[capttb]

Bought my first keelboat 7 months ago, retired 1 month ago. Boat was 100 miles from home, drove me crazy to be at work. I took all the wood from the interior, piece by piece and would spent all day at work sanding and refinishing, everything, doors, paneling. Just didn''t have enough time to sail & tune the boat. It worked okay cause I wouldn''t take all that time to do the wood now when it''s warm & I can sail.
I had trailer boats my whole life and the dream was always my own keelboat in the water. Keep chartering as many different boats to figure out what you like, don''t like, can live with or can''t live without.
Have you considered a trailerable ? It''s generally a pain to rig everytime you launch, but if it''s something you can keep in the water near you in a lake and just trailer for winter storage or to take somewhere for long weekend or vacation without a large financial investment you could get on the water a lot. I found the Seaward 25 by Hake to be very interesting if you can find one at reasonable price. Be nice to sail around Lake Powell and Temple Bar at Mead has great weather in Feb. & March, Grand Lake looks good etc. might be enough for your sailing fix till you can get to the ocean.