Strictly Sail

It seems I made it out to the sail boat section of the boat show.

I have never done this before. The sail boat section is on the water, and not very large. In addition to a lot of stuff floating in the water, there are some booths on dry land.

The stuff there is different. Some of the stuff is the same, but a good deal of it is different. There were a few dealers selling solar stuff and wind generation stuff. And there were some cool diesel generators. And I saw this nifty cooler that has a very efficient compressor and works as either a fridge or a freezer. That thing works on AC or DC power and the small one draws only 2.5 amps.

Pretty cool stuff. I could get that cooler and install it in the forward storage area of the boat. I would need to put some vent holes, but that would not be a problem. While the boat is on the trailer, it would run on 110 volts along with the battery charger. Once unplugged from the 110 volts it would instantly switch to 12v battery power.

Why do this? So I can leave beer on board of course. I would not need ice to keep stuff cold. I could bring ice cream on the boat if I wanted to. That would be really cool.

I just do not know if it would be $600 cool. So scratch that idea!

I got a bunch of photos. I will put them up. Soon. Really. I just need some time to resize them and stuff. I am working on it now. I looked at some really really super nice sail boats. Catamarans with a 20 foot beam, 4 staterooms each with its own shower/toilet and stuff.

Anyone got $675,000??? Because if you do, you can get a nice 46 foot cat with all kinds of room on board.

After wasting someones time looking at the really nice boats and them trying to talk to me about financing and payment options and if I wanted the boat to include a chef and captain so all I had to do was eat and get drunk - I moved on to the more reasonable stuff.

I took a look at a few trimaran boats that I could put on a trailer. The tri-hulls consist of a main hull a little on the narrow side, with two other hulls on outriggers on either side. So in the water with the outriggers extended you have a very stable platform. And there is this trampoline type material that stretches from the main hull to each outrigger, so you can hang out over the water if you like.

So now I was down to a $40,000 - $45,000 boat. Getting better! Still a little rich, but a whole lot better than the half million dollar floating apartments I had the sales brochures for.

I kind of feel sorry for the sales people. So desperate for a sale that they would let me on the big boats and then even discuss payment terms. Sad.

Then I moved to the single hull boats. I looked at a Catalina 22 footer, and it was getting even better! Only $20k. And this is new. There are a TON of used sail boats out there. So I can look at the new ones just to get an idea of what is out there, then search for a used one. Small sail boats are pretty simple. There are all of 6 wires for your electrical system, and your engine (if you even need one) is a small outboard. The hull is fiberglass so as long as there are no cracks, holes, or blisters then you are good there.

But I think that the Hunter 25 footer, at only $25k new, is a potential winner. It has a wheel as opposed to tiller steering. This is good because I would not have to control the rudder all the time. With a wheel I could leave the wheel alone and I would pretty much track on course. More or less. With a tiller steering system there is a stick connected directly to the rudder. Let go of the stick and the boat will not track on course. The rudder will turn to one side or the other and pretty much be a pain in the ass.

Also the Hunter 25 has a stand up head. So I could plumb a simple shower and have a place for the three S (shit, shower, shave).

Anyhow, when the time comes I will watch the used markets to see what I can get. If I get anything. I do not really know how to sail. I am sure I could learn, but that is step 1.

My first choice would be a trailerable trimaran weekend cruiser. The second choice would be something similar to the Hunter 25.

Boat shows are cool.