Searush
Well-Known Member
Another midlander here, but when I started I lived on the Wirral. I had a fair bit of dinghy experience & booked a week's charter as a family holiday for our first cruising experience. I picked a small boat (it was the cheapest) and hired out of Mylor, on the Fal which was superbly sheltered & yet interesting cruising. We had a great time & even the kids & missus enjoyed it, so buying a boat became a no-brainer.
As already mentioned you really do need to work out what sort of sailing you want to do. How many (if any) will be with you? Are you expecting to potter to various beaches with the kids or make passages to foreign lands? the answers to these questions will suggest where best to moor & what sort of boat to get.
I do a lot of coastal pottering & dry out on beaches either solo or with the family, so I have a twin keeler based at Caernarfon with decent accommodation. It is well capable of passage making, but is not as fast or close-winded as a fin keeler, but suits my needs for drying out regularly. Twin keels also means cheaper & often more accessible drying moorings too.
Club membership & crewing for others is a good way to make sure you can cope with the cruising life. I have never attended any courses, but I borrowed an RYA course book from the library & had no trouble following its correspondence course format. it was very useful for reinforcing what I already knew as a tidal dinghy sailor & building on that with pilotage & passage planning.
As already mentioned you really do need to work out what sort of sailing you want to do. How many (if any) will be with you? Are you expecting to potter to various beaches with the kids or make passages to foreign lands? the answers to these questions will suggest where best to moor & what sort of boat to get.
I do a lot of coastal pottering & dry out on beaches either solo or with the family, so I have a twin keeler based at Caernarfon with decent accommodation. It is well capable of passage making, but is not as fast or close-winded as a fin keeler, but suits my needs for drying out regularly. Twin keels also means cheaper & often more accessible drying moorings too.
Club membership & crewing for others is a good way to make sure you can cope with the cruising life. I have never attended any courses, but I borrowed an RYA course book from the library & had no trouble following its correspondence course format. it was very useful for reinforcing what I already knew as a tidal dinghy sailor & building on that with pilotage & passage planning.
