Novice getting started in sailing in UK

Agree with posts that a cheap first time boat - Leisure 17 - or such is great way to get experience safely. Cheap to buy and maintain for a couple of seasons, then sell on. The Forth is great for this type of boat, as you can have a cheap mooring, and run aground without too many tears! Places like Fisherrow harbour, N Queensferry, or Blackness are really inexpensive and have lots of grumpy old men with sensible advice. Occasional racing, and occasional cruises, but lots of time to learn without pressure. Drying and Swinging/Trot moorings. The other side is Port Edgar: expensive to have a boat, but has opportunities to crew and/or race with Club members. Full pontoon access, restaurant, shops, chandlery. Soon to be a new Edinburgh marina at Granton, expensive I assume. An investment of £1500 will get you afloat in a decent boat. The Forth is a good place to sail, leaning how to avoid ferries, bridges, tankers and aircraft carriers, plus not hitting the Inches are essential skills.
 
JumbleDuck said:
On the other hand, the OP wants to cruise, not race, and racing probably won't teach him/her anything s/he doesn't already know from dinghy sailing.

I'm a great fan of just buying a cheap boat (Steve Yates is my hero) and going for it. Although I write this in Edinburgh, I don't know much about the Forth sailing scene, but perhaps Dalgety Bay SC would be a place to start?
Click to expand...

Racing will teach you a lot about the area and possibly put some miles on the clock early and late in the season. It's all time on the water with different people who you can learn from. A different type of boat. Different role on the boat.
I learned loads about how different various yachts are, and how different sailors are. When you mix it with other people on the course and see how they handle their boats, it tells you a lot.

It's often the only context where competent, well-sorted skippers are keen or even willing to take unknowns on their boat. It's not really what I want to do with yachts, but it's accessible for little money or commitment.
I can't say it's how I got involved in yacht sailing, I started through a youth scheme then moved to the coast and made more contacts via a local club. After a few years I got a mooring through the club and bought a small yacht. Aside from racing, I found a lot more opportunities to sail on other people's boats after buying my own. Sadly it often seems a bit chicken-and-egg, people could use a crew, but mostly they want experienced people they feel they can rely on, so you have to get known. E.g. we did an Autumn run to buy wine in St Vaast and asked a couple of people in the club because we knew they were sound helms who could take a watch.
I now have a strange part interest in two boats, which works for me, but is only available to me because I have a lot of experience and the right friends, skills and contacts etc.


I totally endorse the buy a boat and go for it idea, but IMHO there are no 'cheap' boats. If it's going to take you out of sight of land, it's a significant financial commitment on most people's scale? It's not beer money, it's more than I spend on cars, 4 figures a year that you're locked into, even beyond the capital cost, which may involve sums tied up, some of which you never get back.
So I suggest learning what you can before making the leap.

Buying into a partnership can be fraught, great principle but mind how you go would be my comment.
 
I came into yachting via a couple of excursions on other boats and was firmly seduced after a 2-week passage from Holland to Weymouth.
To be frank, I didn't have a clue about boats or what I wanted to do - but I knew I wanted to do something that involved getting out on the water in something bigger than the dinghies I owned at the time. I started to research and spent weeks on here reading and researching.

Then I went to a few boatyards and looked at boats - and found one that ticked my boxes (or at least it did at the time) and off we went, the budget was super low and the experience approaching zero, but we purchased a 29ft boat and spent the next 4 years re-fitting her on a rolling basis, learning how to do all the jobs that I felt were required to make her how I wanted, asking questions on here all the time and probably making myself look like a right plonker at times!

I've learnt skills and done things that I thought were beyond my ability, just take confidence in that whatever it is - someone on here has probably done it before and will have an opinion on it. From fridges to fibreglassing, metal work to electrics, plumbing to canvas repairs - I have done pretty much everything myself, and 5 years ago I had none of those skills. Can't pretend to be an expert but taking your time and researching can save you thousands on labour costs.

During that time I went through several RYA courses and racked up quite a lot of hours and miles simply 'doing it' - increasing the scope of where we went and what we did gradually as we felt comfortable. I think we pretty much did all the things that are frowned upon in the last few years - going aground, fenders hanging off the side underway, falling in, losing stuff overboard, cocking up berthing, and failing at anchoring. All these things make you stronger and let no-one tell you that they have never done it, the things that go a bit awry are the things that teach you best how to deal with it next time - if no-one got hurt you can write it off as experience.

Perhaps we bought a slightly too big boat, however - given the choice again, whilst I'd change the boat I suspect - I don't think I'd go smaller. The advantages of having a triple keeled 29ft boat which could take the ground with 800mm of draught meant that we could sail in easy mode most of the time.

This year we felt that we'd done as much as we could (or wanted to do) in the old boat so we purchased another one, this time a 37ft boat - and it honestly feels like we are starting again with some of the stuff on the boat, everything is a bit bigger, heavier and more expensive! However - the experience of the last few years that we gained hacking around in a cheap small boat has given us the ability to hit the ground running and I don't regret for a moment the money I spent on the old boat which I'll never see back.
 
As others have said:

I was in a similar situation to you and felt that I needed to test myself, so I chartered in Greece, I thought that doing that with an skipper would not be useful, and much more expensive. Going for a bareboat looked daunting.

So I went for a flotilla, where you are in charge but you have some advice, and a safety net just in case. Went with some friends, loved it, and did more, bought a boat, bought a bigger boat, etc...
 
Sounds like there's no one way to do it!

Ta to all for comments, a really interesting read - I'll have a look at some of the clubs in and around Edinburgh, and offer to help crew. For what it's worth, I found the day skipper practical good fun and really useful for putting some of (admittedly quite dry) theory into practice, but I'm sure it'll all feel a bit different when we're out and there's no instructor to turn to

I'm also trying to get my wife some more experience for which I think the charter in Greece with friends will really help - she won't just feel like it's me nagging her!
 
I'm also keeping a relatively lax eye on boats up this way, as it feels like the next logical step past crewing and chartering is to get a boat that we'll be familiar with and we can build experience with. I'm sure I'll be back on the forum asking noddy questions about boat buying in the near future!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

bluey01
Anyone want to design a folding sailing dinghy with me?
2 3 4
Replies
66
Views
2K
bluey01
bluey01
Frogmogman
My next boat.
2 3
Replies
40
Views
1K
fredrussell
F
mogmog2
Maxwell windlass 10 VW looks interesting (to a windlass noob)
2 3
Replies
59
Views
1K
mogmog2
mogmog2

Share this page

Top