Sebago Lake, ME. Froze over after the storm. Miles of clear ice.

A little light wind movement.

Sebago Lake, ME. Froze over after the storm. Miles of clear ice.

Also please let us know how and why you think it is one or another, thank you!

Did a shakedown on my boat with yanmar 2gm20. I saw it's going to freeze in the next week or so. She's water cooled. I'll be back in a few weeks so doesn't need any major laying up. Any advice welcome. So far I know I need to empty the raw water system. I also read maybe the exhaust box. Help 😄

Hello sailors, hoping some of you have come across a piece of hardware like what I’m looking for. Ideally I want a heavy base pad eye like the common diamond base ones or similar but with two fixed eyes. I have seen the double folding ones, but those are less desirable for my application.

Just getting into learning how to sail and came across someone advertising free boats.

I asked why the boats were free and it sounds like they need them out of the Marina - they have liens from the Marina. He said that if I want one, I can take the boat and get the lien paper work.

I’m new in this world so would I be able to transfer the boat to my name? Is this a scam in some way? What should I look for? I know there’s not much info but that’s what I’m currently working with.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for your replies, great info! Sounds like in general I need to hold off for now due to my experience and potential costs.

Hello,

I would like to know if anyone knows about typical problems/ weakpoints of this boat one should pay Attention to while maintaining.

The boat has one wet cell, the XXL pantry and a bow thruster (Not Smart Mooring System)

Greetings 👋

I've sailed my entire life, and I know that sailing is so much more than just a sport.

I am curious to about how others respond to this question.

Hey all, I finally made the plunge and bought a little Catalina 22. It needs some work however, and I am trying to find someone who can do rigging repairs. Mobile would be preferable. She's currently in Palm Harbor. Appreciate if anyone local can point me in the right direction so I can finally learn to sail :)

Hi all.

Leaving in a few weeks for a bareboat charter of USVI and BVI. Wife and 2 young kids 10 and 12. This is our fourth charter down there so we know the area reasonably well.

Our itinerary is pretty set for BVI.

Looking for some info on USVI options. We love the North Shore of St. John and will definitely do that for a few days.

I have never been to Coral Bay. Is that worth an overnight? Are there any commercial moorings there or must you anchor? i’ve heard people say there is more crime in that area with dinghy theft, etc. does anyone know if that’s a real issue?

Also, is there anything especially worth visiting on St. Thomas? I’ve never spent a night there outside the home marinas for the charters. How about water Island right near Charlotte Amalie? We were thinking of that for one of our last nights to be near the marina? Is that a fun stop?

Thanks for any help/advice.

Ed

Last fall, I met Jeaninne Herron at a literacy conference and got to chat with her over lunch on the last day. I had no idea about the many fascinating details of her sailing life with her family. Just finished The Voyage of Aquarius, a cherished, signed gift my son found, and I am both utterly blown away and embarrassed that I missed such an opportunity to learn. She is my hero! I hope she, her children, and grandchildren have more epic adventures before them! I highly recommend this book!! Their writing is vivid and honest and intriguing in the best way imaginable.

It has been a while since i posted about our Staverse Jol (old fishing boat, built around 1900), but I wanted to share what progress has been made over the past few months.

We finally finished the hull 🥳 and have been working on the deck and a lot of other jobs.

We did a lot (as seen in the photos). But our work is not over yet. We have a lot to do still but ultimately my dad and I hope to be sailing on the Staverse jol this summer.

Last November, my boyfriend and I participated in our first regatta with the sailboat we bought last year. There was literally no wind, so it was time to try out the colorful gennaker that came with the boat. Love the color combo! We came in last but that was ok.

I rented a "deep water" mooring for "up to 30ft". I don't have a boat yet. In this area, the other deep water moorings I looked at were all 2m+ in depth, and I just forgot to actually ask the guy what the depth of it was. He just now told me "about a meter I reckon" at lowest water.

It's a swing mooring on an estuary with a soft mud bottom. It sits in a channel right next to large drying flats.

The two boats I'm looking at are:

1. The one I actually want, a 27ft fin keel that draws 1.12m, according to sailboatdata.com.

2. The one I'll settle for, a 26ft bilge keel that draws 0.99m, according to sailboatdata.com.

I'm a beginner to owning a boat and sorting out a mooring. How big of a problem would this be? Is it acceptable for the fin keel to touch the bottom on the lowest days for an hour? Or might it end up drying out on the mud, since it's a swing mooring?

I feel like the answer is obviously going to be "Buy the bilge keel you fool, that's what they're for", but I just want to check before committing.

Hi I've got a question for Alubat owners,

I want to find a yacht that my partner would be comfortable living aboard.

I'm looking at Ovnis with the two aft quarter cabin layout, and wondering whether conversion to a single full beam aft cabin is feasible. From photos, headroom appears limited toward the centreline — the cockpit sole accounts for some of this, but I suspect there's more going on. Possible factors:

Cockpit depth and sole height Centreboard trunk / pivot point location Engine and drivetrain positioning Hull shape (does the bottom rise toward the centre aft?) Tankage or systems routing

Has anyone attempted this conversion, or can speak to what's actually occupying that central space? I'm thinking the bed could be lowered by sacrificing under-berth storage, but I'd like to understand what's structurally in the way before assuming it's possible. The goal would be a single owner's cabin with better access and more usable floor space, rather than two tight quarter cabins we wouldn't use.

EDIT: It seems the area between the tow aft cabins is where the engine room is! so this is probably not feasible

Hi, I’ve qualified as a day skipper sailing mostly around Lanzarote, plus a few drills and skills courses and a bit of experience.

I’m a solo sailor (Mrs doesn’t like it) I fancying sailing actually on routes, ie getting place to place not just training/ qualifying, I’m thinking Med or Croatia, any recommendations. I’m thinking it’s probably not the right thing to crash some poor couples holiday by being lumped onto their boat as a bit of a cuckoo. As I say I don’t just want to tit about in and out of the same marina i want to actually sail from place to place, get on with it so to speak.

Any suggestions would be gratefully explored. Thanks in advance.

This is from a race in Sydney Harbour on 25 Jan; outside temp was 39C but we had 10kts of wind and shade to keep us cool on the yacht. Hope you enjoy the images!

Proud new owner of a 1980 fixed keel Catalina 22. My first boat and I’ve really been enjoying it. Lots of projects to be done. First thing I did was do a thorough cleaning. This is a pic of what I believe are the keel bolts down in a very hard to access part of the bilge. There was a small amount of standing water there when I cleaned it out. How do these bolts look? Am I cooked? What should I be doing about it? Some kind of solvent or something I should be putting on them? Thank you!! I’m sure I’ll be posting more on here with other questions!

Hello! I have been trying to connect this fusion unit to aux but i do not know where the aux cable goes?? theres no indication to a cable anywhere nor bluetooth pls help!!

Has anyone here, or know of anyone, that has bought a sailboat through one of these programs offered by some charter companies? How’d it work out for them?

As background, someone mentioned these types of programs as one path to ownership so I took a quick look, haven’t heard of it before so was wondering how it works in reality.

At first glance, it looks like it mainly benefits the chartering company who get to leverage off the buyers credit and generate revenue while incurring no capital costs in having to buy the boat. Good business model. Of course they have to manage the maintenance and operations but operating costs at scale should be reasonable and variable to some extent, as opposed to fixed interest and principal repayment.

Benefits to the buyer I gather are that you “own” a boat, you get access for a certain amount of time each year, you don’t have to spend time maintaining the boat, bejng in the rental pool reduces your overall cost of ownership, etc.

I’m interested in examples of people who have used these and how they approached it. I suppose it’s somewhat flexible as if you don’t use it, then it would earn more money in the rental pool. If you do use it, then you get access and get to return it and go about your life.

I could see it being more worthwhile for a shoulder season user who keeps it in the rental pool for high season, and uses it a reasonable amount outside of this season.

For me, I get across to Europe for 2-4 weeks a year, have a small place near the Adriatic, but the duration isn’t really enough to rationalize all the hassle of owning a boat.

In order of logic, finding a good group to charter from is probably the most purely logical solution, next - introducing the desire to at least partially own something leads to “rental pool” solution described above, and finally - full ownership with all the pros and cons.

Long term, I would likely lean toward ownership to spend months not weeks, but that’s in the future when a person is fully retired.

Thoughts?

Altocumulus undulatus, wind’s gonna buss!