I guess my real question is, what type of boat do you look for so that you can do coastline sailing, in the ocean, but not really far out in the ocean. Would a 25-30 footer be sufficient for that type of sailing? Or would I need something larger?

Absolutely, you'd be fine in a boat that size. You could even get by with a smaller one. A lot of folks start off in 22-25 footer. More important than size would be the design and condition.

But it's probably worth stretching as far as you reasonably can, size-wise. That way you won't feel the need to upgrade as soon -- which can save money in the long run.

If you give us an idea of your budget, I'm sure plenty of folks will be happy to suggest boat models that might be suitable.

Aside from the relatively short season, you live in a great area for what you plan to do.

P.S. Welcome to Sailnet!

 

Depends on your budget and what level of creature comforts you're looking for. Something like a Yankee 30 would be a great older boat if you found one in good condition or have the skills and or money to get a project boat ship shape. Even something like a Santa Cruz 27 would do the job, but certainly isn't going to be super comfy... so the answer is a qualified yes. There are some 25-30' sailboats that would work well for coastal cruising. Of course, sailing from south to north is a different thing all together, which is why something like the Yankee 30 might be appealing... not as fun off the wind, but great upwind.

 

I'm planning on spending anywhere from free (wouldn't that be great) to around 10000.. I've been checking out craigslist for all areas around me for what a general price range is and the price range is just so vast, it's ridiculous.. I've seen some 26 footers for 1000, and some 22 footers for 20000..

I believe in the whole "you get what you pay for" mentality so I am extremely skeptical about similar boats with a huge price gap. I'm not opposed to doing some work to get the boat ready for sailing though, I just don't wanna get stuck with something that is going to cost an insane amount of time and money to get in the water.

Also, any recommendations for lessons? I've checked some places out in Boston for the ASA101 course and I must say, it's a fairly steep price tag for only a day or 2 course.

There's even this place right down the road from me called "Regatta Point" (which is where I was originally interested in beginning), but if I recall, the price tag was upwards of 1000.

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

I'm planning on spending anywhere from free (wouldn't that be great) to around 10000..

Decide whether you want to work or sail. If you want to sail, get the best possible boat you can get for the money - meaning a boat that you don't have to work on a lot BEFORE you can go sailing.

Buying a cheap 30' basket case is tempting, but sailing is what really counts. Not sanding.

 

Welcome to Sailnet Sch0lls! Am I correct in thinking you're in central Mass? There's a Regatta Point in Worcester, IIRC. With that in mind, I am going to suggest a smaller, trailerable sailboat (with all due respect to JRP's opinion above). You're an hour's drive from the ocean to the east or south anyway, so a larger boat will spend a good portion of it's time waiting at the slip for you to visit again, racking up marina charges the whole time.

If you have space to keep a boat on a trailer and the vehicle to tow it, (two big ifs), a trailerable sailboat would give you a lot of flexibility. You could sail off the Mass coast or in Narraganset Bay, or even in the Quabbin reservoir, which I believe they just opened to boating last year. And when you're not using it, it wouldn't be a drain on expenses. You could even figure out what you save on slip and storage charges and put that away towards the "next boat". There's always a "next boat" ;^).

Small boats that come to mind are the Compac 16, Siren 17, or a West Wight Potter (15 or 19). Please take all of this advice with a large grain of salt, because its coming from a guy with marina bills that are only exceeded by my tuition bills! Good luck with the boat search!

 

Another option might be to do something like join the Boston Sailing Center. They have a whole bunch of boats that you can take out whenever and they are decent boats in the size range that you gave. I have a few friends who started by doing that and felt that it was definitely the right thing to do. It was much cheaper for them, they didn't have to worry about maintenance and they got to try a few different boats out. Some of the boats are large enough to camp aboard and take for an overnight or two. Also, a center like this has instruction available and you are likely to meet other people who you can go out sailing with an learn from.

It sounds like you have big dreams which is great and probably means that this would not be a permanent solution but might be a very good thing to do for two or three years. You would be more likely to buy a boat that will be what you want with some more experience on various boats. Not having to do maintenance is great but you do miss out on the learning curve on that stuff.

If you want to buy a boat, you obviously have tons of options and it is very hard to narrow it down. Really complicating the matter is that all of us on this board are very opinionated as to what makes a good boat so you will have to carefully read through the responses and figure out what best fits you.

Good luck.

 

Great advice! I was gonna suggest that he sail OPB's too!
Other Peoples Boats!

 

Being a member of OPBYC before buying is a good idea, as that often gives you a basis for what you're actually looking for in a boat. Boston Sailing Center or one of the other sailing clubs in the area are good choices, especially if you need to take a refresher course or want to take more advanced courses to get your ASA bareboat certifications.

What part of Massachusetts are you in, since that would affect your choices. BTW, if you do decide to buy, you may find it is more cost-effective to keep your boat down in the South Coast region rather than up in Boston.

 

What part of Massachusetts are you in, since that would affect your choices. BTW, if you do decide to buy, you may find it is more cost-effective to keep your boat down in the South Coast region rather than up in Boston.

I'm from Worcester so heading down to the south coast to pick up my boat to sail for a weekend doesn't seem like the option I would be going with. I'm still working out the storage options, figuring out which would be the easiest for me.

I haven't figured out what the biggest boat you can trailer is yet so I'm not even sure if that's an option. Slips/mooring for the marinas around Boston are fairly expensive as well. So many things I still need to look into.

On another note:
I checked into Boston Sailing Club and they have a couple packages I'm interested in. The one I seem to be more interested in is the cruising course for $1249. It includes the $800 daysailing course, basic navigation, coastal navigation cruise, a 7 hour lesson in night sailing and to top it all off you get a 37 day student membership which means you get some practice time included on their boats.

The more I look at the site, the more excited I get. It seems to offer everything I would need to know to get on my feet and begin sailing. You even get to practice on 4 different boats throughout the course. The Boston 27 for the daysailing, pearson 26 for the basic nav, Albin 28 for the coastal, and then a pearson 31 for the night sailing.

Definitely seems like one of the routes I could go. Regatta point doesn't offer nearly as much as that, however, it's a lake so I would assume lake sailing is a bit different then sailing in salt water. As I mentioned above, I'm more interested in coastal sailing, being able to take out a boat for a week and sail up to ME, or even figure out how long it would take to sail the coast down to FL and spend some time there.

I'm not going to get too ahead of myself. Thanks a ton for all the help and shedding some light on the options I could take to get there.

 

There are a few ways that you can figure out how big of a boat you can trailer. One is to start from the perspective of the boat and see how big of a boat can be launched without a travel lift and what meets the width and height restrictions for the roads. From there, you select your tow vehicle which for most people involves buying a new vehicle. The other way to do it is to start from the standpoint of your tow vehicle and figure out how much it can tow, subtract an expected trailer weight and get the maximum boat displacement. Most people are surprised how little their vehicle can legally tow. Unless you going with something really light like a multihull, you probably need at least a half ton if not a 3/4 ton truck to tow the boats that you are going to be interested in.

I have spent a lot of time out on lake Quinsigamond when I rowed out of the boathouse up by the 290 bridge. It really isn't a great place to sail, there either tends to be no wind or it funnels right down the lake and is often too strong for them to let boats out. When the wind funnels down the lake, you also have to tack almost constantly since the lake is quite narrow. There is also a lot of boat traffic and it is called Regatta point because the point gets closed down at least once a week for crew races. If you are really looking to do all of the sailing you can, this might be a good place to be a member of for after work sailing if you also have somewhere else to sail on the ocean.

 

I've checked out a few more sailing schools in the Boston area, but none seem to be as efficient as the Boston Sailing Club. My sisters expressed an interest in learning how to sail which would actually help offset some more of the cost. The course is 1249 for the 1st person, 927 for each additional person that signs up with you. If I could get my sister and possibly her fiance (not sure if he's interested in sailing yet) to come, we'd split the total cost so that we're all paying equal amounts.

The boats they have the lessons on seem to be semi decent, I actually have been looking up the Pearson 26's because they are right in the middle of my price range. I've seen some as low as 2000 however. Being able to actually try one would be great to see if it's something that would interest me.

Anyone have anything to recommend that compares to the Pearson 26?

 

Anyone have anything to recommend that compares to the Pearson 26?

I would lean toward something like a Tartan 27 over the Pearson 26. Another good starter boat in that size range is the Catalina 27. I prefer the inboard-diesel version, but the outboard powered versions are generally less expensive. A similar boat, also built by Catalina, is the Capri 26. Any of these boats would handle the sort of coastal sailing you're contemplating in New England.

Most importantly, don't get mesmerized by low prices. It's well worth spending more upfront for a well maintained and upgraded boat. As Smackdady said earlier, do you want to sail, or spend all your time working on a boat?

If you go with the "low-cost option", it won't be long before you discover the "false economy" as so many others have done before you: Upgrading a boat is far more expensive than buying one that's already been upgraded.

Another factor to pin down and include in your budget before you purchase, is where you'll store the boat (in and out of the water) and the associated costs. If it's not readily trailerable (the boats above aren't), you'll be paying for a mooring and winter storage/transport. Depending where you keep it, these can run into the several thousands $$ each year.

 

You seem to be asking the right questions.

There is some stuff on my blog about costal cruising, as well as links to other sites.
Sail Delmarva: Trip Reports

Many boats will do - I chose an improbable one for my earlier trips - but I would steer away from a real project. Fiddling with boats is fun, but real disasters are not. Something older but functional, with a good hull, engine, and rigging.

Have fun!

 

What Smack and JRP said is so true. When we bought our boat 16 months ago we knew of a another couple who went the other route and bought a fixer upper. Since then we have had our boat sailing 80 plus times. I don't think they have been away from the dock more than a couple times and to be brutally honest I don't imagine they will do much better this year. A project boat can quickly overwhelm you, heck a well maintained boat can quickly overwhelm you, but we try not to think about that.

Go with the sailing club for a while and then reconsider.

michael

 

I attended, and earned my ASA certifications through the Boston Harbor Sailing Club, and would recommend it. The other option in Boston is the Boston Sailing Center. The two clubs differ in that the BHSC has older boats, and no club house. The BSC has newer boats, costs more (IMHO), and uses an old steamship as a clubhouse. My impression is that the BHSC is all about sailing from May - October, while the BSC has more social events, and is active year round.

If you notice my avatar, I am on a BHSC boat, and that's the Boston harbor hotel in the background. Like any club boat, you will find that club boats are ridden hard, and put away wet. I found that the boats were not maintained as well as I wanted, and the onboard equipment varied from boat to boat. I bought a portable chart plotter specifically because of this variation.

That said; I HIGHLY recommend that you join either of these clubs. The cost of a membership is roughly equal to what a full service, private marina would charge for the use of a slip. Boston Harbor is a magical place when experienced from a sailboat, and either of these clubs will make it easy for you to experience it! You can be anchored between Spectacle and Long Islands, and not even know that there is a major city less than 5 miles away. The harbor islands are a national treasure, and most people in Boston, let alone the country, seem unaware that they are there!

At one time I also lived in "WormTown". I found that the easiest/quickest route to the ocean (if that is where you want to sail) was 146 to Providence. Also, should you buy a boat that you keep on the ocean, I believe that there are tax advantages to keeping it in Rhode Island.

Good luck!

 

Also, should you buy a boat that you keep on the ocean, I believe that there are tax advantages to keeping it in Rhode Island.

It gets a little tricky...... In my trailering days that I mentioned earlier I bought the boats in Mass and had to pay the Mass sales tax to register them in Mass. Then because I was keeping the boats slipped in RI .... RI (if they catch you) there for more than x ? number of months the RI DEM wants their cut too for a registration sticker.
My previous 2 keelboats that I bought in RI (no sales tax on boats) and slipped in RI were tax free for the duration. My current boat.... I bought in Maryland when they still had no sales tax on boats and I slipped it in RI ..... no sales tax again. When Mass got wind of my boat purchase in Maryland and my Mass home residence they tried to chase me for sales tax. Nope..... I presented them with the fact that it went from Maryland to RI for permanent moorage/slippage and would never be moored in Mass.... end of story.

 

I think I pretty much had the same thoughts as you. I didn't come to this forum within that time to ask questions but most of the thoughts above were running through my mind. I tried to get involved in a yacht club that allowed you to sail on other people's boats but they had a waiting list of a year and didn't seem interested in having me just hang out, seemed a bit snotty actually... the price was very high too and all you get to do is hang out on some other person's boat and sail around. There was a bit of time share but you can only imagine how crappy that is with over a hundred members trying to get in on 6 boats in our short summer here..

Anyways, I had enough of that and just went out and bought a boat. Never looked back.

I'm a sink or swim kind of person, once you put yourself on a path then start running kind of thing. Being careful of course

The moral of my story is to do what get's you to what you want to be doing the best way possible. If you're cautious and want to get in practice and time to see if you like it then join up with a club if you can. If not, then get out and buy a boat! Under 30 is best to reduce costs and effort to man it. I bought a 25 foot boat and it's excellent for the cruising I do. I haven't managed to take a bunch of time off to sail up the coast but we have a set of islands around here that are just beautiful in the summer that don't take long to get to and cruise.

I agree somewhat with the others in buying a boat that doesn't need work, at the very least don't buy a boat that needs work to get it out on the water. My boat was good from the day I bought it and I was sure to get out as quick as I could. That doesn't mean though that I haven't spent many many hours doing upgrades, "fixing" stuff and in general just making it better for me personally compared to what the previous owner thought was good.