On 4/21/10 11:52 AM, Frogwatch wrote:


I am not a "sailor at heart" but am simply cheap. If there was cold
fusion power that would get me from here to there for nearly nothing
I'd use it. Sails are nothing more than a means of propulsion and I
find nothing romantic or even aesthetically pleasing about using
sails. Consequently, I find myself motoring a lot and using sails as
basically a back-up propulsion system. I actually have a life and do
not want to spend it waiting for an occasional zephyr to move me along
at 1.5 kts in the wrong direction.
I would like a motor sailor but my current boat works well especially
with the larger engine. I get a good motor sailor for nearly nothing
and a boat that sails well when I need it.
MY long experience with cruising the Florida west coast has convinced
me that the best boat for me would be a Troller/sailor like the
"Diesel Duck" line of boats except they have too deep a draft. They
would be ideal for California. I have been tempted to contact the
designer to ask him to design a shoal draft version I could build.


My guess is that you are not much of a sailor. I already know you are
not much of a boat maintenance guy.

In the 1970s, I had a boat very similar to yours. Same brand, though
mine was a center cockpit. I bought well-used, though in great shape,
from a charter fleet operator in Annapolis. If there was any sort of
breeze, the boat was an okay cruiser, but there were plenty of days on
Chesapeake Bay with seemingly no wind at all. I kept the boat a couple
of years and then sold her to another charter fleet. I kept my next
sailboat in a marina closer to the ocean, where wind was more likely.

Anyway, perhaps you have the wrong sort of boat. You ought to consider
getting rid of the sailboat and finding a nice, used 30-35' trawler with
a diesel that will provide a steady 6-9 mph cruise speed, pretty much no
matter what the wind.



--
The Tea Party's teabaggers are just the Republican base by another name.