Signed Up For Classes - Whoo Hoo!

[SEMIJim]

Many of you are probably aware, from my posts elsewhere on SailNet, that my wife and I are preparing to buy a boat. One problem that faced us was getting said boat home from the purchase point. (If the pending deal goes through, this will mean a sail from partway down Lake Erie, up the Detroit River (26 miles on engine), and partway up Lake St. Claire. Our skills are questionable. I really never learned how to sail, per se, only crewed, with specific duties. Her experience is on a boat in many ways completely different from the fiberglass-hulled, performance cruiser we're looking to buy. (She's never even used a winch, for example.) So we were a bit aprehensive about a relatively long (for us) maiden voyage, through unfamiliar waters, on an unfamiliar boat, with our questionable skills.

So we just signed up for ASA 101 and ASA 103 classes next weekend .

Now it's off to Amazon to buy a copy of Sailing Fundamentals to prepare in advance (I've already read it), and we should be good to go!

Jim

[tommyt]

Jim,

Good luck with the new purchase and the lessons. Which school are you using and where? The only advise I can give you for safe and relaxing sailing is: The admiral is always right and you NEVER give ORDERS to the Admiral. Requests are sometimes acknowledged. Kind of like the rest of married life!

[CapnHand]

You should consider getting one or (better) two people to come with you who have sailing experience. The friend(s) you crewed with, for example. The boat's PO may also be willing to help in this regard. Taking the sailing courses are a fine idea, but in reading your other posts about a pending purchase, you may not be able to complte them in time.

[sailingdog]

SemiJim-

I'd highly recommend you also pick up Dave Seidman's The Complete Sailor.. it is very easy to read and covers a lot of material.

[SEMIJim]

Originally Posted by CapnHand

You should consider getting one or (better) two people to come with you who have sailing experience. The friend(s) you crewed with, for example. The boat's PO may also be willing to help in this regard. Taking the sailing courses are a fine idea, but in reading your other posts about a pending purchase, you may not be able to complte them in time.

The classes will be two nine-hour sessions next weekend, so we'll be done with those long before we'll have he boat. (Surveryors in the area are running about two weeks out, right now.) The PO has volunteered to go as far as near the southern end of the Detroit River with us. We'll probably take him up on that.

Jim

[SEMIJim]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

SemiJim-

I'd highly recommend you also pick up Dave Seidman's The Complete Sailor.. it is very easy to read and covers a lot of material.

So noted. Thanks!

As for Sailing Fundamentals: The plan is, once we get the boat, we'll start out by doing each of the "at sea" exercises with our own boat. Just the two of us. That should keep us busy for a while .

Jim

[BarryL]

Hello,

If I were you I would hire a delivery captain. You will have all sorts of things to worry about, like docking, operating the engine, navigating, etc.

I hired a captain to help bring my 'new to me' boat home last fall. For $300 / day I gained piece of mind and learnd a tremendous amount of information.

Barry

[SEMIJim]

Originally Posted by BarryL

Hello,

If I were you I would hire a delivery captain. You will have all sorts of things to worry about, like docking, operating the engine, navigating, etc.

We considered that. Considering I have past crewing experience, my wife has past sailing experience, we'll be taking that class, the PO has offered to accompany us for the first couple hours, the route is pretty straight-forward and the miracle of modern electronics, we've decided to give it a go.

Originally Posted by BarryL

I hired a captain to help bring my 'new to me' boat home last fall. For $300 / day I gained piece of mind and learnd a tremendous amount of information.

Barry

I can understand that. If we didn't have the above going for us, we'd likely do the same.

I'm curious: What general route did you have to take and how long was the trip?

Thanks for the suggestion.

Jim

[MalDeTerre]

How are things progressing on the boat delivery?

[sailingdog]

Enjoy, keep us posted, especially if you run into problems... We've got a team standing by to help out...