Bought a boat!

Conventional wisdom says to look at many boats and do a lot of research before you actually purchase one. I decided to ignore that and purchased "Reel Fun". I can use the slip for the rest of the season before having to haul her out in October.

It is at a slip in Marston's Mills on the Cape, which is about 50 mins from my house. Not very convenient, but I hope to make it out every weekend until the end of the season.

I brought my kids down to take it out for another test sail before purchasing her. The kids had fun, although I'm a bit rusty at sailing since it has been so long. I learned sailing dinghies on the Charles River, and I don't think they had a jib. I also didn't learn about channel markers or coastal navigation, so I will need to do that sooner than later.

I think the kids approve!

Checked out a boat

I stopped by to check out "Reel Fun" (not crazy about the name, but I don't want to do a renaming ceremony). I'm totally new to boating but it seemed to be in nice shape for a 25 year old boat and has only has had 1 owner. The owner took me out for a sail and she did well. I don't know what the hull looks like under the water, so hopefully there are no issues. Seems crazy to pay for a survey on a $3000 boat.

The decision to buy a boat

This is my first post to this blog. I've always been interested in sailing. I took some sailing classes on the Charles River at Community Boating and had fun. On my honeymoon there was a small catamaran for use at the resort and I had a ton of fun sailing that for an afternoon.

Now that I'm a single man again, I can buy the toys that I have always wanted. The decision to buy a boat was cemented when the drive on portion of Duxbury Beach closed for a few weeks due to Piping Plovers. I was on vacation for a week in July and my kids and I were going to hang out at the beach all week and relax.

I started browsing boats on Craigslist on a whim. I knew my first boat should be a trailerable sailboat so I can get sailing for short money and it would be easier to sell if I decided it wasn't for me.

Here's a nice looking Precision 18 sailboat for sale on the Cape that is in my price range.

There is a good user's forum for Precision boats and an AWESOME book that Tom Scott has put together that covers virtually everything with this boat.