From: jfh@cs.brown.edu (John F. Hughes)
Subject: Re: Beginner
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 11:26:20 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.184237.4739@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> dtp1@donner.uucp (80733-patricia) writes:
>
>I would like to purchase my first boat
>and I would just like to have reactions from
>any of you experienced people out there to 
>this:
>[Discouraged with power boats beacuse of maint. probs]
>
>[Considering sailboat for large lakes and bays in NE]
> [Crew = 2; sleep aboard would be nice; trailerable]
> [will attend school to learn sailing]
>
> [Is ownership just lots of maint + little sailing?]
>
>Any advice or comments out there (other than stay off the
>water when you're around).

I'll field this last statement first. Don't worry about staying off the water
when I'm around. If you're worried about boat control, you're 90% of the way to
being safe. It's the folks who don't realize there's anything to worry about
until they've screwed up that are dangerous.


Other folks have said this already, but I'll repeat it: 

Bad News: maintenance and complexity go hand in hand. 

Good News: each additional system only adds its own little bit of complexity,
   mostly. 

Basically, the more systems you have aboard (plumbing, electrical, food
preparation, food storage, air conditioning (!), electronic instrumentation,
etc.) the more you'll have to maintain. But most of these don't interact with
each other too much. If your stove breaks, you can probably still turn on the
cabin lights. Of course, your refrigerator may generate electrical noise that
interferes with your radio, so things aren't totally disjoint. But they are
much more disjoint that you might expect. Des Sleightholme, a British author
who's messed about in boats for years claims that 90% of the problems he's ever
had on boats arose from the belief that the engine would work when he needed
it. These were, of course, manuevering problems rather than maintenance...


Ordinary sailboat maintenance: If you get something like an O-Day Widgeon,
which is (I think) 13 feet overall, with about 80 square feet of sail, your
per-sail maintenance will consist of washing the bottom with a soft sponge each
time you haul out (I'm assuming that you won't be leaving the boat in the water
more than a day or two at a time), removing any rope from the boat and putting
it in a nice dry place indoors, doing the same with your sails (folding them
carefully, dry), and with your lifejackets. 
   Your per-year maintenance will consist of checking the trailer for rust and
getting any rusty spots dealt with (powerboaters---any suggestions here? I'm
completely ignorant on this one, since my only boat trailer is for the iceboat,
which never gets properly wet). You'll also need to store the boat for the
winter. A basement is great, but upside down on a couple of 4 x 4s outside
should be OK too, as long as there's no place for water to sit and collect and
freeze. You'll alos need to check the paint and touch up any bad spots, perhaps
doing a complete re-painting every 3-5 years. New sails after about 6 years. 

   Sounds pretty easy, right? It is. A Widgeon is dead simple to maintain. It
has only one "system", the sails, and they work fine. Get fancier and add
oarlocks and oars, and you need to paint/varnish the oars now and then. Add a 
small outboard, and you need to (ought to?) flush the outboard after each 
sail, fog it for the winter, etc. Add some lights for night sailing, and
your boat's getting complex---need a battery, maybe a system to charge it from
the motor, and one thing leads to another. 


   By the way, you can sleep aboard a Widgeon if you're young and enthusiastic.
Otherwise forget it. The same goes for a Rhodes 19, but it has more wood
aboard, so already has more maint problems. A bullseye is the same (about 15
feet, nice boat, but has a keel, so it's harder to daysail). None of these
boats is suitable for sleeping two people interested in conjugal relations
aboard. 

   
   Three more things: (1) rent a few boats for daysailing, and see how you like
them. (2) try to get a sense of what you want from a boat. (3) Try to ignore
all the hype. 

   About 1: I own a larger boat, and I've been keeping track of costs. I figure
that in a good year, I sail enough days that it's just about an even-money
proposition: if I chartered, I'd spend about the same per year for the same
number of hours sailing. This does not count anything for my time spent on
maintenance, so in general I think that boat ownership is economically a bad
deal. On the other hand, I love to tinker, and I love to have the boat be
*just* the way I want it.  So it's worth it to me. But to make the point: if
you spend a couple of hundred bucks renting small boats, it's money that's well
spent: it would have c ost you that same money to have owned your own boat for
those days.

   About 2: (sail) Boating is fun, but it's mostly not fast. Do you get
bothered by having someone else pass you on the highway? Maybe you want a
catamaran so that you'll be the fastest person on the lake. Do you love the
look of wood? Get a boat that has at least *some* wood trim. Are you good with
woodworking? No? Avoid wooden boats at all costs. Do you often have schedules
to meet, or is being an hour or two late getting home OK with you? If you can't
be late, get a motor, and then expect it to fail you at least once...

   About 3: Keep it simple unless you love complexity. All you really need to
go sailing is a boat with a rudder and sails, and a lifejacket. Oars are nice. 
an extra 200 feet of rope, with a small anchor, is nice too, or the willingness
to possibly ruin the boat if you get in trouble. So's a horn. That's all you
need for boats under 16 feet. Forget radios, except perhaps a weather radio for
home, so that you only go out on moderately good days. Forget loran, galleys
(prepare cold foods, and keep them in an ordinary ice chest!), plumbing, light
air sails, CQR anchors, inflatable dinghies, mermaid-shaped fenders,
signal-flag drinking glasses, binoculars, charts, etc. Get a boat and go
sailing! (But ask around about the area you're sailing, just to get a feel for
it; learn about local currents, for example).

-John