Upside to being boatless

scottie

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Sitting in the house listening to wind howling and reflecting on being boatless for a year and realising that I don’t need to worry about loose warps fenders and sails etc
we normally kept the boat in the water except for short annual lift to hose down the coppercoat and service sail drive and Kiwi prop all of which could be done with a lift and hold but would normally visit at least once a week for a man shed time etc
i have not so much missed the actual sailing but more the planning and man shed time and certainly not crouching under a dripping boat trying to extract a drain plug determined not to budge
what do others not miss after a life time of sailing?
 
I'm currently facing realigning my engine. I took the shaft out of the coupling to replace the stern gland, and it's several mm out of whack. The mountings have been untouched in a salty, soggy bilge for around 15 years, and have no intention to move. On the list of the things that I would not miss, I would mention this particular job :(
 
Sitting in the house listening to wind howling and reflecting on being boatless for a year and realising that I don’t need to worry about loose warps fenders and sails etc
we normally kept the boat in the water except for short annual lift to hose down the coppercoat and service sail drive and Kiwi prop all of which could be done with a lift and hold but would normally visit at least once a week for a man shed time etc
i have not so much missed the actual sailing but more the planning and man shed time and certainly not crouching under a dripping boat trying to extract a drain plug determined not to budge
what do others not miss after a life time of sailing?
I do not miss a single thing. I am dreading the day when i finally have to give up, so i am carefully developing alternative hobbies. Will still miss it though.
 
when the boats in the water i worry about it and go out to it via tender after work once a week at least for peace of mind, especially as i replace the raw water seacock and installed a in line filter. stuff i never had done before. last year it all seemed ok. now the boats out since november i now have to focus on getting a new drive plate, fuel lines and fuel filter installed for this season. i have all the parts ready but will use a marine engineer (kent marine services) to install the things. I need to get the main sail repaired too at wilkinson sails. all expenses. this year im seeing how things go in deciding if to jack it all in or not. id miss saying i own my own yacht and i enjoy it while its on land too as a place i can go to and relax on having a beer, listening to music while reading older copies of pbo.
 
We had 5 years between boats at the start of the millennium and looked forward to having holidays away from the seas, visiting old cities and mountains. It didn’t work out that way, though, as our first break was a week in Barbados, then chartering a few times in the Caribbean and finally Greece before we decided we loved chartering but missed the odd weekend sail in the UK. So we went back to the model we had at the start of our boating ( and honeymoon) and bought a GK24 which I finally gave away last year.
In those years I loved not worrying about the next few hundred maintenance jobs, cold overnight sails and long drives to the coast.
 
Sitting in the house listening to wind howling and reflecting on being boatless for a year and realising that I don’t need to worry about loose warps fenders and sails etc
we normally kept the boat in the water except for short annual lift to hose down the coppercoat and service sail drive and Kiwi prop all of which could be done with a lift and hold but would normally visit at least once a week for a man shed time etc
i have not so much missed the actual sailing but more the planning and man shed time and certainly not crouching under a dripping boat trying to extract a drain plug determined not to budge
what do others not miss after a life time of sailing?
I am not old enough for my lifetime of sailing to have ended but when it has to I shall be so grief-stricken that I will miss all of it!
 
I'm currently facing realigning my engine. I took the shaft out of the coupling to replace the stern gland, and it's several mm out of whack. The mountings have been untouched in a salty, soggy bilge for around 15 years, and have no intention to move. On the list of the things that I would not miss, I would mention this particular job :(

Just got back today from replacing mounts and realigning the shaft (Yanmar).

Pleased to say it wasn't the horrific task some would have you believe, although I will need to redo it, probably in the spring when the mounts have 'settled in'

Took a good assortment of heavy tools, pry bars, a long socket breaker and various extensions etc
 
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