say "that's the thing about a sailboat, she may be slower, but she never runs out of gas"); I'd never hesitate to offer assistance to anyone who needed it on the water.

Another old adage: Power boaters aren’t sailors, they’re drivers on the water. Put them in a sailboat without a motor and they go nowhere fast.

[Pahonu]

"Blow boaters are only friendly when they want to borrow some Grey Poupon."

It only seems that way to stinkpot drivers because they whizz by too fast to see sailors waving back

I know there is a stereotype of sailors being Thurston Howell III types, but I've known sailors from all walks of life, and generally they're a very friendly community, welcoming to anyone who respects the sea and the rules of the road. If anything, I've found the unfriendliness to flow more from powerboaters to sailors than vice versa. The barrier to entry, knowledge-wise, is so much lower for powerboats than sailboats, you get a lot of people who don't respect safety on water, don't know the rules of the road, I've had to fall off, even jibe, to avoid powerboaters who didn't give way to me (getting hit by a wake from a too-close powerboat in the middle of a jibe is never fun), powerboaters who get impatient that I'm tacking upwind to get up the narrow channel into our cove, and gun it to zoom around me, even though it's a no-wake zone. And there are the "clever" comments, like the time I was just barely making headway to make it out of a marina surrounded by tall houses that blocked most of the wind, a powerboater tied up at the fuel dock drawled "yur gunna git a speedin' ticket!" So droll. And yet, running into these same kinds of powerboaters on the water, I've helped them push their boats off sandbars when they've ignored markers indicating shallow water, I've radioed the tow boat when they've run out of gas, didn't have a VHF, and didn't know who to call on their cell phones, even gave them some of my extra drinking water for while they waited, (and usually resisted the urge to say "that's the thing about a sailboat, she may be slower, but she never runs out of gas"); I'd never hesitate to offer assistance to anyone who needed it on the water.

Well put!

[T.Q.]

This me going for gas and trying to 'not die' on the Atlantic.

[Pahonu]

This me going for gas and trying to 'not die' on the Atlantic.

The water looks beautiful!

You cheated death once again.

[Chris109]

This me going for gas and trying to 'not die' on the Atlantic.

You have that sail open full throttle, eh?