First sails of 2015 on Reel Fun

Here are a couple of pics from the first couple of times out on the water in 2015 on the Precision.

Took my brother out on Memorial Day

Mainsail raised

First trip to look at a bigger boat and an offer is made

I knew buying a bigger boat would be a pain, but this was very painful. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

First trip to see the Hunter 28.5

I scheduled time to do an initial check of the 1986 Hunter 28.5 that I saw on Craigslist. It's in my price range, looks like it's in nice shape, and is very close to me. Other boats I've seen have been far away, which will make inspection and delivery tougher. 

I met the owner at the marina and the kids were VERY eager to check out the boat. They had fun running all around and checking out all the storage areas.I'm not a religious person, but I'm not about to anger the ocean gods. There's a whole ritual about renaming a boat that I just don't want to undertake, so I need to find a boat with a name I can live with. This boat's name is O'Sea D, which is fine as I've been told I have a touch of that by several people! Later on I would come to find that she had been named "Naughty Muffin". Wow, what a horrendous name. Sounds like a bad porn name and I would have passed if she still had that name.

The boat looks like it needs a good cleaning. It has been on stands for the past 2 years. The owner had lived in New Hampshire and would spend weekends on board while she visited her daughters, who live locally. Eventually she purchased a house on a river and wanted a powerboat because the river was too shallow for the Hunter (she draws 5'2"). All the electrical work was redone (at the tune of $7,000!), there's a nice chartplotter and the interior looks good. 

I was hoping the owner would have been able to get the sails on already and the cushions out, but no luck. If you're going to sell a boat, I would advise having everything ready before you list it.

That night I decide to make an offer, contingent upon a good survey.

I have lost my mind.

Buying a bigger boat...

I haven't even had the boat in the water for a week and the kids just don't like my Precision 18 sailboat and want something bigger. My original plan was to sail this boat for a few years and then move on to something in the 30 foot range, possibly a Catalina or Hunter 29.5.

I was browsing Craigslist and I saw a boat listed that is very close to me. It is a Hunter 28.5 and saw it on the hard last year while I was riding my bike by Tern Harbor Marina. It's in my price range and sounds like it has had a lot of work done and is ready to go. Here are some pics from the ad.

Thoughts running through my head:

• Am I crazy to upgrade to a bigger boat so quickly?
• Can I afford it? I can trailer my Precision to my backyard for the winter.
• Is there a bigger slip available at Thayer's Landing?

I talked to Jeff and he said he has one available and I could pay the difference to have it. He might rent out the slip any day though, so I decide to go for it and pay him the difference. For the bigger slips, there's a minimum boat length of 32", so I pay the difference between my 18' Precision to 32'.

Game on!

Early morning at the boat ramp

It's May 15th already and I don't have the boat in the water yet!

I'm super nervous around the boat ramp, so I got up this morning at 4:30 and got to the boat ramp 20 minutes later. Raised the mast, rigged the sails and motored over to my slip by 7am.

There was one part where I panicked. I was in the channel off of Wessagusset and the motor died on me and there was zero wind. I didn't open the vent on fuel tank, which starved the motor for fuel. I realized this quickly and was up and running in no time.

The folding bike comes in handy to get back to my car at the boat ramp. It's about 4 miles from my marina.

Nice and calm at 6:15am

One of the first ones to the marina for the year.

Came back at night to do some cleanup work. This photo looks like a watercolor.