First Sailboat

[Dancehalldan]

Hello
My name is Leroy I am 63yr and single and I just bought a Pearson 30 sailboat and I am new to sailing. I have had one lesson so I'm ready to go. The boat needs a lot of work so I will be asking a lot of questions.

Does anyone know what it costs to have a sailboat lifted out of the water?
My boat is in Florida and I am in Texas so it it difficult to work on it very often.
What does it cost to have someone else move it?
I got a quote for a trailer that costs a little over $8,000 - is that reasonable?
Custom built for my boat. I think it would be difficult to find a trailer already built that would fit my boat, what do you think?

Thanks for your help.
Leroy

[rgscpat]

Welcome aboard,

Keep talking to other sailors, and crewing or taking lessons or sailing with folks.

Haulouts for your size boat will probably be some fraction of a boat dollar. (You'll learn about boat dollars soon enough if you haven't yet.) There are some variables to the cost; some quotes may include more services than others. You may have to pay for the use of a mast crane to de-rig the boat, and some places may charge separately for the actual haul out, blocking/putting the boat on stands, pressure washing, prepping a boat for shipment, loading it onto a trailer, putting on protective wrapping if desired, etc. How much do you want them to do?

We paid $120 for a basic haulout and $32 for a pressure wash back in February of 2006 in Ventura, CA. That was a pretty good deal. (We usually trailer launch and retrieve.)

You can probably easily find a much less expensive trailer that ALMOST fits your boat -- and pay a welder or trailer shop to make it fit exactly.

Then you'll be ready for the boat towing and hauling discussion!

Hope this helps.

[Dancehalldan]

What are sailing dollars?
Excuse me I meant boat dollars.

Thanks for the reply, that does help. I thought it would be a lot more to take it out of the water. How big is your boat?

[rgscpat]

A thousand civilian dollars get you up to one boat dollar. Some people use the term in rueful humor to try to ease the sting of repair and outfitting bills.

You do know, of course, that "boat" stands for "Bring out another thousand."

The $120 did seem like a great deal on a haul out. Ours was a very small, skinny, lightweight 30 footer -- a racing day keelboat that we can tow behind our Expedition. There was a small crane on the Travelift that was used to pull the mast, and we weren't charged anything extra for that. The yard bill indicated that the rate was for an "under 30 ton" haulout, so I think even a heavier boat in that size range wouldn't have had a very different rate.

In my home state, our sailing clubs have sponsored some mast-raising poles that call serve boats up to about 36 feet, so we can pull our own masts for free. But in many parts of the world, or with larger boats, you get to pay a boatyard to do that.

Pat (rgscpat, Desert Sea blog)