I have many sailing miles under me,including offshore. I went to sailing camps every summer when I was younger
With you being 18, how much younger ? Where and how did you get this offshore experience ?
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Most people also have trouble taking a teenager serious when he talks of sailing off to explore the world. So its hard to get good advice.
That's because we all understand what it was to be a teenager and know so much .........
__________________ S/V Scheherazade
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I had a dream, I was sailing, I was happy, I was even smiling. Then I looked down and saw that I was on a multi-hull and woke up suddenly in a cold sweat.
Welcome to sailnet.com. I think that billyruffn and the others above give some good advice....
My questions for you are this:
1) If you were going to buy a boat, how would you pay for it?
2) If you were to go to college, how would you pay for it?
3) How much experience do you have sailing?
If you're going to use the money you'd need to pay for college on the boat... I'd recommend you go to college first... then get the boat. Billy's recommendation about the Navy or Coast Guard is a good one as well. The skills and discipline that a tour with either will be a great help for anything else you decide to do later.
While, you could go to sea with just a high-school education, it may not make sense to do so...
If you're really set on going now... there are alot of ways to do it. First, you do need to get a seaworthy small boat. A good place to start to look for one is John Vigor's 20 Small Sailboats To Take You Anywhere. Many of the boats he lists in that book can be bought for under $10000 in fairly reasonable shape. The Alberg 30, Southern Cross 28/31, Albin Vega 27, Cape Dory 25, and the Contessa 26 are all good candidates for boats capable of doing this.
I would definitely recommend not getting a ferrocement boat. As pointed out above, most of the ferrocement boats were home-built and not very well built at that. Also, many are fairly large, as ferrocement wasn't a material very well suited to making sailboats <35' as a general rule.
Crewing is another good way to get some experience. If you're going to go this route, it would probably be a good idea to get your AB merchant marine ticket as well as an STCW 95 certification, CPR certification and some good basic first aid certifications...
BTW, I wouldn't necessarily look at the solo-sailor.com website as a good model for you. Heather is 40 years old, supposedly sold a successful real estate company to finance her purchase of boat and isn't really trying to do it on a limited budget so much.
Tania Aebi's book, Maiden Voyage, is probably a good one to read... since aside from being given the boat by her father, she was on a rather limited budget and about your age when she did her circumnavigation in a Contessa 26.
Robin Lee Graham, who sailed a small boat named Dove, most of the way around the world would be another good person to read about. He was only 15 years old when he set off in Dove, and the book about his voyages in her is titled "Dove" IIRC.
__________________
Sailingdog Telstar 28
New England
You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.
—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)
If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this POST.
Still—DON'T READ THAT POST AGAIN.
Last edited by sailingdog : 02-27-2008 at 12:14 AM.
Livin'...yep. I think you can do it but understand that the risk of getting killed while doing it is probably 10 times the risk that most of us are willing to take. Since you've done a lot of reading I assume you undertsand that...but you know, you only get to read about those that make it! I think you can get a pretty sound, very small ocean going boat for $10k...and if you are handy and willing to work on her for a while...you can probably make her ready for sea for another $5k...including safety equipment.
The one thing I would tell you to do is ...take it slowly. Get out on the Chessie when it is blowing a gale before you find yourself offshore in one. Do an overnight passage offshore in good weather...before you jump across the Atlantic. Better yet...head south in discrete jumps down into the islands and experience trade winds and seas and YEARS of neat stuff to see and do. Cross an ocean when you know what your boat can do and what you can stand up to!
BTW...don't leave without a couple of GPS's and a waterproof box of batteries. Cheaper than a sextant and they work when it's raining! Forget the FERRO!!
ha ok so far.......first off, I have never been a big fan of school.always more interested in hands on experiences.I have some backround with working on boats but nothing real serious,cars were more available for me to fiddle with. I have done lots of minor work on boats including fiberglass work,wiring,and engine work. For my first two years of school I went to a welding school every other day and became a certified welder. For my second two years of highschool I only went for 3 classes and then worked full time at an automotive shop. Which is where I got my slim budget, also hoping to get a little more funding by selling my engine I built for my car. So to sum it up I feel I am more then capable of doing most of the resto work on a boat myself to cut down on costs,and that that I dont know I will learn.
..........nope mommy and daddy didn't buy me a car ha
I got most of my sailing experience on the bay. First on a little sunfish when I was about 8. Then I got an old mcgregor about 20ft that I sailed. My good friends parents had an island packet 32, and later on an island packet 42. I sailed with them to bermuda, delaware, and many other places throughout the years.
A 5k boat will not be an offshore boat.. Thees are the kind of statements that youthful naivete espouse...
I believe you now how to sail..I did at your age, but the undertaking to cross oceans is not a light hearted endeavor..it is not rocket science.. but a maturity level in and of many things is required...Not necessarily requiring may years of life to accomplish but certainly more then a couple summer camps and an off shore trip...
Do some home work about proper boats first a foremost...20K is probably bottom rung ready to go...then 10K in the bank for living expenses and WOOPS money if somthing goes wrong..and it will!!...This will take the pressure off you enabiling you to enjoy your new life not romantisizing about it...or having to bail out due to lack of preperation...
You are asking for advice..This is very wise...stupidity is not heading it...Everyone here will or is trying to help you suceed...So take a deap breath...slow down a little and learn...
Have you ever been out to sea in a storm? If you're thinking about setting sail across oceans, lessons learned in real-life situations with good instructors will help prepare you for some of the potential challenges. Just keeping your lunch in really rough seas is a challenge in itself. Of course, I don't know anyone willing to go out in the seriously rough stuff for instructional purposes, but learning firsthand won't soon be forgotten.
Keep the dream alive, but listen to your head and your gut too. Your toying with the idea of a ferro-cement boat for cross-ocean purposes makes me nervous.
Best of luck to you!
10K is probably not enough. It may be a start but it won't get you moving (or not for long anyway). Even if you do everything yourself - parts, yard storage, materials all cost money. If you can work and do this along the way - sure. If not - this may be a bit difficult. Unless you can subsist on fish alone
For my first two years of school I went to a welding school every other day and became a certified welder.
Well done. Now get a diesel engine course (sorry more school) and hang out with a rigger this summer. If you visit enough boatyards you will find your boat (it will be the small one still on the hard looking forlorn).
With your qualifications (engine/ rigging/metalwork) you can follow the mom and pop route down the Caribbean and, who knows, you may have more money than you started with, after a year. If you still like sailing after that, then through the canal and away.
Fair Winds, keep us posted.
BTW solo-sailor.com was posted not as a role model but as a warning.
I have had experiences in storms at sea,Im not saying I have been out in hurricanes or have experienced a knock down but Ive been out. Storms and other dangers are something that come along with the territory of sailing and I understand that. For right now I am more worried about advice on making this adventure happen.
BTW: I am not trying to sound stubborn or cockey, everything yall have said has been great advice. I just have heard so many times from people that it isn't going to happen and to wait till I'm older.Surprisingly my parents support my idea.....not with there money though!
Now thats a start.....
