I'm outing myself

[Gringo]

I'm hoping I have a slight advantage over the "yachtsmen" if and when we ever get involved in mini-cruising in a sailboat. That advantage is that after a career spent mostly on large vessels, and now being a confirmed center-console power boat and fishing enthusiast......I KNOW what pisses ME off about some of these sailors and how they act at sea. It's the same assholes who ride their eleventy six thousand dollar, thirty one ounce, unobtainium framed, 49 speed effing bicycle right down the middle of your pavement on a twisting, mountain two lane just because it's their legal right to do so. Take off that pointy- helmet, unclip them carbon fiber soles from their triple ball bearing pedals, exchange the neon lycra for a Hood Sails or Members Only jacket....and you gotcher freekin' yachtsman.

And I know this attitude. I used to ride Centurys on a Klein Quantum...in New England no less I chit you not. I am talking Ted Kennedy country. I know the breed.

And I ain't ever gonna be one of them. I will put my sails down and motor when I am approaching or leaving a harbor. Quietly. I ain't gonna zig zag across some channel and up to the dock to prove I can do it. I will put my sails up when the wind is going in a direction I like, and we are travelling from one island maybe thirty to forty miles to another island. Ain't NO power boater ever, ever going to have to alter his course to avoid me, unless he's pulling out to pass me while I chug along under power at under ten knots. I'll be on the right side of the channel, in the slow lane. When I anchor up somewhere in the lee, I will be putting my hook someplace where there is no chance I am going to foul someone else's anchor lines. My boat ain't gonna swing into them when the tide or wind changes, either. I will be sleeping aboard the boat myself, and I am pretty damned sure a strumming or slapping shroud or clanking block that kept me awake would be a top priority to shut up. And I am a real light sleeper myself.

Tell me, what do you think your total cost would be to purchase a second hand, 30+ foot power boat comfy enough to live on, sleeps 6, for several months of the year working your way down from, say, Florida through the bahamas, as far down as the BVI, at least, and then back? Figuring fuel, oil, etc.?

But then I always been a big fan of wind powered toys and things that fly.

[Deep C]

No closet case here... Tried sailing just once... Columbus I am not...Corpus Christie-Key West- Key Largo- Mayorca ... Heeled over for 8 hours on a port tack and eight on a starboard at six knots for what seemed like a life time sucked... I did give it a try though.

I'm impressed at the testicular fortitude it took to say you like reading about it just don't go so far as to say you actually like any of those maple leaf flying rag fag navigational hazzards we have in profusion down here. That would dim my opinion of you good sir.

[randall r]

good analogy gringo.....i ride my bike to the beach barefoot with a surfboard under one arm.......i always laugh at the jersey and helmet guys...sailing.s the same. BTW...not everyone's a fisherman...theres this whole MY thing going on also...just the power boat equivalent of the blazer and ascot guys...actually....the same guys

[Gringo]

I think I understand both groups, those who love power boats, and those who love sail boats. Me.....I just love boats.

Perhaps another description might be that a power boat is for those who need to get from" A" to " B."

Sailboats are for those who just need to leave "A".

[ocnslr]

My first two boats were small outboard runabouts. My next two boats were family sailboats. The current boat is in the signature.

I've sailed small boats up and down the Chesapeake Bay, from Norfolk, VA to Nantucket. As a U.S. Navy Senior Offshore Skipper, I've taught sailing on midshipman cruises in the summer, and in the winter in Key West. My Merchant Marine Masters license is 1600-Tons, Steam, Motor or Sail.

I'm like Gringo. Happy to be on a boat. Happy to own a boat. Happy to mess around in boats. I'm very lucky to be married to a crazed fisherwoman, so we are out on "C-Time" a lot. But I have two friends with sailboats - 30 and 38-foot - and I can use them whenever I want.

Certainly understand the (negative) comments about ignorant sailors who really don't understand the rules, or inconsiderate sailors who let halyards slap at night. But there are just as many "ejeets" (as my Irish grandmother called them) on both stinkpots and ragbags.

I will say that the U.S. Naval Academy, and many other maritime institutions. use sailing vessels to teach seamanship, navigation, and teamwork. You just have to know the elements, and Mother Nature, a lot better when six knots is all you've got in the locker.

Brian

[iguana1]

We are planning to go cruising for at least a year when the kids get older say 5 and 8. Probably a cat, and probably go from New England -> Caribbean -> Panama -> Alaska. We have done several bareboats and the lifestyle is very appealing to us.

That said, there is a certain type of sailor that is annoying. I worked in a sail loft in high school in the winters and bullraked clams in the summer so I knew the type. The guy that would run over your anchor line with his keel and then start screaming at you. Box - for that halyard guy, try this one - throw a handful of random stainless hardware on his foredeck so he gets a free trip up the mast (or likely will pay someone else) to find the problem.

For a really good read, try this guy who is a charter captain who has fished the world under sail.

http://www.scottbannerot.com/about_us.html
http://www.amazon.com/Cruisers-Handb.../dp/0071427880

I sailed to the USVI with my wife's uncle a couple years back. Fished the whole way, one whitey, one YF and more mahi than we knew what to do with. We didn't go a day without a bite.

[trollman]

i too stared my boating career on a canvas blower.

i don't really see your admission, that you simply like reading sailboat stories, as coming out of any closet. you are still a power boater right?

you like reading about other things too right, doesnlt mean you become one of them.

so relax. anything else you wanna admit to?

are you one of the fathers of Anna Nicole's kid?

[RobB]

They usually dont let them overnight in our marina because they always rob the bathrooms of all the toilet paper etc. But they complain if we lock the bathroom.

[Mike Boehler]

i too stared my boating career on a canvas blower.

i don't really see your admission, that you simply like reading sailboat stories, as coming out of any closet. you are still a power boater right?

you like reading about other things too right, doesnlt mean you become one of them.

so relax. anything else you wanna admit to?

are you one of the fathers of Anna Nicole's kid?

As it seems you are one of few who read my post, I admit to admiring the writing of cruisers.

The closest I've ever been to being on a sailboat is when the Yamaha blew up on my center console.
Nope, never been on one, but this thread is as interesting as I thought it might be for a sportfishing board. After all its winter up here and this has been somewhat more entertaining than watching the ice build on my driveway.

I will admit to considering a vacation on a chartered cat, just capt./wife and me and my wife. I think it would be a relaxing vacation.

Might as well call me Mike Clemens: I ADMIT TO NOTHING, you must've "miss-remembered" what you read above...

I gotta stop using my real name on these boards.

[Fissues]

I sailed my whole life professionally, raced the world, won the locals, new englands, nationals, worlds and then I caught my first tuna. Never steped on a f..kin blowboat again. I'd rather read about them!