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How Often and How Far...?

5K views 27 replies 21 participants last post by  Barquito 
#1 ·
Not going to post a poll cause there are too many variables in the answers, but:

How often do you go out sailing (in season) ...every weekend...? Once or twice a month...? Couple times a year...? everyday cause your in the Navy...?

And related to that...How far do you live from the water/your boat...?
Is the lake in the back yard...? You live in town nearby...? You travel 1-2 hrs to get there...? Further...?

I ask cause I'm not near a lake suitable for my boat and need to travel, wondering if an in water slip is justified for the 4-5 times a year I'm thinking of going out, or if I'd be better off with a "dry slip" (boat on trailer) and just launch when I do get to go..?
 
#2 ·
We live 1-1/2 hour's away from the boat.
Drive up every Friday and Home on Sunday. There are very few exceptions to the rule; weddings and funerals. My wife joins me for 99.99% of that time. Rarely am I up alone.
I recently checked our log and there have been only three weekends out of the six month season that we have a 0 in the miles logged.
 
#4 ·
67 days aboard this year, with 57 overnights (so far). The bulk of this is during summer, but we get out year round though less tolerant of rain and cold than we used to be.
 
#6 ·
wimps .... :p:p

We would spend at least 35 weekends on board plus 6 - 8 weeks continuous.

Being Australians, who are obviously a tougher breed than Canadians we find in recent times we are more tolerant of rain and cold than once was the case.

:):)
 
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#8 ·
Squidd ... should have added ... we are 15 minutes from boat so travel is not an issue. I'd also note that we are essentially without families. we've never had children, the Wombet only has a brother, I only have a mother who does not live nearby and a brother interstate. The weekends we don't get down to the boat are the weekends spent visiting family. My guess is that the more family you have and/or the closer they live to you the more they will get in the way of your boating.

We get away so much largely because of somewhat selfish attitude which puts our time spent on board as the most precious.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Our marina is two hours away. It feels like a mini vacation each weekend. We made friends with our slip neighbors and we keep an eye on each others boats when one of us is away. We like the town and consider it another home.

We used to have a 22 footer that we kept there. I hate trailering so was OK paying for the slip. Now we keep our 30 footer in the same marina. The marina leaves a bottle of wine in the cabin each year when they launch our boat. :D

The marina is small and the staff knows our boat and its problems well. The mechanic who works on the engine has performed miracles. Originally I chose this particular marina because they didn't charge extra to keep my 22 footer in a 30 foot slip but since then we've come to appreciate the professionalism and knowledge of the staff, most of whom race and one who was a member of a couple America's Cup teams.

We also like that if we want to fix something ourselves, they are more than willing to tell us how to do it and have even allowed us to use their tools on the few occasions when we didn't have our own. We like having the option of trying to save money but knowing they will bail us out if we need it.

I guess my point of all that is to say that I'd miss the interaction with other boaters if we weren't renting a slip.

We don't sail every weekend but this season we came close.
 
#11 ·
Hey,

My boat is on a mooring in a marina that is about 15 minutes from my house. I usually sail twice a week - once during the week and once on the weekend. Most of my sails are short, about 2 hours long. I'll spend the occasional weekend aboard.

I sail on the Long Island Sound, and the sailing season for me is April to November.

Barry
 
#14 ·
My little Cal is on my dock in the backyard...so spoiled...I was sailing every day until I fouled up my back. Now I have to sneak out when the GFs not looking. :D
I'm not supposed to do anything for a couple weeks but the wind has been awesome. Feel like a caged dog...staring out the slider door, watching the wind flow in a even, steady, curve down the lake is torture.
 
#15 ·
Okay, we're going to skew your poll - fulltime liveaboards since Nov 2002; currently southbound for the winter about 1/3 of the way from Annapolis MD to St Augustine, FL. So, sailing almost every nice day. Before we moved aboard fulltime, our experience was similar to DRFerron: we kept the boat on a mooring about 3-1/2 hours from home. Left every Friday in season (late April to late September) at 3 PM and returned every Sunday sometime between 8 PM and midnight, and every weekend was a mini-vacation.
 
#17 ·
I will bet, on average, the closer one lives to their boat, the less they use it.

It is way too easy to convince yourself that you will go out tomorrow. We all but refuse any weekend conflict from May 1 to Oct 31. Our answer to any family conflict is they are welcome to hold it on the boat. They often take us up on it. Win win.
 
#18 ·
If you want to do it, you will do it. A smaller boat will get more use. The boats I've had always got more use when on the water, than on a trailer, (it always seems more trouble to launch for a few hours use than is worth it). I've had many weekends that were cut short because of job that the boat never moved, because by the time I could launch I would be worried about getting it back on the trailer. When in a slip, I could go out for an hour just to look around without worries.

Get a boat you can single hand, then you don't have to rely on "help" to get it out there.
 
#19 ·
.......A smaller boat will get more use. ....
I wonder. It's true that a smaller boat is easier to handle with less crew, so their are more opportunities. We require two people aboard to cruise safely. However, once you can live aboard for the weekend, I find one is more likely to go and see what it's like, rather than believe a poor forecast. More often than not, we've had a good day or two of sailing that we would have ridden out at home, if the downside were not to just stay aboard at the marina and have a weekend get away. I will also head out to destinations I would have never attempted in a smaller boat without being certain of good conditions for the return leg.
 
#20 ·
We were trying to figure out if our usage changed this summer. We have a 22 foot trailer sailor. Last year we were out almost every weekend, but also did a fair amount of transient slip rentals and a few 4 day weekends doing our best to make the most of our time on the boat to offset the hassle of hauling, stepping the mast, launching and the reverse.

This year we were able to get a mooring ball and skip most of the trailering headache. I think we managed about as much use this year, but instead of long weekends we did more frequent but shorter sails. It was easier to meet up at the marina after work for a dinner and a sail. And the convenience of it also may have made it easier as said above to procrastinate on going out some times.

All in all, we probably spent more time on the boat than the year before but I don't get the sense that we put as many miles on it this season. And for the record we live 20 minutes from the marina, and we are In northern Michigan so we have a short season. Also due to poor weather and other bits of life our boat didn't get in till almost july.

Cheers.
 
#21 ·
100 feet porch to dock, 100 feet down the dock to boat. We are on the boat virtually every weekend spring and early summer but not so much during the doldrums of mid summer on the Bay. Makes us anxious to get back out as the winds tend to pick up late summer and fall. Work unfortunately keeps me pretty busy during the week so confined to weekends or the occasional long weekend when I can get a day or two off. I agree that the ease of getting to the boat and readying her to leave the dock adds both to use and enjoyment.
 
#22 ·
Our girl lives on a mooring not in a marina berth and we moved last year from a busy part of the harbour that was closer to home to a quieter spot albeit further away. We now find that even in dirty weather we are more likely to go down and spend the weekend on board at the mooring without the traffic charging by.

Fast and I were playing games earlier on cos he well kows our new boat is exceptionally comfortable compared to our moderately comfortable old girl and that is why we are spending even more time on board The ability to completely enclose the cockpit makes all the difference. It is somewhat akin to having a pilot house or deck saloon without the disadvantages of the house over heating in our hot summers.

We also keep a set of lightweight wet weather gear for the times it is raining when we row out to mooring. It really does require a lot of rain to keep us at home these days.
 
#23 ·
Once a week minimum even if it does not leave the mooring on a good week during race season we could be out on soemthing 4 times a week

When there is enough daylight i will use it on weekdays BUT when i can get to the boat at 6PM and its dark at 7:15 PM there is not much point :)

The mooring launch service also limits there hours early and late season making weekdays difficult
 
#24 ·
Since my first lesson on 2nd October last year, I've been out 31 times, totalling 120.5 hours. I first skippered a boat in Sydney about a month ago, and have done so 4 times so far. I'm highly nomadic, and if I'm living somewhere near the sea I'll generally go sailing once a week or so. So far, that's Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Hong Kong, Bali, Sydney, and Auckland.
 
#25 ·
When you are cruising, well, you are either cruising or the boat is on a marina for you to work - so rarely go out for a weekend/day sail.

If you are a 'weekend warrior', then as many times as you can get down to the boat.

I takes a big transformation in the mindset to change between day sailor and cruiser and vice versa.

I actually joined the sunday brigade for the first time in about 8years. It stressed me a bit - people racing past in a narrow channel, dinghy's crossing, slow boats in front. I think I'll have to toughen up or just quit work again and take off away from the crowded areas.
 
#27 ·
I live 7 hrs from the MC so weekend trips are a no go. When I do go, say for 4 days I have to decide almost immediately if it is a sailing trip or a work trip. If I have a week I can do both. The best trips are the ones where I get on and leave and do not return for 4 or 5 months. Dan S/V Marian Claire
 
#28 ·
I have a boat that is 1.5 hour drive away. Mostly I (or we) go up for 2-4 hours one day of most weekends. We are still learning about our boat, and setting it up. We don't have any safe ports closer than a day's sail away. Looking forward to doing overnights next season. (BTW, I think I make about as many trips while the boat is on the hard as in the water!)
 
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