How mad is it?

[zoidberg]

Staring at these pages....

....and wishing I was 1/3 my age and 3/1 times as wealthy.

 

[SaltyC]

Staring at these pages....

....and wishing I was 1/3 my age and 3/1 times as wealthy.

With the experience of many years (Decades?) realising the opportunity may only be there once - GRAB IT!

 

[ridgy]

Get cracking...
Mini Transat yacht - Dudley Dix Mini Cruise | eBay

Just add fuel and water. You won't be competitive but you wouldn't be anyway. You can still have 95% of the fun though.

 

[zoidberg]

Get cracking...
Mini Transat yacht - Dudley Dix Mini Cruise | eBay

Just add fuel and water. You won't be competitive but you wouldn't be anyway. You can still have 95% of the fun though.

"I can resist anything but temptation..."

 

[ridgy]

The Dix cruise mini is a mini transat for the more civilised gentleman with a smaller rig (but still a very sporting SA/D of 24) and a higher cabin top to ease the back troubles. Just the ticket for the older sailor looking to recapture his youth:
Didi Cruise-Mini radius chine plywood mini cruising sailboat plans

I don't think you have any excuse to be honest.

 

[MisterBaxter]

There is (or was, anyway) a secondhand mini Transat for sale on Apollo Duck for £6k or so. Could just buy that, do some sailing and see where the process takes you...

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Staring at these pages....

....and wishing I was 1/3 my age and 3/1 times as wealthy.

35k will get you one that's usable. 75k for a competitive boat. Used. I've spent too much time on that website for safety.

 

[zoidberg]

35k will get you one that's usable. 75k for a competitive boat. Used. I've spent too much time on that website for safety.

I feel your pain....

The trubl with being competitive - truly competitive - is that it is unsustainable. 'Been there, done that' etc. What then?

 

[Neeves]

Retire, emigrate and buy a cruising cat......and stop thinking of your good old days - the opportunity was 'then' not now.

Accept your seniority and wisdom with grace

invest your remaining wealth in decent malt whisky

and relax.

Time and tide wait for no man

Jonathan

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Retire, emigrate and buy a cruising cat......and stop thinking of your good old days - the opportunity was 'then' not now.

Accept your seniority and wisdom with grace

invest your remaining wealth in decent malt whisky

and relax.

Time and tide wait for no man

Jonathan

Well put. Broaden your horizons, and your boat.

 

[zoidberg]

Well put. Broaden your horizons, and your boat.

....and your waistline!

 

[Yealm]

I bought a new Pogo2 (from California) as a mid life crisis (early 50s).
Had it for about 3 years - amazing fun - regret not making her more cruisey (lazy jacks, roller furling, cushions) -in the end it was just not great for overnight trips or taking friends out

 

[Neeves]

....and your waistline!

If you think you are old and sail like an old man, beer in hand, oblivious to sail trim etc, you will get fat. (Sailing can be one of the least active leisure activities ever devised.). Sail like a youngster, and without the beer, and you will stay trim.

Think 'round the cans' in a small yacht. No need to be an expensive small yacht, whatever the equivalent is today of the Sonata, J24, Impalla (or a dinghy). You have the knowledge and skills - think young. And no need to sail offshore - you can still collect silver or glassware inshore in your senior years.

I'd suggest a small cat or tri but that might be a step too far...... initially ..... especially if you retain hang-ups about more than one hull.

Jonathan

And thinking further

Ethchells and Dragons need skills and an attention to detail. Sometimes helmed by someone with a thickening waistline and crewed by lithe youngsters. I don't know what the modern equivalent to a Dragon might be but I suspect you can pick up a tired Ethchells relatively cheaply (and then tidy it up). But then a bit of role reversal - have the lithe youngster on the helm and reduce the waistline of the old salt by doing the sail trim. The lithe one will quickly learn, guided by the old salt, and the old salt might reduce his waistline.

J

 

[Chiara’s slave]

If your waistline has already broadened, join the XOD fleet. An Etchells is a terrble idea for any but the most dedicated racer. Crew weight restrictions for starters, never mind 5he ongoing costs. However, you need to be in pissing distance of the Solent for an XOD. Poole to Chichester.

 

[zoidberg]

I'm gaining the perspective that perhaps Classe Mini is not for me. Among the features I'd struggle with is that teensy weensie companion-hatch. Like certain 2-seater sports cars, I may well get in.... but I'd struggle to get back out again.

Just casting an eye down 'the avenue of the years', some boats, some trips loom large in memory..... My boating initiation on a Tornado, trapezing in a torn wetsuit, on the Tay estuary in February..... A cross-channel with my young wife and her younger sister in a self-completed Telstar, in the fogs of 1976.... A week on 'Hoshi'.....A RORC Season on 'Triohe', a hand-built carbon Farrier Fx-9 in which we had 4 Class Wins ( including the Fastnet ) and a Second out of 5 Starts.... several weeks dinghy-camping in the Lofotens and through the eastern Swedish archipelago in an inflatable Catapult catamaran..... sailing Jimmie Wharram's new 63' 'Spirit of Gaia' on her first offshore trip.... whale-watching some 400nm west of Biscay in an 'Antigua' catamaran.... and numerous others.

Of course I've sailed other boats. Many. And others I've lusted after....

There's just one that I'd sell my grandmother, and all my in-laws for. 'Le P'tit Trimaran Jaune'.....

'A Capella'

I'd cut a deal with the Devil himself for all the souls I could muster if Charlie Capelle could be persuaded to sell her to me. Or even one very like her.....

This legendary boat, built by Walt Greene, had a chunk of financial input from my good friend Spencer Merz of Boston, who also contributed to Phil Weld's 'Moxie' and Pete Goss's 'Cornish Meadow'.