On 10 Oct, 17:43, wrote:
wrote:
Actually, none of us can offer advice outside of our experience.

Sure we can... or at least, I can and it looks like a few others do it
very enthusastically.

.... RB
sails
within a mile of his marina with a "family" crew. Oz, as far as I
can see,
races single class boats.

Looks to me like Oz has raced a lot of different class boats, done
some ocean racing (IIRC he's done the Sydney-Hobart) and cruisers in
various parts of the world. AFAIK he talks (posts) about it with
enough accurate detail that he's not BSing.

I may well be wrong about Oz's experience. However, I don't
feel that he has ever given advice that wasn't based on
personal experience. In other words, I have confidence
in his advice.




....Doug, seems to be a racer of "20
something"
foot yachts.

No, I've raced a lot of smaller ones.... once in a while a bigger one.
And I've definitely spent more time underway cruising or daysailing
than racing, but it's not as interesting to talk about IMHO.


Like Oz, I get the feeling that you don't give advice on subjects
that you kow little about.



Likewise, Ringmaster races a particular boat.

JG, probably has as much general expereince as any of
us.

And Bart has quite a bit more yet.

Yes. When he sailed on Setanta, he said that it was the
82'nd type of boat that he had sailed on. He has had two or three
more
since. So he is well on the way to 100!!

I guess that I have sailed on about 15 different models.



My experience is mainly based on a single boat. Fortunately,
I seem to have made the right choice.

Maybe you have a knack for it?

heh heh
Yes and No!

I was lucky enough to belong to a club that had a real
ethos of giving "experience" to its members. I managed
6, or 8 Channel crossings in different boats before I bought
my boat. When I went to buy the boat, I took two of the
club's most experienced sailors to help me spec it. I only
overruled them on one item. They said that I should go for
the aluminium toerail. I went for the pretty teak toerail. I
was wrong!




As I see it, you have two choices.
1) Go for your ultimate boat!
2) Buy something "safe" so that you can learn
about your real requirements.

My advice is to take choice 2).

Not sure I get what you're saying. Don't buy the boat you really
really want, that will do the tasks you really want to undertake? That
sounds like the safest course to me, rather than buying something
smaller & cheaper & less suitable, just to gain experience... at a
large cost in dollars & time!

It really depends on how sure JL is about what he wants.
I was fairly confident, and history has not proved me wrong.
However, I can see that it could easily have gone the other way.

A mistake could prove expensive. For this reason, I think
that JL should "dip his foot in the water".


Regards


Donal
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