Boats we own(ed)

[RockyMtn]

Hornet 14 or 16, (can't remember which) when I lived in Oregon. Capri 15 when I lived in DC that I used to sail on the Potomac. J 24 in Colorado. Boat less now although I have been known to rent on occasion.

 

[Revlefty]

My dad and grandpa built a "sunfish" style sailboat for my brother and me. We spent many memorable hours out on Brown's Lake in SW Wisconsin.

Years later, my mother was painting this picture of our sailboat. The teacher tried to tell her that she was painting the sail wrong. The teacher didn't have a clue about the shape of a sunfish's sail. Mom just ignored her teacher and painted the painting her way.

This picture hangs above the computer in my man cave.
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[Bamaman]

Yes... there have been many threads on this, but we like the subject so much that it's a chance to share experiences, pictures, stories and memories.
It will take some time to put together a list, but this for starters.

Spent 100's of hours in this 1950's 17 ft. mahogany Thompson runabout, in Narragansett Bay... from Barrington to Providence, to Newport and every anchorage along the way. Fishing, swimming, skiing, clamming and watching air shows at Quonset Naval Air Station. Our kids grew up in bathing suits and could sail our plywood (original) 1951 Sunfish at age 5.

Your boats?

Think what a honey that Thompson would be with a modern 4 stroke outboard. You could actually afford to run it.

 

[Bamaman]

I've had a couple of inboard outboard runabouts since 1974. Also had Jet Ski's and Sea Doo's since 1985. I also bought my first Starcraft 24' pontoon boat in 1985--with one of the first Yamaha 115 hp motors in the U.S. And I still have it.

I now am running a Bennington 24' tritoon boat with a Yamaha 150 hp motor--40 mph toon. We also have a Yamaha Waverunner to chase the blue herons with.

I'm fortunate to have a 16,000 acre lake in my front yard with double boathouses/lifts. And we have 3 Robert Trent Jones golf courses within eyesight. I hope to have a six mile water view of the sunset for many years in my retirement.

 

[imoldernu]

My first boat... Actually mine and Johnny MacQueen's first boat...

Best as I can remember... Summer 1943... age 7, Johnny was 8... after watching Errol Flynn in the Sea Hawk... decided to build a ship to sail on the only water we were allowed to go to by ourselves...Spec's Pond...
Three boards... best as I can remember... one 5" x7ft., one 6" x 6ft. and one 7"x 4ft. A big triangle... more or less the shape of a boat. The bottom? pieces of linoleum... nailed with whatever we could find. Then.. Painted... with whitewash from John's grandgather's cellar.
A thing of beauty... ready for launching at Spec's pond. We had good imaginations, and had made swords... but forgot paddles. Unscrewed the basket from my brother's baby carriage and we had an instant boat trailer for the quarter mile trip to the pond.
The whole neighborhood gang came down for the launch... maybe 6 or 7 kids.
Waded into the muck at the edge, through the reeds, and into... open water.

Ten feet from shore... our vessel began to leak...

Now, Spec's Pond is only about five feet deep in the middle, so we jumped out and hauled our craft ashore for repairs... Simple... logical... quicK and easy... We used moss that was growing on the shoreline, and packed it tightly along the bottom edge.

Second launch... thirty feet from shore into deep water... a glorious, successful beginning of the Sea Hawk adventure... John and I with swords pointed to far off lands...

... until our beloved craft sank... laden with moss and linoleum ... right to the bottom.

And there it lies, even today. Look closely and you can see this treasure ship at the bottom of the pond.

All master boat builders have to start somewhere!

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

We have quite a bit of experience but really it was a pretty mild trip given the calm summer weather. Knowing the tides and currents is what counts, especially in a 17 foot boat that is design limited to about 6.5 knots close hauled. Going against a 4 knot current....sucks (alternatively, going with a 4 knot current wing on wing and you are flying).

We didn't start at Friday Harbor though...we started at Anacortes.

Hull speed should be about 5.15 knots on a 17 footer.

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[AnIntentionalRoad]

Here is the boat I lived on for a year while tooling around the Bahamas, a Brewer 12.8.


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[AnIntentionalRoad]

Here is our current boat, a Freedom 32.


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[aja8888]

Here I am learning to sail on a Dolphin Sr, circa 1974. I've owned 6 boats since then, 4 were J/Boats- Better Sailboats for People Who Love Sailing..

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing... about in boats — or with boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not." from The Wind in the Willows

Midpack?

 

[Alan]

Here I am learning to sail on a Dolphin Sr, circa 1974. I've owned 6 boats since then, 4 were J/Boats- Better Sailboats for People Who Love Sailing..

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing... about in boats — or with boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not." from The Wind in the Willows

Welcome back. So, your departing post was an April Fool's trick all along!! (and like many others, I fell for it)


http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/sincere-thanks-and-goodbye-for-now-76651.html

 

[Fermion]

Hull speed should be about 5.15 knots on a 17 footer.

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Yes, but you can exceed design calculated hull speed when close hauled at a significant heel (to the point where my wife gets scared we are going over )

In 0 knot current we have done 6.8 knots via GPS at this point of sail.


edit: but some of that could have been surfing

 

[splitwdw]

When we were first married, my husband's buddies had boats and we would party with them. Thought about getting a boat of our own until we saw the repairs and maintenance they had. Really enjoyed the boats and still go out with friends but will never own one.
You all have some beautiful boats.

 

[travelover]

I'd had a couple of canoes and a kayak. The closest I've come to a motor boat is when I bought a 2 HP Johnson outboard to save some paddling on the bigger lakes in Canada. Shoulda bought a Honda - the Johnson was too noisy.

 

[pb4uski]

Think what a honey that Thompson would be with a modern 4 stroke outboard. You could actually afford to run it.

Someone on our lake has a nice old 16' wood runabout that has been nicely restored with a relatively new Honda 25 hp 4-stroke outboard on it. The light gray Honda outboard looks great on it and looks like an old outboard from a distance... but has some real nice technology under the covers.

 

[imoldernu]

Midpack back to talk boats...

So now another BIL story... different BIL... In the early 70's we lived in Falmouth and he lived in Gray Gables (long ago, the home of the Summer Whitehouse) at the exit of the Cape Cod Canal into Buzzards Bay...

Gordon was an adventurer who would try anything, and living by the water decided to buy a sailboat... a 22' Herreshoff Eagle... that despite the hallowed name, was an absolute dog of a boat. Gaff rigged sail and a wide beam meant that not only could it not be sailed close hauled... but not even well on a close reach.

His second day of learning to sail, w/ DW, her sister and I along for the ride.... we sail east toward Cape Cod Bay with a good west wind.
Most of the way to Sandwich... and then... ebb tide, and, too late... we realize we have to go back. And then it starts... tack,tack,tack and we're making about 100 yards on each tack across the canal... We're barely moving on a close reach. An hour of this, and then the tide changes. The tide can run at 6 knots, and not only is the wind against us, but so is the tide... we're moving backwards towards the bay... away from home... and no anchorages...

That's not the worst... we're still tacking and suddenly see this huge wave coming up from the mouth of the canal... what the? there we are, near the middle of the canal, and up from the depths, rising like a bad dream... the conning tower (wings) of a nuclear submarine, probably transiting from Boston through Buzzards Bay to Newport... these things are BIG... and scary... pulling a five foot wave...

We really weren't in any danger, as we were closer to shore at the time, but I have to admit, I was glad there was a head in the cockpit.

A friendly cabin cruiser saw our plight, and graciously towed us back to Gordon's slip...