What boats did you grow up with?

[soin2la]

Seems a lot started with a canoe.
Our first family boat, before my time, was a canoe.
Was a home built, on the beach.
Was one piece cedar.
Tla'amin Nation, 1938.

 

[skipperguy]

Real first voyage

Forgot in my list of “priors”:Grammy and Grampy went Florida when I was about 7. We shared a side-by-side duplex with them. Climbed thru to their side of the attic during their absence and spotted an old steamer trunk. Looked seaworthy enough...... Emptied it, drug it down 2 flights to ground level and launched it into the flood waters of the nearby Hockanum River. (Had to sit to one side to offset list to other side due to trunk lid still attached). Several friends attended my launch but none agreed to join me........(wimps). I’ll never forget that feeling of elation when first underway....
Sooo thrilling ! Thrill was short-lived as I shortly ran “aground” on a large clump of skunk cabbage. My FIRST rescue at sea as friends pulled me to shore with an old piece of rotted clothesline rope (broke several times as I contemplated eternal stranding).
Didn’t drown and die and felt so great to be “saved “. (Did I mention that the entire voyage took place in waters about 1 1/2’ deep ?). This event set the tone for 73 subsequent years of floating adventure and I regret not a moment !

 

[HeadedToTexas]

We had a Boston Whaler Newport 17. Spent time around the western basin islands of Lake Erie and on the Caloosahatchee in Florida. Ran the Wilderness Waterway from Chokoloskee to Flamingo and back. Great boat. Dad sold it eventually. Other than that one, I've only seen two other in the wild, including one last weekend in Sandusky, Ohio

 

[Hippocampus]

Cape Dory 25
Cape Dory 30
Monitor 36
Tayana 37
South Hants England one off
Pacific Seacraft 34
Outbound 46

I learned to sail on a Wm. Fife ketch. I’ve raced some of my boats and hinckleys, one offs Jboats and others.

I sold the Outbound today!!

So actively looking for a trawler. I’m a total newbie on power other than helping on transports of new GBs back in the day.
Please please help me. Teach me. Excuse my lack of powerboat knowledge as I descend into the dark side -.

 

[Northern Spy]

A fairly pedestrian fleet (all before I was 18) that my family owned:

1971 14' Winner with a 55 Johnson

12' Mirrocraft rowboat on a private stocked pond and as long as I had my orange kapok and black lab, I could use it anytime during daylight hours.

Coleman canoe made out of heavy orange Ram-X material

1977 S2 6.8m sailboat

1981 Catalina 27 tall rig

When I went to school in 1984 I crewed a S&S 44 ex-SORC C-class boat.

 

[Art]

Cape Dory 25
Cape Dory 30
Monitor 36
Tayana 37
South Hants England one off
Pacific Seacraft 34
Outbound 46

I learned to sail on a Wm. Fife ketch. I’ve raced some of my boats and hinckleys, one offs Jboats and others.

I sold the Outbound today!!

So actively looking for a trawler. I’m a total newbie on power other than helping on transports of new GBs back in the day.
Please please help me. Teach me. Excuse my lack of powerboat knowledge as I descend into the dark side -.

Howdy Hipp!

Believe me, I am not picking on you - at all!!

I simply bring up the following now, because... "Descent into the Dark Side" has soooo [too] often been used as a soliloquy trying to define a pleasure boating person's mental state during transfer from sale to power.

May I respectfully input: Transfer from sale to power, rather than entering into the "Dark Side", is actually moving up to the "Sun Light Side"; regarding broad-view windows creating glorious sunlight inside a boat's confines. Also, if a power boat is so equipped [which many are] and persons are inclined to utilize the great [that's my experienced opinion] flying bridge - then a 360 degree view is awesome; cruising experience becomes and remains a visual extravaganza as well as nature-filled thrill!

Now - I surely don't mean to imply that there isn't a "light side" regarding less pollution factors when using a sailboat - "under sail only" that is. However, from numerous ways of gaining general boating knowledge, during my many decades of boating, I've consistently been appraised that sailboats travel under power approximately 60% of the time. Therefore, that form of defining "light side" regarding sailboats as compared to power boats became... well... a large %age less light.

In closing... with BIG smile on my face ... I confidently say!

Boat anyway you like, with any boat you like, at any time you like, with whoever you like....... Just please realize........Sail boating and power boating each contain their own "Dark Sides" and "Light Sides"

Never Forget: "Pleasure Boating" [of any kind] in and of its own volition is simply one of the very best ways to help us enjoy going through our productive years on this planet - Period!!

 

[Hippocampus]

I love boats. All boats as long as they are well designed, well made and well maintained. Many power boats are drop dead beautiful as form follows function. One of my first loves were the commuters and the Hand boats. I’ve never gotten the antagonism between sail and power. Even while enamored by sail I knew if it wasn’t for you guys there be no yards and no marinas. Harbors would be just condos and tourist traps. I’ve had great fun giant blue tuna and striper fishing. I’ve had great fun on commercial lobster boats. I even had good times delivering GB from Connecticut to Mass Bay. I was teasing. Now I’m an ex rag bagger but even before always felt we’re on the same team. It’s the rest of the world that thinks we’re nuts.
I’m looking forward to learning new skills and brushing up on my coastal piloting. I’m looking forward to not worrying about trim, rig, working lines and all the maintenance headaches that come with blue water sailing. Just dragging a couple of Cuban yo-yos will keep me happy as long as I’m on the water. Will close by saying quite frequently we had power folks in the cockpit bending an elbow. Boaters are a great crowd of folks and many both power and sail are good friends. Please don’t misconstrue a bad joke as a bad attitude.

 

[OldDan1943]

I love boats. All boats as long as they are well designed, well made and well maintained. Many power boats are drop dead beautiful as form follows function. One of my first loves were the commuters and the Hand boats. I’ve never gotten the antagonism between sail and power. Even while enamored by sail I knew if it wasn’t for you guys there be no yards and no marinas. Harbors would be just condos and tourist traps. I’ve had great fun giant blue tuna and striper fishing. I’ve had great fun on commercial lobster boats. I even had good times delivering GB from Connecticut to Mass Bay. I was teasing. Now I’m an ex rag bagger but even before always felt we’re on the same team. It’s the rest of the world that thinks we’re nuts.
I’m looking forward to learning new skills and brushing up on my coastal piloting. I’m looking forward to not worrying about trim, rig, working lines and all the maintenance headaches that come with blue water sailing. Just dragging a couple of Cuban yo-yos will keep me happy as long as I’m on the water. Will close by saying quite frequently we had power folks in the cockpit bending an elbow. Boaters are a great crowd of folks and many both power and sail are good friends. Please don’t misconstrue a bad joke as a bad attitude.

Boater, male and female, are all people looking to have a good time.

 

[Hippocampus]

Art had to get to the engine to record engine hours. Boat has traveled thousands of miles back and forth to the Caribbean from Newport. We had 1009 hours on the propulsion engine. Most of those getting through the saragasso sea. That’s over 7 years. And 49 hours on the genset. Only run AC when in a marina plugged in.
Yes it total drives me nuts to see a sailboat under power when there’s a nice wind blowing. Totally agree with you that the coastal or non liveaboard cruiser crowd don’t make use of what god gave them (the wind) nor the true function of their vessel.
As long as we’re talking a lot of sailboat people truly annoy me. They jump up and down saying the power crowd doesn’t know their Colregs. That blatantly untrue. Being a full time cruiser for 7 years and on boats for 30+ I’ve seen many more violations by sailors then power. They don’t understand a vessel that’s draft restricted, or limited ability to maneuver nor once they twist that key even if a sail is up they are just another powerboat. Similarly crewed for very experienced sailors who didn’t know about the A or B system of buoys or the day markers in the AICW. Navigation, tight quarter handling and 90% of maintenance is the same. Trimming sails is different and that’s the easy part.

 

[Art]

In addition to maybe not generally understanding coloregs, and, too often not clearly understanding that once the "key" has switched on their engine [even with their sails up] - that their sailboat therein performed the miraculous transition into becoming a "power" boat...

The most distasteful item I find exeuiding from some sailboat [and power boat] operators: Obvious feelings that their right-of-way holds "superiority" on the waters as compared to other boaters... of any type craft.

I'd estimate that my experience of "rules" offending sailboat operators is in the single digit %age ratio. I'd also say the %age ratio is about the same for power boat operators.

Mantra I follow; when dealing A Holes regarding rules, regs and especially right-of-way:

Here lies the body of one Michael O'Day

He died defending [enforcing] his right-of-way

Mike was right... dead right... as he cruised along!

However... He's just as dead as if he were wrong!!


Be safe. Be smart. Be careful. Enjoy every minute of boating!

 

[Hippocampus]

One of the colregs is to avoid collision. That rule supersedes all others. We’ve been fortunate. Our past cruising grounds allows 1/2. M or greater distance to avoid the entitled in most circumstances. Still get a smile when someone comes by in their dinghy and asks “what’s that black ball hanging there up front for?.“ Tell them it’s so I don’t have to pay anything out when that jet ski rams into me broadside.
Agree my view is skewed. Moved our cruising grounds from the leewards to the windwards and in the absence of charter boats things improved dramatically. Still, that 1 to 2 % have given the bride and I some memorable moments.
Because of the hard edges and the entitled find ocean or offshore less stressful then coastal

 

[Adelaide]

Bayliner Capri Cuddy. 16’ and my parents took it all over the San Juan’s. A true garage cuddy! Oh, the simple times back then! Great memories!