Good on ya!
Listen to what Rich says as he knows whereof he speaks. What he says is
true. You will learn to sail well much faster on a small boat.
It's true that if all you're interested in is getting the boat moving to
80% of it's potential, all you have to do it turn the wheel until you're
pointed in more or less the right direction then randomly fiddle with
the ropes until your moving. But that's a far cry from being able to
keep yourself and your passengers safe in all conditions. It's not that
sailing and seamanship is all that tough, it's just that you will find
most of the learning happens much faster and the mistakes are usually
less costly and dangerous on small boats. Neither the boat, nor the sea
are out to "get" you, but they can be coldly unforgiving of your mistakes.
Also, if anything, he minimizes the risks of learning to sail on such a
"momentum machine" (love that term, Rich!). This is not the boat to
begin learning how to maneuver around the docks in. If you try, you
will almost certainly cause some very expensive damage to your boat and
others and possibly injure people. Think of it as trying to learn to
drive in a fully loaded semi on wet ice in a crowded parking lot.
Another issue to consider, is that depending on where you want to be,
live aboard slips can be difficult or impossible to come by. Most
places around the SF bay have multi-year waiting lists for live aboard
slips (the marinas are limited to allowing a max of 10% of their slips
to be live aboards)
If you do proceed with your plan to get a Tayana, rest assured that you
will be getting a great boat. We've had ours for almost 3 years now and
love it.
Fair winds - Dan
wrote:
Whoa!
A Tayana is NOT a boat that one 'learns' to sail on.
These are big, slow to maneuver, with lots of forces
generated; not, something you can just walk up to and
learn to sail on in a couple of hours. The learning
curve from such a boat will be very slow and long.
And if you havent any prior sailing experience, can
get into one hell of a lot of trouble in a hurry.
...
Thanks for the advice. I don't intend to sail this boat
myself until I know how to do this. I can either go and
take sailing lessons in smaller boats or spend a lot of
time watching other people show me how to sail this boat.
One reason for buying a boat is because I would like to
go and live near the ocean but can't afford a house near
the ocean at this time.
I've just read "The Voyage of the Northern Magic" which
is about a Canadian family sailing around the world in
a 40-year-old sailboat. Their entire sailing experience
before taking this journey consisted of 6 afternoons in
on the Ottawa River. (See www.northernmagic.com)
--
Dan Best - (707) 431-1662, Healdsburg, CA 95448
B-2/75 1977-1979
Tayana 37 #192, "Tricia Jean"
http://rangerbest.home.comcast.net/TriciaJean.JPG