For those new to the blog, Dawn and I are selling the house so we can downsize and buy the boat. We’ve already moved out into an apartment which is just a temporary landing pad while the house sells.
And as for getting the house ready to sell, there are sooo many projects going on at the house (landscaping, painting, floors geting fixed, carpet cleaning, cleaners, staging and on and on and on) just a ton going on that is keeping me busy. The house is going to be on the market 10 April if I remember correctly. Very tiring , but it’s all very exciting!!
As part of geting all giddy about the future and “The Boat” as we refer to it; I also spent some time reading some basic sailing boats which I thought woudl refresh my memory or give me some additional insight into the boat I should buy.
Your New Sailboat : Choosing It, Using It
by Roger Marshal and Denise B. Jessie, this is a Chapman’s book and I could only reccomend this book if you know very little about boats and if you’re still trying to decide between a 20’ and a 50’, a coastal cruiser, a lake cruiser, etc., etc. The book covers a lot of the basics across all kinds of boats, but at 192, 9” pages you can imagine it does a pretty superficial job of covering all this information. For me this book was a waste of money because I’ve already made many of the decisions they discuss in the book. However, if you’re new to all this and you’re just beginning the thought process this would be a good book for you.
Gentlemen Never Sail to Weather: The Sequel by Denton R. Moore was more appropriately focused on where I am in my decision making process. I’ll categorize (and take the flack for doing so) Denton’s views as traditional and conservative. However, the thing that is great is that he made a lot of really bad decisions when he bought and fit out his first boat, and he is very open insharing all of these with you. When it comes to selecting the boat he’s a bit of an old salt favoring full keels, ketch’s and yawls and he explains this very well. I still haven’t completely decided about the ketch/yawl Vs. sloop/cutter and I swear I’m going to write up all my thoughts here one of these days, but I though Denton had some very good thoughs on the subject. Also, as for style, Denton is a pleasure to read, more like chatting with a buddy at the pub than reading a textbook. This book is for you if you’ve decided you’re going to go blue water cruising and need more handy tips.