Where to start...?

[dslittle]

I've sailed since I was three and owned boats since I was sixteen. I can hand, reef, and steer and wave a sextant about. I'm now 66 and its time to get on with the "dream" before I get crumbly. I've read Geoff Pack's book and Bill and Laurel Cooper's book and of course Hiscock and Worth and loads more...

Experience tells me that plastic is less work than wood or metal if I want to go somewhere warm, which I probably do, and that one should never own a boat that one cannot singlehand.

The budget is limited but I am planning on singlehanding with family members and friends welcome if they choose to drop in.

Not really interested in the Med but quite taken with high latitudes and also with "palm trees and hula girls"

Mistrust gadgetry.

After forty years of wooden gaff cutters I now have a Manky Auld Boat which can go to windward.

There's probably a sweet point between "Willing Griffin" and "Vendredi Treize" in terms of gear and complication needed to singlehand... and probably in terms of port dues and paint...

Where do I go from here.

In fairness, what can anyone else tell you???

 

[Sybarite]

I can echo that. I don't have one and raising a 14kg anchor and maybe 10m of cal 8 chain is just about my limit now especially if there is any significant wind or tide. I also had a whopping shackle to attach the chain to the anchor which wouldn't go through the bow roller which meant lifting the anchor out and over the obstacle. Not good for the back. I now have a swivel which at least corrects that.

I have access to a shop soiled 1000W windlass for €750 which I shall probably have installed in the Autumn.

Were I to upgrade my first choice would be an Amel. They are designed from the start to be a sail-away from day one with everything you need for cruising. They also are set up in such a way that physical strength is not necessary for any manoeuvre. And no wood at all outside to rot.

OK. Anchor raising problem solved.

Son arrives tomorrow.

 

[Rosie1963]

Why not start with a jaunt up to Scotland as her shake down? The West Coast is simply staggeringly beautiful. I am just back from a (land) trip to recce the previous entries in Rosie's log book (she really has been to some paradises). Most of the anchorages empty and or just one other yacht. Its probably easier to get about by boat. From there you are well placed to go either North or South. A good oversized spray hood required though as even during the "heatwave" it rained every day at some point!

 

[DownWest]

Hallo Minn
Will your new forum name begin with an 'N'??

 

[nortada]

Absolutely, if you really want to do it, GO SOON! You've already left it late. I was just a year older than you when I found short-handed blue-water cruising was getting physically a bit beyond me. Thinking of the people I met, I would say that 72 is about the maximum, and that for people who are already well-experienced (notwithstanding the likes of Tilman and Richie).

You already know more about sailing than most of us here, so don't haver about the details. There are enough threads already about the ideal cruising yacht. The only thing they prove is that everyone has their own opinion.

Agree do it now but I am 75 and reckon I still have a few good seasons left but one heart attack/stroke could change all of that.