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This is my first post. I am new to sailing. I did a bit of dingy sailing a few years ago and loved it. This year I did a 2 week live aboard sailing course in BVI to get trained up in the basics and get a few ASA certification for potential future chartering. I have absolutely fallen in love with sailing and am looking to decided if i want to join a sailing club with a fleet or purchase an older boat that I can learn on while also learning how to maintain a sailboat. I am fairly handy and like to do my own work.
I say there is no education, like owning your own boat. You might learn a few things you'd wish you hadn't.
Clubs are cost effective, for sure. You pay for that with restricted access and duration, inability to personalize your vessel, unknown condition from the last member, etc.
Personally, I think renting is a tough way to stay current, with recently acquired skills. Each is different.
If you're going to buy a boat, make sure you figure out where you will keep it and compute all the costs for that. It'll probably be somewhere between a car payment and a mortgage payment every month (unless it's on a trailer in your driveway).
I bought my first boat in 2012 and have not regretted it for one minute. I enjoy working on it as much as sailing it, so to me the cost of ownership is worth it. You'll have to do your own math based on your own budget and needs. Good luck either way!
EDIT: On second thought a mortgage payment is unrealistic. Let's say between a modest car payment and a really nice car payment.
You should join a club for a year or two so you develop some sailing expertise while banging up some else's boats. If you want the benefit of social activities and racing options join https://www.bostonsailingcenter.com/membership/daysailing the center has some crazy cheap limited membership options if you dont mind being constrained in a Soling or Sonar.
This will give you sometime to firm up your boat desires and appetite, and you can work on some of the pre-requisites to ownership, such as where to keep a boat. Immediately get on the harbormaster mooring or yacht club waiting lists for locations that may be convenient for you. Lists like Marblehead harbor may be out 20 years (funny how fast 20 years can go by...) whereas next store Salem harbor may be only four years or so.
Thanks for the advice, the where to get a slip to keep my boat is actually been the biggest dilemma for me. There is no point in purchasing a boat that I can’t keep in the water. I am planning on contacting marinas and sailing clubs this week to understand availability and costs. Also thinking I may do it in CT as there is a chance I will be moving there shortly.
But yeah, finding a boat is probably less difficult then finding a slip.
As others have said, I would join a club for a year, or two. I was surprised how much more there was to learn after I had been sailing for a few years, and bought my first boat. If you have a driveway, you could get a trailer launchable boat. Some marinas have 'dry sailing' available. This is where you store a trailer launchable boat with its mast up. A 20-22' boat may take a few hours to get the mast up, otherwise.
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