Hi all, newbie to the world and looking for advice

[dannytsg]

Hi all,

My name is Dan and I have landed here for some advice. I am inspired looking towards the future to purchase a yacht (not entirely sure what) and to have a great time making memories with my wife and our young daughter.

I am under no illusion that this is something that you can just jump straight into (although I know some may have just gone with it). It is my intention to get advice about the right kind of sail boat to be looking at, considerations that need to be made about sailing to different countries and ultimately about where to go to get training in order to make sailing as safe as possible.

It is my intention to sail for short periods, small trips over the coming years to fully start to understand the prospective sail boat I purchase and also how to deal with the varying conditions at sea, from there I would then like to venture further afield maybe making trips to France and the Med.

As the starting questions for this topic, it would be great if anyone could offer advice on the following:

1) Where should I start getting training and familiarisation with operating a sail boat and are there any specific courses anyone would recommend?
2) We envisage buying a sail boat/yacht to suit living aboard during the trips and would require room for 3 people. What size boat would be best to look for and aim to acquire?
3) Is it a good idea to plan to learn to sail our prospective boat in waters around the UK before tackling anything greater?
4) What would you give as your best piece of advice to yourself when you were starting out, given what you know now?

Many thanks

 

[Shearmyste]

Our personal experience that may help

We as a family before any plunge was taken did a comp crew course together as a family holiday, only us on the boat with the skipper, this worked out for a family of four a reasonable holiday cost (even during Cowes week in the solent, I think when booked at the London Boat show they hand not twigged what dates we were after). This told us two things, Dad and youngest son loved it, wife so so, oldest hated it.

Dad then purchased a 27ft Jeanneau Fantasia for me and the youngest to learn the ropes and have the odd weekend away, to note we are both over 6ft.

Then the following year the better half and me decided to have our summer hols together in the boat (we had been caravanners and motor home users for most of our married lives 20+), we only got up to Amble from Hartlepool (45mins drive from our house), following on from this the boss made that great statement "if you want me to do this again you need a bigger boat!", that's when we traded up to a 40ft, bigger than planned but loved the layout and as it turned out just as easy to sail (it was a Hunter Legend 12.1).

We started our liveaboard on this but that was never in the original plan, it just worked out that way, we are now on our third boat which is 55 ft, and have left work to see where life takes us.

so with the ramble I hope I have answered 1 and 2, we only left home waters with our trip around England even when I was looking for my first boat I wanted to cross the North Sea, looking back that was a nice pipe dream but the more miles sailed the easier that step was, I suppose the saying don't run before you can walk worked for me as the leaving home waters was easier with experience.

Answer to number 4, plans can change, when they do make some new ones and don't mull on the old one, focus on the new one.

 

[RupertW]

If you havent had any replies yet it may be that we have had a similar thread a couple of days ago. All good questions and well worth going through this and Scuttlebut and searching for Newbie and similar terms and you will see a lot of advice, much conficting depending on the views of those posting.

Good luck and hope you enjoy it. I would just say that sailing in UK waters is harder than most other places so a great intro.

 

[Heckler]

If you havent had any replies yet it may be that we have had a similar thread a couple of days ago. All good questions and well worth going through this and Scuttlebut and searching for Newbie and similar terms and you will see a lot of advice, much conficting depending on the views of those posting.

Good luck and hope you enjoy it. I would just say that sailing in UK waters is harder than most other places so a great intro.

I wonder where the OP is based. Sailboat is an American term. Just curious.
Stu

 

[Kelpie]

It would be helpful to know budget and expectations.
A bit like if someone asks for advice on a good family car, they will get suggestions for everything from a £500 second hand banger to a brand new Range Rover at £60k.

There are plenty of useable boats around at about £5k that might take three people to the Med, with some compromises. Or you could spend £20k on something newer and nicer. Or £100k on something brand new, and/or much larger.

As for training, it is never a waste of time but experience is the real key. Plenty of people manage to have sensible, safe sailing without doing a single training course. And other people do all the courses and then go out and end up as an RNLI statistic.

 

[dannytsg]

Many thanks for the replies.

Budget wise I am initially looking around the 10K mark, however stretching that further could be done for something that really ticks the boxes, the problem is in sailing terms I don't know what those boxes would be in a yacht.

My plan training wise was to supplement hands on experience with the vessel we buy with courses aimed at advancing the learning journey.

 

[Tranona]

This subject comes up on the forum almost every week. Indeed there is one at the top of this page. Scroll down over the last year or so and you will find answers to all of your questions.

However there is no one, and definitely no definitive answer. People go about what you are planning in a variety of ways, but suppose to start there are two extremes. Some just buy a boat and learn as they go. For some it works, for others it is a disaster as they discover either they don't like sailing or they bought a useless boat. The latter is perhaps more common if you buy at the cheap end as many boats are for sale because they are worn out and not worth spending money on. Others take a structured RYA course with a mixture of theory and practice and learn a lot about boats and themselves before they commit to actually buying a boat. Once you have some sailing experience you are in a much better position to recognise what you want in a boat.

On top of all this there is masses of printed and on line material that will help you learn what it is all about and how other people went about it.