Blow Botes indeed!

W

Wannafish

floppy member
I'm getting the feeling I may be the only one here with a sailboat. I'd like to fix that - I have one of mine for sale. If someone here buys it there will be two of us! Not to mention the fact that I'll make a generous donation to the site.:thumb:

For those who have never been sailing, it may surprise you as to how quiet it is. Sure, it takes a little work to get out on the water, but once you're there it's nice and relaxing. You can hear the water rushing (ok...maybe "rushing" isn't really the right word here) past the hull, the wind in the sails, the birds calling to each other. Kicked back with one foot up on the wheel to hold you on course and a cold one by your side (ouch - just kidding dear). Serenity.
Remember, with sailing it's all about the trip, not the destination.
 
For those of you not lucky enough to have sailed solo, this is a story I picked up elsewhere, but it sounds identicle to the relaxing trips I've taken...

"Well today is, Sunday the 17 Feb 2008, BF piked it, said he was feeling a little under the weather. Not me I was going for a sailing, solo. Put everything away down below, a quick trip to the bins to get rid of the empties and rubbish. Double check everything and headed out of the Marina. Head into the wind with the engine just over idle giving 3 knots (no auto pilot), lock the wheel and sprint to the mast grab main halyard and winch away, nothing. ... Realise the main halyard is still connected to the topping lift. Rush back to the wheel, unlock and correct course, try to release halyard shackle, but it is still under tension. Correct course lock wheel. Rush to the mast release halyard run to wheel correct course, lock wheel, remove halyard and take to mast attach to main. Rush back to the wheel correct course lock wheel, stagger to mast and pull up main. Main stops at the second spreaders won’t go up, will come down. Stumble to wheel correct course and study situation, whilst sucking in large quantities of air. Realise main halyard is on the wrong side of the lazy jack line. Lock wheel run to mast drop the main, redo halyard hoist main.... main only gets to the first spreaders (feel heart attack building). Pull on halyard harder. Engine revs, drop main as the third reefing line is around the engine controls. run to wheel correct course, untangle reef line move it out of the way lock wheel stumble to mast start to raise main reef line now hooked on stanchion gate, lower main shake boom while shouting a bad word or two, line come free sail goes up, stagger to cockpit, wait for the heart attack. After calming down and now doing 2.5 knots with just the main up, and a nice main it is, I get passed by a boat with about 10 people on it. Got to go faster ,so now I have my breath back and the throbbing between my ears has stopped it’s time to let out the Genoa, release the furler sheet and pull on the Genoa sheet, perfect, no winch handle, it is still on the mast. Luff up into the wind, pull the sheet in tight then bring her back off the wind and all is good with the world. Who needs a winch handle? I did go up and get it latter. And that was the bad part; the rest of the day was a great solo day with lots of tacking and just playing around. In fact, I think I will do it all again tomorrow as I had the biggest smile on my face once things got sorted."
 
I've never sailed but I bet it would be serene. With gas prices you might find a few converts before this madness is all over with!
 
Doc said:
I've never sailed but I bet it would be serene. With gas prices you might find a few converts before this madness is all over with!
Click to expand...

My wife tells me I never was too bright (and I agree with her, saying I married her didn't I) and when I sold my sailboat and bought a 30' SeaRay this past winter she brought it up again. I put $200 worth of fuel in it yesterday and it added - wow - a whopping 1/4 tank to each side. Whee!
If I had any ambition I'd get my big sail boat finished and on the water...but I can't afford to now!
:evil:

Go fast or stay home!
 
Hey Weeb, how about a pic of your sailboat?

Your right Wannafish, sailboats will be hot items with gas prices going through the roof. At one dollar more per gallon, which is what I'm afriad it will be for us this year, it will run us 200 EXTRA dollars to fill up the houseboat. That's for 200 gallons. Normally I can top her off with 150 or 160 gallons, so then it would only be 150 bucks extra a tankfull. :pat: At least we were getting about one month of boating out of a tankful. Doable but I'm dreading the gas fees.
 
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