looking to get off the juice

[b2super]

Hello my name is Bob, As a life long recreational boater(I'm 49), I was always interested in sailing but never learned. I just got a great deal on a 1978 14' Pintail. Well I have been on 2 sailboats my whole life, a sunfish and a 23 ft O'day. both times as crew, who knew little but had a lot of enthusiasm. The boat needs some TLC, nothing harder then some scraping and paint. I think I will be ready sometime before June. The boat has a spot for engine, so my thought is I could power her out of the boat ramp and into the bay. would be grateful to anyone who taught themselves for advise/insight. l

[smackdaddy]

Hey b2 - welcome to SN dude.

I took two weekends of lessons then bought a C27. Learning the basics come pretty quick - especially if you have a good teacher. Then it's all fun and games from there. Enjoy.

[souljour2000]

I started sailing with a 12-foot snark..a few hours on a lake one summer afternoon when I was 12 probably...that experience was enough for me to go rent one or maybe it was a sunfish ...a few years later down at an Alexandria,VA marina...me and the g/f tipped her over on a windy fall day but they (the marina rental crew) were expecting this and came over to help quickly...she wasn't hard to righten...
Then in my early 30's I turned a 12-foot skiff into a sailboat of sorts with a home-made mast/rudder and sail from stuff laying around... mid-30's I finally got back into sailing with a 18-foot Chrysler Buccaneer...a fast little boat and alot of fun....then an Irwin 23 that I never sailed ...or even motored much...due to it needed the mast stepped for one...and I didnt know what I thought buying her but she was cheap at 200 bucks I guess...Then I fixed up a hull-only 12- foot Barnett butterfly into a sailor again...
Then found a 20-foot Hunter with a cabin (and a mast that you could step by yourself).The sails were shot but I still had fun with her...and sailed her all the way to Boca Grande and back from Sarasota. Now I have a 24-foot Seafarer and am still learning....My advice to anyone starting out in sailing? Get a good well-maintained boat that you can learn on...take care of it and when you move up...move up to another well-maintained boat...you'll get alot more sailing in that way...

On the other hand...buying fixer-uppers...and mostly just reading online forums...I have learned alot in the last 3-4 years about boats and how to fix them up...and what makes a good boat you can be safe in...this forum is a great place and forums like this where you can be inspired by other sailors even if you aren't in a sailing club or squadron....are a real help to those of us who did'nt grow up in a family who were sailors...Well..me ol' pops was Navy and a vet of WWII Pacific and Atlantic theaters..but he never owned any boats when we were growing up...he took us to plenty of boat museums and so forth...and on some ferries and even a tri-foil or hover-craft one time .
..I had the boating bug early though...I think as early as 4-5 years old when I tried to make a boat out of an old organ-box by lining the outside of this wooden box with strips of sheet metal cut from aluminum cans...Have fun out there...!

[vega1860]

The guy I bought my boat from took me sailing once and told me to "Just take her out under power, then put the sails up and kill the engine. You'll figure it out soon enough." I did him one better and read a book first but basically I am self-taught. I did sign on as crew in a sail training square rigger for my first deep water ocean crossing just to see what it was like to be out of sight of land for weeks at a time, but what sailing skills I have I pretty much learned on my own.

Not that I recommend it you understand.