Puget Sound Boating

[tiltrider1]

If you can afford it the Seattle Yacht Club has 10 out stations from Gig Harbor to Desolation Sound for members only. Always a slip to be found, even in the summer. Private meeting rooms at the club house, moorage at the club house and reciprocals to many other great clubs around the world.

 

[BandB]

The key is finding the yacht club where you feel at home, but then marinas are the same way. So much variation in all of them. You see the Seattle club with all the outstations, you see cruising clubs vs. clubs with huge clubhouses and restaurants and large minimums in food purchases. In South Florida, we see clubs that have really evolved to become family activity centers. Lauderdale Yacht Club is one of the oldest but they have sailing programs for kids of all ages, an Olympic sized pool, plus tennis and fitness facilities, all in addition to the social aspect. Coral Ridge and Lighthouse Point have tremendous amenities. However, none of these have what I would term active cruising groups or programs. You see far more of that in the Chesapeake clubs.

It's much like marinas where South Florida marinas are largely full service with large staffs and deckhands and help while many PNW marinas are far more do it yourself, managed by the members. On the other hand they don't have to pay for all the extra services of a South Florida marina. But for those who want fuller service, then Seattle has those type marinas.

We all have to find what fits our needs. Clubs try to make you feel like if they invite you they're doing you some huge favor. No, it needs to be about what they can do for you.

We've been invited to and said not interested to many country clubs that hold no appeal whatsoever to us.

 

[Ventana]

We found that a lot of the clubs revolve around drinking, both at meetings if they have a club house, and at boating events. Not a complaint, as we did more than our fair share with the several organizations we joined in WA, but now that I can't drink and we have a young child it would make it a lot harder to find a compatible club. As others have said, check out several to see if there is a fit.
I did a lot of work for members of the Everett Yacht Club, attending some of their events because of that, but didn't feel like it was a good fit. We belonged to Milltown Sailing Association in Everett for several years and found them a fun group. We also belonged to Puget Sound Cruising Club (I guess we still do as there is no way to "unjoin") and really enjoyed their seminars and raft-ups. When we lived aboard in Seattle a lot of folks there belonged to the Sloop Tavern Yacht Club. We were also invited to join Seattle Yacht Club but the cost was beyond our budget.
For chartering, I would suggest looking further north. A week in Desolation sound on a trawler and there will be no turning back. Lots of good charter options here from a Ranger Tug to a Grand Banks.



Charter Fleet - Desolation Sound Yacht Charters


https://www.nanaimoyachtcharters.com/boat-listing/

 

[BandB]

We found that a lot of the clubs revolve around drinking, both at meetings if they have a club house, and at boating events.

We've observed that as well and as group drinking holds no interest for us, we have no interest in such clubs. It's not just not caring to drink with them, but we just have no desire to be around a group of people consuming large amounts of alcohol.

 

[sdupleich]

We've observed that as well and as group drinking holds no interest for us, we have no interest in such clubs. It's not just not caring to drink with them, but we just have no desire to be around a group of people consuming large amounts of alcohol.

Not sure if it's different in Florida or? The club we belong to is a bunch of nice families and couples, no big partiers in the group which makes for a nice atmosphere. That's why it's good to attend a free introductory event first to see if the group matches your lifestyle. We attended a meeting one time for a local club and most of the members seemed to be 70+ so we opted not to join. Just like finding the right boat, sometimes it takes a few tries to find the right club but when you do it can greatly enhance your experience on the water.

 

[rsn48]

I live an hour's drive south of where my boat is moored. I feel the hours drive buys me more boating locations that are quite interesting destinations.

I checked where if I lived in Everett I might keep a boat and Clinton on Whidby Island looks interesting. There is the Sandy Hook Yacht Club in Clinton, or maybe something on Camano Island.

 

[rsn48]

So I'm writing this the next day after my above post - translation: I can't edit my post, I'm writing to disagree with me. Upon thinking about it and time travel, I agree with another poster here who suggested Anacortes, this allows an excellent jump off point for all things cruising great from the Alaska Pan Handle down. You will go further than the San Quan's bouncing over to the Gulf Islands, then up to Jarvis Inlet (and Princess Louisa Inlet), then to Desolation Sound and finally the Broughtons as you gain experience and confidence in your new - to you - boat.

 

[JLD]

Wifey B: Go to a golf forum and ask if you should take up tennis or golf and see what answers you get.

The last few weeks we've been limited to weekends and oh my thank god we had speed.

I'd suggest talking to some others, for instance maybe find a Sea Ray group or something and talk. Compare notes. There's a reason most weekend boaters, especially those with kids, don't have trawlers. They're still living life in a way that time is even a more precious resource than money. Then when they retire, it reverses.

How old are you? Who will be with you? Look at what others similar to you have. The "starter trawler" arose in this discussion. I'd suggest think "starter boat" and it's likely smaller and faster. You don't need the same space and amenities for 2-3 day cruises that you do for 6 month cruises. Don't need to carry as much with you. Can live a little more cramped because when you reach the destination it's going to be "run wild" time.

You can get like a 30' Sundancer for $50k and people will tell you gas engines and stern drives won't last as long, but how many hours a year will you actually use it and it can be kept perfect in dry storage. Or older Sedan Bridges for half that or 34-35' for double that and then into diesel inboards. A ton of Bayliners in your area since they were built nearby.

Go to Yacht World and play around. I just found a 30' Apreamare for $75k. Twin DD's. Detroit Diesels guys.....there's more than one type DD. Cruise at 23 knots. Some Nordic Tugs cruise 7-12 knots with WOT of 15-17. Bayliner 3288's, a great place to start.

Don't think type boat or label, but think of you and your use and your experience. This isn't your retirement boat to cruise the world. This is your boat to get out on the water and enjoy and learn and then dream of the retirement boat but know what you want by the time you get there.

The big Sea Ray on-line group is ClubSeaRay.com Sea Ray has produced a LOT of boats over the last 50 years, and the ClubSeaRay forum is a quite active forum. I have spent a lot of time on the ClubSeaRay forum over the last couple of weeks as I am currently crushing on the 2003 - 2006 Sundancer 320/340/360 express cruisers. I really like the Sundancer 360, but have a 320 budget!

The smaller Sundancer's have sterndrive (I/O), but when you move up to the 320+, they almost all have inboards with V-drives. A little bit more complicated that a straight drive, but the benefit is that the helm is not right on top of the engines and it gives a fairly large mid-cabin berth area.

Jim

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

To Loop and the other newbies, welcome to TF

 

[dhays]

I’m late to this party but welcome!

I’ve boated in the South Sound all my life. We keep our boat in Gig Harbor and use the boat a lot on weekends. 4 hours of 7 knot cruising will get us to Olympia or Poulsbo. I is about 10 hours to LaConner. As others have mentioned, NWcruisers.net is a great resource for planning trip speed with a slow boat. Combine than with Deepzoom.com and you can then easily factor in current.

We have a boat that cruises economically at 7 knots and we will sometimes run at 8 to 8.5 knots if we are in a hurry. There are times when more speed would be nice, but for the most part I am very happy with burning 2 gph and enjoying the trip.