dockmaster | - Part 11

America’s Cup and why Sailing the Hudson Still Sucks…

So, the America’s Cup came to New York earlier this season, and it was half empty.

The world’s best sailors and boats – and they couldn’t even get a series off on day one? They lost half the weekend. Was it sailable? Eh….

I was at City Island. We had a fine time. But on the Hudson, they had strong enough currents to make it unsailable. On Sunday, they were sometimes standing still after maneuvers. Sure, the wind was a little light. But not THAT light.

This is just one example. It’s an historical conundrum. Why do so many people (try to) learn to sail in NY Harbor and the Hudson, when pro sailors can’t figure it out?

Perceived proximity
Marketing hype
The ? factor (as in we just don’t get it)

Don’t take our word for it! This shot, and the following article excerpts, sum it up nicely. One of our instructors recently took this picture of a picture. It was on the wall of another sailing school (down Mid-Atlantic way…)

krunch — Real? Photoshopped? Don’t know… but we know this scene has happened on numerous occasions with several schools in New York Harbor and the Hudson.

And now, back to the America’s Cup from earlier this summer…

Read the following article excerpts, or the whole article via link at bottom, and imagine trying to learn to sail or even enjoy new skills (if even acquired) in NY Harbor and the Hudson.

-from Extreme Sailing to Meet Extreme Conditions on Hudson by Cory Kilgannon (New York Times, May 5, 2016)

nb: we’ve inserted some editorial notes here and there, indented like this.

“Holding a world-class sailing race, part of the America’s Cup series, off Battery Park City may make for spectacular shoreline viewing, but it is not easy for organizers or racers, who may prefer a location farther offshore with easier winds to navigate and little interference from other boat traffic.”

“The race poses daunting logistical challenges. There is the harbor traffic — ferries, tugboats, barges and other large vessels that ply the Hudson — that must be diverted, along with a designated area for the more than 700 personal recreational boats expected to anchor for the event.”

…not to mention Circle Line, the Shark Speedboat Thrill Ride, various large booze cruise boats, etc.

“Then there is the rapid current of the Hudson River as well as effects on the wind by the tall buildings flanking the racecourse, both in Manhattan and on the other side of the river in Jersey City.”

The current is so strong that anyone who’s spent a little time sailing here has had their boat ‘in the groove,’ going full tilt, only to look at the shoreline and see that they’re just standing still. All boats down there need engines to deal with this and usually get underway and stop under power. Doesn’t teach how to do it under sail…

The wind sheers and downdrafts created by the buildings are neither pleasant nor productive.

“All of which complicates the task of timing the races to start precisely at 2 p.m. for live coverage of the regatta on Saturday and Sunday. Races have been held near urban areas before, including in San Francisco and Gothenburg, Sweden, but they have never been staged this close to a downtown area.”

“Organizers have met for months with New York City officials and law enforcement agencies and other parties. Commercial shipping companies have agreed to work around the race times, and a separate lane will be established near the shoreline for ferries and other vessels.”

Sailing school activities (classes, club sails, and races), cruising boats visiting, sailing tours and charters, etc. don’t get this kind of special attention at all and must scurry out of the way of all the commercial traffic – which comes from every direction at once.

“For sailors, a major challenge will be the Hudson’s wind and current conditions. To adapt to the strong tidal current, which during the race will be running south with the outgoing tide, organizers are using heavier anchors and longer chains than usual to secure the race buoys, which are called marks.”

The strong current coupled with light winds wound up killing Saturday. Whole day lost. (This is supposed to be a competition of the world’s best sailors on fast, high-tech boats capable of speeds over 40 knots.)

“As for the air, the canyon of high-rises in Manhattan’s financial district and in Jersey City could negatively affect the all-important wind that is the sailor’s fuel.”

“Practice races on Friday will be filmed for use in case conditions on Saturday or Sunday prevent the regatta.”

Welcome to Manhattan, the Mecca of metropolitan Sailing!.. NOT.

Here’s a link to the entire article with a few pics.

America’s Cup: back across the Pond

Looks like Team Oracle (USA) leads here, right? Wrong. Watch the video clip to see how Land Rover rolled right through this group and blew them away. Use the link below to go to the AmCup site and get the app.

The cup action has moved to Portsmouth, England and is exciting as usual. Local team Land Rover BAR, led by Sir Ben Ainslie, was in the lead after Saturday’s round of racing. Ainslie is without a doubt one of the best sailboat racers in recent history, with Olympic medals and world championships under his belt in such tough classes as the Laser and Finn. Add foiling catamarans to the list, and his path to glory starts to resemble that of ‘The Great Dane’ – Paul Elvstrom.

Elvstrom is arguably the most successful sailor in racing history.

Quick stats…

Sailed in 8 Olympiads
Won Gold Medals in 4 consecutive Olympiads, a feat duplicated by only 3 other athletes, including Ben Ainslie and Carl Lewis;
Medaled (1st, 2nd or 3rd) in 11 World Championships;
Did all this in 9 different classes of boat, running the full gamut: singlehanded dinghies, double handed dinghies, 2-man keelboats, 3-man keelboats, and catamarans. Only thing he didn’t do was sailboards which became popular too late in his career.

Here is a list of racing classes he did all this in:

Firefly (singlehanded dinghy)
Finn (singlehanded dinshy)
Snipe (doublehanded dinghy)
505 (doublehanded dinghy)
Flying Dutchman (doublehanded beast of a dinghy/boardboat)
Star (doublehanded keelboat)
5.5 Metre (3-man keelboat)
Soling* (3-man keelboat)
Tornado (doublehanded catamaran)

*The Soling was a true pedigree racing class, but was also very commonly used in adult sailing school programs for a long time. We used them in our first school. Sweet ride, but not particularly comfortable or ergonomic for beginners.

On top of all that, he just missed an Olympic bronze medal by one place in the Tornado class catamaran in his 50’s with his teen daughter, Trina, crewing for him. He also victored in numerous Pan-European Championships, including in the Dragon class keelboat which was very competitive back in the day.

On and off the race course, Elvstrom was developmental in many ways., ranging from sail and spar design and manufacturing to improvements in components (such as self bailing mechanisms), training techniques (his ground breaking hiking bench), and race organization (such as using gates, or two marks to pass between, for large fleets). He wrote a few books too including Expert Dingy and Keelboat Racing.

Anyway, the times and boats were somewhat different, but all can agree that these are two of the greatest names in the sport of sailboat racing. Sir Ben Ainslie has the distinction of competing in the America’s Cup, the premier small fleet/match-racing event in the sport, and is doing a very good job.

CUPDATE: Ainslie and Team Land Rover (pictured below) won the Portsmouth regatta and have the America’s Cup trial series lead. That makes them currently the boat to beat and if they maintain their lead, they challenge Team Oracle for the actual Cup.

Team Land Rover foiling along during the July 23 action on the Solent. Note the stadium seating in background.

To watch previous races, both real-time with commentary and a variety of viewing angles, and really kewl virtual renditions, go to the official America’s Cup site and browse around or better still, get their app. Racing resumes on Sunday (July 24). Check it out…

https://www.americascup.com/en/home.html

All-female Learn-to-Sail this weekend

One more spot in Betsy’s boat for learn to sail, and the lucky enrollee will save $200!

Quick stats…

Our Start Sailing course (ASA 101/Basic Keelboat)
Saturday – Monday, July 2-4
3 honest full days of instruction, almost all on-water
2 half-day supervised practice sails scheduled later
ASA 101 Certification included
$595 (normally $795)

If you or a woman you know want to snag this spot, hit us up.

Bareboat 104: Cruise to Oyster Bay

We did the first weekend of a Bareboat Cruising course (ASA 104) on the 11th and 12th. Marc and Sheri, prior grads and ongoing Sailing Club members, wanted an overnight cruise experience as part of their training. We decided on Oyster Bay. Say hi to Marc & Sheri…

Moderate, slightly gusty breezes tapered off as we departed, so it was light winds all the way. They became variable in direction as well so it was a good challenge to keep the boat moving. Too many people just give up in these conditions, and never learn to actually sail a boat in them. This is one of the fascinating challenges in sailing, and as Long Island Sound and the Northeast are light-wind regions, it’s a critical skillset to develop. We did motor-sail briefly when it was futile to sail. After all, there was a sunset to catch while relaxing on the mooring!

ob sunset — Hard to get tired of this vista!

We arranged for a mooring and the timing was perfect. After the yacht club’s sunset cannon went off, we walked into town in time for our dinner reservation at Wild Honey. Appetizers and entrees were all excellent as usual. We did have to reject the first bottle of wine, but the replacement was fine.

The next day saw winds increase beyond what had been originally forecast. We expected Northwest winds of 10-15 with gusts to 20. We were greeted with 20-30 from WNW. Higher gusts were to be possible. So, after taking our time with breakfast and boat prep, and preparing quick access sandwiches and snacks (as well as water), we headed out with our smallest genoa and a single reef in the main. First thing we encountered in the mouth of the bay? A fleet of little Optis zipping all over in perfect control, and one chase boat seemingly with nothing to do. We knew we then had no choice but to tough it out on our Pearson 10M (33-foot) keelboat! (Opti, short for Optimist Pram, is the most popular kids training boat in the world. We see them everywhere we cruise in the Caribbean and Mediterranean.)

m and c — Marc honing his helm chops while our Director and Dockmaster, and HBIC (Head Bozo in Charge), Captain Stephen Glenn Card sort of hangs around.

But it wasn’t a big deal despite a confused sea state with short choppy waves. Kilroy ate it up with a balanced helm. The seas became more rhythmical the further west we progressed. But after a brief lulling of the breeze to mid-teens, it picked back up. By the time we had to negotiate the entrance to City Island Harbor, winds were 30-35. That’s getting into gale forces. Whew! But the boat and crew both took it in stride and it was a rewarding finish to a fine trip.

Clipper Race: story from one of our students who did it.

We previously reported on the tragic death of two sailors in the current, ongoing Clipper Race. This long, multi-stage race around the world is unique. It’s one-design racing with a fleet of a dozen 70-foot sailing yachts. They look a little like scaled up versions of our 21-foot Beneteau sloops, but most of what they have in common with our little guys is twin rudders.

Most serious distance ocean racing events use boats with twin rudders, including the Mini-Transat, with 6.5 meter boats singlehanded across the Atlantic! However, almost all other boats use a single rudder. Twin rudders are best for these long races, and also best for learning. (For more on how that works, and why ASA decided that the twin-rudder design we’ve been using since 1998 was their idea of the ultimate learning machine, see more on our web site.)

The fleet has departed Seattle, having completed a grueling leg from China, and is en route to New York by way of the Panama Canal.

A student from our school, Fabio Peixoto, sailed in a prior Clipper race. We asked if he’d share his experience and perspective, and here’s what he had to say…

“The Clipper race is considered the longest sailing race around the world. It is not only that, but it is also the only sailing race around the world open to amateurs! Everyone in the boat is a paying passenger, except the skipper. This feature makes it a very unique race and it gives the opportunity to amateur sailors like me to have an experience as close as possible to the Volvo ocean race.

The Clipper race stops in many ports, including New York City. When I learned about it I decided to check. This was back in 2010. I contacted them through their website and had a face-to-face interview with the sailing director when the boats arrived. The interview went well; I think they just want to make sure the candidate is not insane, and I decided to go ahead and book my first few training sessions.

Everyone can sign up for the race, from complete novice to Olympian sailors and everyone has to go through the same training process; a 4 level training session, around 32 days total. You can split the sessions anyway you want. I did the first 2 levels in 2 weeks in November 2010. The third session was in April 2011 and the 4th session in June. The race started on July 31st, 2011.

The training happens in the Solent, south of England. It is very professional, intense training. The instructors are old race skippers or new ones in training. We go out in any condition – no wind or gale force wind. We should because during the race we will have to face whatever Mother Nature throws at us. A lot of novices who sign up with romantic views of sailing give up after the first level. Sailing is wonderful, but it has its rough patches. But most people who are sailors know what to expect and have a great time! It is awesome to train in those big, racing boats under any condition. You feel like a professional!

I signed up for the first half of the race. It would be a little over 4 months of racing, from July 31st to December 13th 2011. We started in Portsmouth, England and had our first stop in Madeira Island. Then we stopped in Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Geraldton, Australia, Tuaranga, New Zealand and Gold Coast, Australia, where it was my last stop. The race continued to China, crossed the Pacific to San Francisco, crossed the Panama canal, and sailed to New York, before crossing the Atlantic again and finishing in England. The complete race takes one year. Half the boat is booked for circumnavigators and half to leggers.

I can tell you that the race was an amazing experience! I have nothing but praise to the Clipper race! It is a very well run race, and they are very professional. I have sailed through squalls, gales and storm force winds. I have also seen amazing marine life, two lunar rainbows and, I believe, a green flash. I highly recommend the race to sailors who want to gain offshore experience. Offshore sailing is one of the last true adventures in the world!

The current Clipper race is their 20th edition. There have been many injuries before, including during my race. It is inevitable given the conditions that we sail; broken ribs, broken legs, concussion, etc. However they have never had a fatality in all those years. Unfortunately it seems they ran out of luck; there has been already two deaths in this race. Coincidence or not, in the same boat, Ichor Coal.

The first casualty happened right on the beginning of the race, on their way to Rio. It is still not clear the reason, but it seems that right after a reefing procedure, Andrew Ashman was hit by the main sheet or the boom and fell unconscious. They tried to resuscitate him in vain. The boat was diverted to Porto in Portugal to drop off the body.

This was the first death in 20 years and the conditions seemed to indicate an unfortunate causality. However, on April 1st 2016 another sailor on the same boat, Sarah Young, fell overboard in the Pacific during rough conditions. She was not tethered when a big wave washed her overboard. After one hour of searching, she was found. Unfortunately she had already died of hypothermia and/or drowning. Due to the distance to land, a decision was made to have a sea burial.

The first death seemed to be an unfortunate case but the second one shocked me. Specially because I went almost overboard in very rough seas in the Southern ocean. It was 2 AM and we were going through a gale with gust to 60 knots. I had just finished driving for one hour when the skipper took over. I was sitting next to him and then I decided to go down in the cabin to have some water. As soon as I unclipped to go under the traveler, a huge wave hit the boat. I felt this very strong water pushing on my back. My left hand was holding the binnacle and I wasn’t letting it go for nothing! The only thing I was thinking was “F****, I am not clipped in!” Fortunately I was able to hold myself and the only damage was a little bleeding on my nose from hitting the skipper’s leg and a bit of a twist to the binnacle frame. If I went overboard at 2 AM under those conditions, it would be very hard to find me. And even if they’ve found me, bringing me back into the boat with that sea state would be extremely difficult!

Even after these two tragedies, I still have trust in the Clipper race. Their training program is excellent and there is a big focus on safety! We are reminded of clipping-in all the time, not only during training, but also during the race. Andrew’s death seems to have been bad luck, but Sarah’s could have been prevented if she was tethered to the boat. I do not know if it was her fault of if she was in the process of changing jack lines, like in my situation in the Southern ocean. I just know that accidents happen, especially in extreme sports like offshore racing. I hope that the rest of the race goes smoothly and I wish the best to all racers! There is no adventure without risks.

Fabio Peixoto

America’s Cup Comes to New York

As part of the training, hype and qualifying for the 35th America’s Cup, they’re taking their act on the road and that road leads to New York.

The America’s Cup is considered the oldest sporting event in the world, dating back to the 1850’s. It’s a match race, meaning that two boats duke it out on a course and have only each other to contend with. (There will be fleet racing, or rounds of match races, in preliminaries but the finals are one on one.)

City Island, the home of your friendly neighborhood Sailing Center, has a storied history of involvement in the America’s Cup going back to 1870! Many, if not most, Cup boats were built, serviced and stored, or outfitted with sails here on City Island. The US won the inaugural event, and held onto the Cup until 1983 when we first lost it – after the previous 5 successful defenders were built on City Island! While Newport, RI seems to be more commonly associated with it due to notoriety/infamy/etc, City Island was more like the consistent, silent partner over most of the Cup’s history. Sadly, all that’s left is memorabilia on display at the City Island Nautical Museum.

We won the Cup back, and lost it. Maybe a few times. But we surely took it back in style in 2013, when the Oracle team reversed a 8-1 deficit in one of the most spectacular comebacks in the history of sports.

ah cup shot — The Cup (or Auld Mug as it’s known) on temporary display downtown in Manhattan. That’s one of our students standing alongside – Adam Holmes, who learned to sail in Canada but came to us with some of his buddies from up North to do 103 and 104. Then, they did their own bareboat charter in the Virgin Islands!

This weekend sees racing off lower Manhattan. For those who can’t get on a boat in the viewing area, or a high enough perch to look down on it, not a drama. You can watch a lot of it on cable and through the America’s Cup app on mobile.

For more info on City Island’s history with the cup, see the City Island Nautical Museum’s page on it here: http://www.cityislandmuseum.org/VSS-AmCup/AmericasCup.html

ps: the Museum, which is open on weekends, is well worth a visit.

For more info on this weekend’s Cup events and viewing options, go straight to the source. You can see which networks are carrying it, and how to get the America’s Cup app and watch even more content live with that…
https://www.americascup.com/

Crew Needed: depart New York April 10 for Norfolk and onward

Very experienced delivery captain with high level USCG masters license needs one experienced crew. Vessel is a Maine Cat 38, Hull #1. Travel and expenses covered.

Departing New York this Sunday, April 10, for Norfolk, Virginia. From there, moving on to Cape Fear, and possibly down to Cape Canaveral from there.

Captain holds 500 GT Masters License and has significant near-coastal/ocean experience.

Minimum qualifications for this crew position:

ASA 104 (Bareboat) Certification or equivalent training, PLUS:

At least one ocean passage, or several multi-day charter trips.

If you meet or exceed these requirements, are available, and are seriously interested, message us with your experience and contact info ASAP.

Thanks!

One sailor lost; another is found…

Instead of grappling with very uncooperative weather for spring prep, we’ll take a moment to share some sailing news. We have news both sad and glad.

Very sadly, a sailor died in the Clipper Around the World Race. Sarah Young, of Great Britain, was swept overboard. The yacht was approaching the international date line in the Pacific at approximately 39 degrees North by 160 degrees East. Ms. Young had just reefed the mainsail (reducing how much of that sail was deployed to depower). The winds were approximately 35-40 knots, which is gale force. Apparently, Ms. Young was not tethered to the yacht, and after being swept off her feet by a wave, was carried overboard. She was recovered later but never regained consciousness.

According to an on-line article by The Telegraph, a Clipper Race source stated the following:

“We have no idea why Sarah did not tether herself. It’s something that’s drummed into every crew member from the start: ‘Always tether yourself’.

“It’s just standard practice, like putting on your life jacket. We’re investigating, but only she knows why she didn’t.”

(Here’s a link to that entire article)

It is customary to tether oneself securely to the vessel when not down below if the conditions are adverse – stormy, poor visibility, short or single-handed, etc. In this case, with gale force winds which, if sustained, would have resulted in seas of between 15 and 20 feet, conditions were not to be trifled with. Apparently, Ms. Young had just reefed the vessel’s mainsail as described earlier, and had then been tidying up the cockpit area.

Securing oneself to the boat with a safety harness and tether, which run to a device called a jack line along the deck of the boat, does not guarantee one’s safety either. People have gone overboard and broken free from the connections, and people have stayed connected but drowned or died from blunt trauma. But these are extremely rare occurrences, and the tethering systems save lives. I’ve been known to occasionally go sailing alone at night. I tend to tie myself to the boat, just in case – even on calm evenings with warm water. (I should always do it when alone, but admit to occasional bouts of complacency.) It doesn’t take much to get into a lot of trouble very quickly.

Ms. Young was an entrepreneur, with a business that catered to adventures for well-heeled clientele. She was also quite the adventurer herself apparently, having done exotic and extreme adventure excursions in many locations.

This is the second fatality in this race event over its 20-year lifespan, with ten events over that time. Over 4,000 amateur crew have trained and participated over this time. What’s a little scary, or perhaps just a testament to the random nature of odds and statistics, is that the other fatality was on the same boat, in the same race – just an earlier leg. In September, on the first leg of the current event (from Portugal to Brazil), Andrew Ashman was fatally injured when struck by the mainsheet and possibly also the boom. He was engaged in reefing the mainsail – the same task Ms. Young had just finished before being swept overboard.

(Before anyone starts thinking that reefing must be dangerous, there’s nothing inherently dangerous about it. Ms. Young was done reefing before her accident. It’s not clear how Mr. Ashman was injured while doing it.)

On a glad note, a sailor missing at sea for two months was found and recovered in good health. Louis Jordan, 37, departed Conway, South Carolina in January on his sailboat to go fishing in the Gulf Stream. He encountered rough weather and his vessel was was dismasted and otherwise disabled after being rolled and capsized. He survived on stored food on board supplemented by fish he was able to scoop up in a net. His main concern was lack of water – his supply was running low and rain was scarce.

He was rescued about 200 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina 66 days later. He had spotted a large vessel and tried to signal it to no avail, but after resorting to simply waving his arms back and forth, he was in turn spotted and rescued.

The open ocean is a harsh and unforgiving environment. She taketh away, but sometimes giveth back.

new Coastal Nav course this weekend

Spring Sailing? Unless the declining weather trend quickly reverses, we’re canceling our first Start Sailing schedule of the season and going into navigation mode instead.

Join us this weekend, April 9 & 10, on the Upper West Side for our fun and comprehensive Start Navigating course.

no experience or prerequisites necessary
join as a newbie or do a 1 or 2-day refresher (reduced rates)
soup to nuts: from chart and buoy basics to advanced coastal nav
extensive realistic practice problems
9:30 to 5:30 with breaks
all materials and hi-quality tools included
leads to ASA 105 Coastal Navigation certification

We use our own text book, authored by the Sailing Center’s director, Captain Stephen Glenn Card. If you like, we’ll send you a PDF in advance although it’s not necessary. We teach the course as if you have no experience or knowledge, and you can use the book for review afterward.

Want more info?

See our Start Navigating page or hit us up!

New Boat Owners, Part III

(nb: please excuse the somewhat awkward formatting of this post – it was copied and pasted from our eNews and it is doing exactly and only what it seems to want to.)

In our e-News, Tidings, we’ve been doing a series on newbie sailors and their new boats. Each season, we get a sailor or two who learns to sail with us and then goes on to buy a boat within a few years. 2015 was exceptional: three newbies bought their first boats the same season they learned! It’s not something we recommend generally, but you can decide for yourself if this is for you. We can help. Advise is free.

Part III features Jason, who wasn’t one of the newbie sailors from 2015. He was a lifelong sailor. But he took our Coastal Nav (105) course last spring, is signed up for Bareboat 104, and wound up with a boat. So, here he is.

(This is excerpted from the latest Tidings. Want to get the whole thing whenever it comes out? Use the link on any post and page on this site to sign up.)

Last time, we brought you Cosmo and his Allied Seawind. This time up, it’s Jason, who went with a very popular pocket cruiser. Jason took our Coastal Navigation course last spring. Now, he gone went and pulled the trigger on boat ownership. Take it way, J…

Schematic of the Pacific Seacraft Dana, the largest little 24-footer you’ll ever encounter.

Q: What made you start thinking seriously about boat ownership? When?

A: I have been thinking about boat ownership since my father took me on my first cruise when I was 13. The sailing bug hit me hard and I spent every summer on the water working for cruise companies and yacht clubs just to get aboard a boat to go sailing. It didn’t become a serious possibility until 3 years ago when I was finally debt-free and set saving for a boat as a 40th birthday present to myself as my next financial goal. I considered alternatives including joining a club and doing a timeshare like Sailtime. I decided that boat ownership was the way to go after being a member of a club and being frustrated that it was impossible to use the boats for cruising, difficult to arrange to take friends and being bound by policies and procedures that didn’t match the way that I like to sail. A sail timeshare didn’t offer many advantages other than having a little more flexibility in being able to cruise. I still didn’t have my choice of boat and to sail a lot was twice as much as the yearly payments that I’m making on my own boat.

(ed. note: unlike most sailing clubs, NY Sailing Center does have cruisable boats in its fleet and they are available for qualified members to take on short cruises.)

What did you envision doing with/on your new obsession?

I am planning on spending the summer sailing, wandering up and down the east coast as time, tide and wind allows. I am lucky to have a lot of time off in the summer so I plan on being on my boat in some capacity from early May to late August. I will also be doing a lot of maintenance. I have never been on a boat very long before one system or another goes haywire so I also see many curses, frustrations, and a lot of time spent in uncomfortable positions in my future.

When did you take the plunge, and what did you wind up adopting?

I finally had enough saved up for a significant down payment just a few months ago. This was at about the same time that I realized that a smaller vessel was not only less expensive to purchase but less expensive to maintain, upgrade, dock, moor, and store. I had long admired the Pacific Seacraft 37 as the boat that had enough performance for casual day sailing but could one day satisfy my bluewater aspirations. I settled on another Crealock design, the Dana 24 because she is much shorter but still has the cruising chops of the 37. With the money I saved on the purchase and 13 fewer feet of slip space, I have more seed money in the cruising kitty and can treat her to the upgrades she deserves.

Know what you’re going to use a boat for beFORE you start shopping for one. Could be all you need is one of these. (Rental dories at City Island awaiting the fishing season.)

How has that worked out for you so far? What have you managed to do?

It has been great so far. She came fully equipped with only 150 hours on the engine so the only work that I have done has been cosmetic. I changed out all of the interior cushions that were original to the boat and painted the bottom. My next order of business is to get her shipped from Rhode Island where I bought her and bring her to New Jersey where I have a slip.

What was the best experience you had so far? What was the worst?

The best experience was definitely the sea trial since that has been the only time that I’ve had her on the water. She performed magnificently and I couldn’t believe that I was finally at the helm of my very own sailboat. The worst has been dealing with New Jersey to register her in the state. Fortunately, I am working with an amazing document company that is helping to guide me.

Any changes to what you originally envisioned doing with her? If so, why?

So far everything is happening according to plan. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, done a lot of research and gotten a lot of advice from those who are more experienced than I. Winds and currents change and I’m sure there will be changes to my course but I hope to enjoy the journey as it comes.

Any advice you’d offer up to others thinking of joining the ranks?

Get help. Professionals will make the process better. I relied on everybody who was involved with the transaction and asked all of them for advice in their area of expertise. My broker was an incredible quarterback for the whole process. The surveyor had spent a life on the water cruising, racing and working in the merchant marine and offered great suggestions about upgrades and simple tips for maintenance and upgrades. The document company handled the financial transaction and registering the vessel with the Coast Guard and are still invaluable in helping me navigate all of the bureaucracy and paperwork involved with boat ownership.

Anything else you’d like to add?

When people tell you to plan on spending some 20-30% of the boats purchase price on extra stuff, that might be conservative especially if you hire outside help. Whether you DIY or not, there’s still insurance, surveying, slip fees, materials, delivery and many other costs that just add up.

This could be you! It’s not Jason – didn’t get a pic of his Dana by cyber press time… but his is further down on this post.

Thanks, Jason!

If that sold you on getting your own boat, feel free to hit us up for some quick, casual advice.

If that made you say, “no way,” then sign up for our Sailing Club by March 31 and get any course you like for free!

And, here’s Jason’s actual real-life Pac Seacraft Dana…