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Hugh's Log

13K views 85 replies 24 participants last post by  Jeff_H 
#1 · (Edited)
<edit> I changed the title as I plan to add updates to this thread as I progress on my journey into sailing. Hopefully it can act as an inspiration for those who follow or at least as a dire warning </edit>

Hello All (or is that Ahoy Mates),

So I've gotten interested in sailing and dreaming of a live aboard life and cruising. For the last 30 years I've been a motorcycle nut and have gone on a few multi month rides through North and South America as well as Europe. I learned on those rides that I really could live with only the things I could carry on my motorcycle so living on a boat doesn't seem out of the question. I also found that most of my time between my epic rides was spent buying stuff I didn't need and living on a boat might cure me of this since I wouldn't have any place to put that stuff.

My sailing experience is very minimal. When I was in high school I spent quite a bit of my summers on a friends Sunfish but it was his boat and I just mostly followed orders. Other than that I've been racing model yachts for the last couple of years.

I have a reservoir about 10 minutes from my townhouse so I'm looking at picking up a dinghy to get my feet wet and learn more about sailing while I determine if it's the life for me.

I look forward to learning more about boats and sailing, particularly about live aboard possibilities in the Washington DC area.

Thanks,
Hugh
 
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#5 ·
I took last week off and attended the Mariner Sailing School as recommended. It was great fun and considering you get a week of free boat rentals with the school it seems live a very good deal as well.

Now that I've gotten some basic training I'm looking to purchase a small sailing dingy. Since I live in a townhouse I really need to find something easy to store and if it could be used as a dingy on a larger boat in the future that would be a bonus. I'm currently leaning to a Minicat 310 but will look to see what else is available.

thanks,
Hugh
 
#8 ·
Sounds like you have a good plan: get a small dinghy, sail on a lake that is close by, then get a boat you can camp/live on.
My advice: get a small dinghy (14-16) feet that is more recreational than racing designed. A design that has both main sail and jib. They are easier to launch for one person and easier to learn on.
 
#9 ·
Welcome, Hugh! If they're still around, you might want to join the Sailing Club of Washington (SCOW), which is based just sound of National Airport.

As far as buying more stuff than you can put on a boat, I know some people who have a boat so crammed full of stuff that they can't sail it and others who spend good money to keep their stuff in a storage locker. If you have a problem with this, buying a boat won't necessarily cure it....
 
#10 ·
I'm looking into options for either an inflatable or nesting sailing dinghy and would be open to any suggestions.

The Minicat is currently in the lead and from what the representative said at the Annapolis boat show you can get $1000 off any MiniCat if you order by Dec 31st so it's about $4000 for a 310 with a furling jib and a few other goodies.

I've been looking at the PT Eleven nesting dinghy and it looks real nice also but it would be about the same price and I would still need to build it. I'm not opposed to building a dinghy but it would need to come with a considerable price savings to make it worthwhile.

thanks,
Hugh
 
#12 ·
I would not consider inflatable boats. They usually sail poorly and have serious maintenance issues. And terrible resale value. I'm not a big fan of these little nesting dinghies either. They are very tippy and not at all easy to sail and learn on. I would get a proper dinghy that is wide bodied, unsinkable and sturdy, on a decent trailer. Lots of them for sale really cheap these days.
 
#13 ·
If you are looking for a small cheap sailing dinghy that you can use for a ships boat later on down the road, I wouldn't discount a Walker Bay 10.

I sail a Walker Bay 8 all over the place and they are very forgiving boats and they sail pretty well too.
 
#14 ·
Thanks for the suggestions, unfortunately my current living arrangement make an inflatable or nesting dinghy a necessity.

Does anyone know of any manufactured nesting sailing dinghies? So far all I've found are kits and while I think the Spindrift N10 or N11 would be ideal I don't think I have enough space to build one in my townhouse.

Are there any particular websites where I might find used dinghies for sale?

thanks,
Hugh
 
#16 ·
After almost two months of searching and reading I decided on building a Spindrift 11' nesting dinghy/tender from B&B Yacht Designs.
http://bandbyachtdesigns.com/spindrift/

I drove down from DC to NC to pick it up this weekend from the designer Graham Byrnes who probably has forgotten more about sailing then I'll ever know. It was a real pleasure to meet him.

It's going to be a tight fit building it in my 3 motorcycle garage but where there's a will there's a way. I don't know if it there's an appropriate place or interest in a dinghy build on sailnet but I'll post pictures of the major milestones here.
 

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#18 ·
Well there you are: that is starting to look like a boat. Good work.
I'm glad that Alexandria sailing place panned out for you, at least for a while.

I can picture you sailing around some of the quieter creeks of the Potomac in your nested, cat rigged dinghy. Once you are out there then everywhere you go, there you are.

;-)
 
#21 · (Edited)
It took a couple of weeks to source the wood for my gunwales and a few trips to Home Depot to stock up on clamps and then a week or so of scratching my head before calling up one of my buddies to come help me out, but now I've got breasthook and gunwales installed. Next will be the forward bulkhead and transom and then the critical step of making sure the boat is square before I start epoxying the seams.

p.s.: Anyone know how to rename a thread? Since I plan on using this thread long term to chronicle my journey into the world of sailing I was hoping it could be renamed 'Hugh's Log' .

thanks,
Hugh
 

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#23 ·
I've installed the forward bulkhead and I spent a couple of days planning down the gunwales and installed the forward and nesting bulkheads as well as the transom. I checked that the boat was square and then tack glued the seems. Once that was dry I was able to remove the wires holding the boat together. I did check that the boat was reasonable true before epoxying the seems. While it maybe wasn't perfect the bubble was between the lines of my level everywhere I checked so I called it close enough.

Since I've taken these pictures I've filleted all the seems in the aft hull and started laying the fiberglass tape around the nesting bulkheads. I hope to finish taping up the interior of the boat this week. I'm hoping to have the boat done by May but if that's going to happen I need to spend more time actually working on it and less time staring at it and daydreaming.
 

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#24 ·
Looks great! So much fun to see a boat rise out of a pile of wood. It might be a more difficult road, but, I really like the idea of building a boat to learn to sail, that you will later use as a tender for a bigger boat. Are you building the nesting version?
 
#25 ·
Yes this is the nesting version. I really couldn't store a 10'+ boat where I'm currently living. While the non nesting version is a better boat especially when it comes to bailing it out (It can use a single self bailer and has much more reserve buoyancy ) the nesting version should give me a lot more flexibility when I start shopping for my big boat since I'll only need 5'6" x 4' to store the tender on deck.
 
#26 ·
Lots of slow progress the last few weeks. I've not gotten all of the interior seams filleted and taped and am about 2/3rds of the way through with the aft seating. I've included a picture of my fancy filleting tools. I figure I have about another days work and then I can flip the boat and start fairing the hull.
 

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