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I think I want a sailboat. My nautical experience is limited to drinking beer on other people's boats so I'm going to try to take some classes in the spring but I was hoping you could help me set my expectations. I've noticed that there always seem to be $800 dinghy/trailers on Craigslist which I assume would be good for taking to local lakes. How big of a money pit would a boat like that be? Is there a point where (sail)boating goes from cheap and cheerful to hilariously expensive? Should I just got full AI and buy a $2000 Catalina full of spiders and tow it around with a beater Camry?
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Oct 13, 2016 19:17
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Boys who love boys
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 00:21 |
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Big Taint posted:When you buy one. Turns out I know a guy who knows a guy with a '73 Catalina for sale. I might be making a huge mistake soon.
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Jan 25, 2017 02:48
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Adiabatic posted:doitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoit On it. We're taking a look at the boat Sunday. That doesn't sound too far off my expectations, at least for this season. It helps that I'll be parking it in my buddy's back yard, and he's got a pool and smokes a mean tri-tip.
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Jan 25, 2017 22:36
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 I've made a huge mistake.
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Jan 29, 2017 22:08
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Yeah, no kidding. There's a big plow berm right in front of it. Hopefully the next week or two will be warm and I'll be able to knock it down and tow it home. The boat is super clean. I wouldn't hesitate to eat off the bilges and all of the cabin upholstery is original and in great shape. The deck needs a scrub, and if I end up keeping her in a slip I'll want to put on a new coat of bottom paint. Rigging and sails look good, there's a 6hp Johnson outboard so she should be close to ready to sail. Right now she's named Tiramisu, but I'm thinking about calling her S/V Lemon Party on account of the color.
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Jan 30, 2017 01:37
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Jfc, I'm never going to get this boat. The highway there has been closed almost all February because of flooding and mudslides. We finally had a dry week and Caltrans has managed to get the road open (with 15 miles of one-lane) and now it's going to snow Sunday (only day that works for the seller.) Why is all this water keeping me from my boat? 
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Mar 2, 2017 22:11
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FrozenVent posted:Mother nature is trying to help you. Realize that once you buy the boat she will actively try to bankrup and / or kill you. Nah, she's had it out for me for a while. My last money pit hobby (is) was snowboarding, so I bought a couple of passes and rented a crash pad. The next four seasons were a drought. This summer I decided not to renew my pass, historic snow!
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Mar 2, 2017 23:45
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I bought a boat!   It's a 1973 Catalina 22, hull 2640. She's pretty original, but looks complete and is in respectable condition for being 44 years old. Hopefully I'll have a chance in the next few weeks to stand the rig and see if anything is missing or in need of repair. Right now, I know I'll need to take a good look at the keel pivot hardware. I can see the brass rod the cast-iron keel hangs from worn down slightly in the center. If I'm lucky, the hole in the keel hasn't grown by much so I can get away with just replacing the brass rod. I'll also need to do something about the electrical system if I plan to be out after dark. There's no battery, and the factory lights aren't great. I've got some grand ideas but will probably make something out of freebie Harbor Freight flashlights and tape for the time being. Oh, also, I need to learn how to sail.
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Mar 17, 2017 07:02
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FrozenVent posted:You might want to invest in actual lights that'll meet regulatory- Ha, yeah. Technically my lights are legal (grandfathered) they're just poo poo. I'm only going to be sailing on lakes during the day, so I'm not too worried. I do plan on adding more visible nav lights to the bow pulpit and a anchor light on the masthead, but in due time. FrozenVent posted:Start here. I've been hitting up used book stores for Nigel Calder and Don Casey books, and a shop manual for the outboard. If you have any other books you'd recommend please do so. I'm also trying to arrange sailing lessons from a local aquatic center so I won't be a total idiot and danger to everyone around me.
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Mar 17, 2017 17:38
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FrozenVent posted:Get Calder's boat and Don Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual, that'll more than cover you on maintenance and prep. Take everything people at the marina with a grain of salt - I had someone tell me to replace my antifouling with Home Depot porch paint recently. Hey, if the paint peels off in giant patches, that still counts as ablative right? I want to get a couple of private lessons for me and my fiancé in before we launch our boat, then sail with some family members who are fairly experienced sailors. Popete posted:If your local marina has racing events try and join up as a crewman on someone else boat. You'll learn really fast being on a race crew and day sailing will feel like a breeze. I don't think there's an active racing scene for anything much larger than beach cats nearby, but my friend's dad has an Express 27 on the lake and and races OPB on the bay sometimes. I'm going to be leaning on for advice and hopefully he will let me crew for him or make some introductions for me. Once I get the hang of things, there are two C22 fleets on lakes 1-2hours south which might be fun if I can round up a crew.
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Mar 17, 2017 18:48
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Anyone have electric brakes on their boat trailer? My surge brake master is toast, and a new coupler and lines would be more expensive than buying electric drum servos and a brake controller. And having a button to apply the trailer brakes sounds reassuring.
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Apr 24, 2017 01:17
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Yeah, that's doing it right but a little out of my budget at the moment. And triple the value of the trailer they would go on. I'll probably end up grinding off the existing welded-on coupler, bolt a new one on and just live with surge brakes.
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Apr 24, 2017 01:59
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Scrapez posted:How much weight are you towing? My trailer's GVWR is 5000, I doubt the total weight will is over 3600lbs. I'll only be launching in freshwater for the foreseeable future. I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself. Who knows if new brakes will even fit my weirdo square, 2500lb axels from 1974.
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Apr 24, 2017 07:29
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I don't think I've ever heard a worry about EOH. In my case, EOH is out on account of cost. I will try to stick with the drums I have and either replace the wheel cylinders or switch to 10" electrics. Even if the electrics only hold for a season or two they're cheap enough that I can deal with it, and as a trailer noob I'm terrified of sway coming downhill.
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Apr 26, 2017 18:03
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Big Taint posted:Those exist? I guess. Could just be the Internet pulling my leg. And why do they call it EOH? Shouldn't it be Hydraulic over Electric since the brake signal is transmitted electronically? HOE brakes, rite?
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Apr 27, 2017 20:02
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This is all getting much to complicated. I'm just going to run a line up to the the window of the truck. If I release it, it will drop an old anchor that's chained to the trailer to slow me down.
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Apr 28, 2017 02:59
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Ended up ordering a new actuator and drum assemblies. Unfortunately, everything is on back-order because it's fix-yer-trailer season. In the meantime I got to work replacing my keel hanger bolts. Three of the four were replaced easily. Number four was a rough pentagon or rust so I went at it with a bolt remover, impact driver and a big hammer. It turns out I'm not the first to attempt pulling this sword from the stone:  That's some PO's eZ-out. Looks like I'll need to cut a hole in my pristine sole so I can grind out the weldment. I guess it's good I wasn't planning on sailing any time soon.
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May 8, 2017 20:27
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wallaka posted:...however I DID notice a spark jumping from the CDI box to the ground point on the engine block every so often, maybe 10-20 seconds apart. There doesn't seem to be a rhythm to it. The epoxy on the box isn't burned anywhere, could this just be a bad ground connection causing it to arc? I don't know outboards, but that doesn't sound right at all. Is it oily at all? I would definitely check all connections and grounds, and go from there.
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May 11, 2017 04:32
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wallaka posted:It's plausibly oily, as is everything on a 30-year-old two-stroke engine. I will clean all connections and see if it persists. 'Well preserved' is how I would describe my 1975 6hp. Lightly pickled maybe. Where exactly are you seeing the spark? Is it the connector marked 44 on this parts diagram?
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May 11, 2017 07:00
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wallaka posted:It's similar. It's a ring terminal that goes around the mounting bolt. Is it still doing it after cleaning/reseating? If you see arcing at a ground point, that's a problem.
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May 14, 2017 02:01
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Oscillating tools are pretty cool.  I'll glass in a new one this weekend and hopefully stand the mast for the first time. And maybe fix my trailer. Has anyone used those little chrome solar powered vent fans on their boat? Do they move enough air to keep a small boat, a Catalina 22 specifically, fresh while sailing/camping out or is it more of a way to keep your boat from getting funky in the slip?
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May 18, 2017 05:38
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Layin' glass and raisin' masts.  Sealed my weldments under 6 layers of cloth and epoxy. And we raised the mast for the first time: https://youtu.be/-il1iTGwABs This weeks goals: Figuring out my running rigging and installing new trailer brakes.
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May 22, 2017 01:38
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I hope you goons are out on the water this weekend and not sweating in a back yard like me. I'm almost done with the trailer: i cleaned and primed some rusty spots, welded a couple of inches onto the tongue so I could bolt on a surge coupler and I've replaced the brakes on the rear axle. Tomorrow I should be able to install the new brake lines and give the boat a wash. Then I should be ready to launch next Saturday.
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May 29, 2017 01:13
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Kenshin posted:Sunday on Puget Sound out of Shilshole Marina on a C&C 27 Took me three tries not to read that as Shithole Marina. Trailer is done. Next weekend I'm going to embarrass the poo poo out of myself as start a few fights with my wife trying to launch, sail and retrieve my boat. Is there anything like a p-plate for boats? Something that will signal to other boaters that I am an idiot and to give me wide berth?
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May 30, 2017 19:18
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Haha, I was going to mention fenders out. I'm not sure if that conveys the depth of my incompetence. Maybe I should drag my lot of fencers behind the boat.
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May 30, 2017 23:04
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Do they make a label maker large enough for me to label my jib and main? Both will be marked SAIL of course.
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May 30, 2017 23:27
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The Risk posted:Don't sail with people that need these labels 😂 I am the boat babby. 
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May 31, 2017 00:58
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I popped my boating cherry today. We took our Catalina out to Lake Oroville for a sail today. We had an easy time rigging it, launched it from the trailer smoothly and then I snapped the fuel fitting on my outboard when I lowered it into the water.  Lucky my uncle was able to run into town for a new one so we got to drift around in 3kts of breeze drinking champagne and eating sandwiches. A++ will sail again.
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Jun 4, 2017 04:53
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bird cooch posted:Brought my boat home today, my wife is ok with it. I thought you were towing that with a Ranger for a second. Takes some good boat to make an F350 look small. Looks good!
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Jun 6, 2017 18:29
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n0tqu1tesane posted:I've only been spending a couple hours a night on it, and as such it's one of those things that looks good from 10 feet, but up close you can see all the glaring flaws. Of course, that may just be because I'm the one building it. If it lets you drink beer on a lake it's perfect. If I didn't have a bunch of other projects I'd love to build something like that to leave up at my buddy's cabin.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:09
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Is 105F too hot to go sailing? I think I might be able to survive rigging and launching, but I don't have a Bimini so I'm afraid I'll cook, even if I avoid running DDW.
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Jun 23, 2017 01:47
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bird cooch posted:Putting the boat in tomorrow. please God nothing break. I have no knuckles left to skin. Amen.
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Jun 30, 2017 07:39
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beep-beep car is go posted:I've always wondered, how do you sleep? Can you like, just stop sailing for 8 hours and go to bed? Do you have to pull out of a shipping (sailing?) lane and just float for a bit? Do you have to make sure your ports are one days sail apart? Singlehanded sailing and especially offshore racing is crazy. They just sail, non-stop. Cruisers on a passage too. Going two weeks or more, never sleeping more than 45 minutes consecutively while under high physical and cognitive demands sound like either a sure ticket to achieving Nirvana or complete breakdown.
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Jun 30, 2017 21:06
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Kenshin posted:Yep. To clarify, I really, really, REALLY want to do ocean crossings at some point, but not solo, and not in a boat shorter than about 45'. Yes. But my brain is broken and I like the idea of sailing s 32' to Hawaii by myself.
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Jun 30, 2017 21:12
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I went sailing unsupervised for the first time yesterday. There is a wildfire threatening the launch I use on the main part of the lake (Bidwell Canyon, Lake Oroville) so I had to launch way up a fork. We were in pretty steep canyons, and had the wind at our backs outbound so I brought out the whisker pole and sailed wing-and-wing. The wind wasn't steady so after an unexpected gybe I rigged up a preventer and pretended I knew what I was doing. I looked less polished when trying to anchor up for swimming. Think I need to carry a spike or something that I can drive into the shore and tie the bow up to, also I need to get gud at setting a stern anchor. Wakes from passing motorboats were moving us around pretty good. Also, I need to double check I've removed the bow ladder before I get back underway. That's gotta be worse than fenders out. 
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Jul 10, 2017 17:37
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Kenshin posted:Finally found a marine surveyor in St Thomas who is going to be able to do a pre-survey inspection for me for the 35' sailboat that is at the top of my interest list. Survey? If my extensive watching of "quit my job to sail around" youtube channels had taught me anything it's that's skipping the survey and blindly buying the first/superficially prettiest boat you see is the secret to entertaining content. So, please think of the thread while you buy your boat.
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Jul 12, 2017 17:15
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Kenshin posted:...Tri-Cabin ... Ah, so plenty of room for random internet people to visit. Congrats man!
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Jul 25, 2017 19:04
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Looks like Irma is just about to roll over the USVI. Hope you and your boat are safe Kenshin.
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Sep 6, 2017 16:38
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Yeah. Totally. If you want to dump more money than you should into a questionable hull just hit up you local craigslist. No need to go chasing hurricanes.
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Sep 7, 2017 23:00
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 00:21 |
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In that case, take pictures and post frequently.
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Sep 8, 2017 01:10
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