Happy: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year!

With this 52nd weeknote, that’s a wrap on 2024. I’ve enjoyed having a reason to post once a week, even if some of those weeks have just been lists of links. This year, I posted 88 times; weeknotes made up the majority of them. That puts 2024 in the top ten for post volume here, barely. We’d have to go back to 2015 to see this kind of activity. All that is to say I’ll keep posting week notes.

It’s been very quiet both at home and at work. Which has allowed me to get a few things done in both places that have been on my list for a while.

One such project was clearing out my lockers at the boat club.–something that needed doing since the boat was sold. Clearing out was easy, but it meant finding a place for a toolbox and three bags of stuff at home. Between reorganizing and posting some things on eBay, everything is fairly neat and out of the way. Fun fact: This consolidation of tools has left me with a collection of adjustable wrenches larger than any one person needs.

In other news, while poking around on this site, I found more embedded spam similar to earlier this year. I’m not sure if it happened since it was cleaned up or if I just missed it–I hope it’s the latter. I’ll keep an eye on things to see if it comes up again. While I’ve been thinking about moving to a static site, it’s an amount of work that I’m not prepared to do right now. However, if the spam continues, it might nudge me towards actually doing that work.


Links

Here are a few tips, or things I think one should consider before buying a sailboat (or accepting a free one). With the exception of the “learn to sail” one, these aren’t necessarily mandatory; at least think about them before diving into boat ownership.

These aren’t unique, but they immediately came to mind when I was penning my thoughts on sailboat ownership after selling my boat. So, I thought I would share them.

  • Learn to sail
    This may seem like common sense for those in the market for a sailboat, but I’ve seen several people take the leap without knowing their aft from their ebb. Poke around the waterfront, or the sailing forums online and you’ll find many claiming that the best way to learn to sail is by finding an old salt to “take you out” a few times. Nothing against sailing with old salts, but taking an accredited, basic keelboat class (US Sailing, ASA, RYA classes are widely available) will give you a taste of what sailing is like and a great foundation for a lifetime of learning. That structured learning coupled with some time on the water with an old (or young) salt, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming quite salty yourself.
  • Join a club
    If this is your first foray into boat ownership, being part of a sailing community is going to be a great asset. While I’m sure this exists at some marinas or town mooring fields. Boat clubs offer community in spades: Lots of helping hands, advice and opinions (sometimes too many). There are a lot of online communities as well, and I encourage you to participate there as well, but nothing beats spending time with people.
  • Know the costs, but don’t get too hung up on it
    Before purchasing a boat, you should understand what you’re getting into. There are a lot of expenses beyond the boat itself. Do some research and estimate your annual all-in costs, including maintenance, insurance and storage. Don’t forget any upgrades you might want like new canvas or a really sweet sound system. That being said, tracking every cost down to the penny probably isn’t a good use of your time and certainly won’t add to the enjoyment of your sailboat.
  • Look for a boat that fits your style and region
    Budget is important, but not the only thing you should consider when looking for boats. Also think about the kind of sailing you’re going to be doing and where. A 42 foot, blue water cruiser isn’t necessary if you’ll be day sailing on a lake. Bigger boats come with more systems to maintain–an unnecessary headache when you aren’t using them.
  • Remember, it is a lot easier to buy a boat than to sell one
    Even beautiful and fairly priced boats can sit on the market for a while. Remember, this is not an investment, and it is far from liquid.

Photo of a small sailboat with an American yacht ensign flag at the stern, sailing at sunset, near the shore.
Champagne sailing on SV Uno.

While the sale of the boat is fresh in my memory, I wanted put a few thoughts down on my experience as a boat owner over the last four years. There’s a lot about the experience I enjoyed, and a couple things I didn’t. These notes are here to help guide me in the future if and when I decide to look at buying another boat. Perhaps, they will help someone else too.

What I really liked

  • Sailing!
    Obvious, perhaps, but must be mentioned. Lots of good times on this sailboat. We won some races, and lost some quite spectacularly. We anchored out and watched fireworks. We explored Jamaica Bay. There were more champagne sails than I can count. You don’t always know beforehand when you’re going to have a truly great sail, but you can feel it when you’re out there.
  • Flexibility/single handing
    With your own boat, you can do pretty much whatever you want. I spent several years at sailing clubs, which were wonderful. But, one usually needs to give up a little flexibly to have a smooth running club. Generally, you won’t be able to take a boat out at odd times or for a whole day. Single-handing is also verboten at the clubs I know.
  • Making it my own
    Don’t like the way something is rigged? Change it! Don’t like how that ding in the fiberglass looks? Patch it! Setting things up your way, perhaps with some trial and error, is one of the best parts of owning anything. Learning how to do things like eye splices and soft-shackles are not only useful skills, but very satisfying. I also didn’t mind doing small maintenance or repair projects, so long as they were within, or a bit of a stretch away from my skill level.

What I didn’t like

  • Hauling Out
    Hauling the boat (and putting it back in) bothered me more rather than less over the years. To the point that it became one of the reasons for selling the boat. Most people seem just fine with this activity, so I’m not sure why it caused me so much anxiety. Perhaps it was because I couldn’t do it on my own and I needed to ask for help. Next time, I’ll plan and budget for putting it at a yard and have them deal with it.
  • Sanding the bottom
    Sanding is terrible, nobody likes it. Some hate it more than others. The boat came to me with many, many layers of bottom paint, much of which I sought to remove. This meant a lot of time under the boat, at weird angles, getting covered with toxic paint dust despite my efforts to contain the mess with a shop-vac. Even with help, it took me a few sessions to get reasonably smooth. Painting was a joy compared to the sanding. In the end, sanding and painting a few times taught me a valuable lesson: Pay someone else to do it. The cost was worth every penny.

One thing I didn’t mention above was the cost. While I didn’t love spending money on maintenance and operating expenses, I understand that things do cost money. Advice to my future self on costs: Set a realistic budget that you’re comfortable with, then try to stay within that budget, roughly. Don’t track every penny–spend the time and energy you’d devote to expense tracking on sailing instead.

Screenshot of a map of Manhattan showing a route on Broadway from West 232nd Street in the Bronx to the Battery in Manhattan. The route indicates that the walking time is 5 hours and 22 minutes and the distance is 14.2 miles.

As I mentioned last week, my sailboat, Uno was sold. The deal was done. All that remained was getting her hauled out of the water and onto a trailer at the appointed time. I was anxious about everything coming together, but all that worry was for naught. The haul out was the most chill one I’d ever experienced and the hauler was a total pro, no issues at all–quick and easy.

We voted early this week, that was also quick and easy. If you haven’t voted yet, please, please, please cast your vote.

On Saturday, my friend Jonas and I walked Broadway from the Bronx to the Battery. This was a trial of sorts to see if we might be able to circumnavigate Manhattan. We walked about 15 miles, which is a bit less than half of the walk around Manhattan, but we were feeling pretty confident that we could make that longer trip. We might try to tackle it in the spring when there’s some more daylight to work with.


Links

Political Links

The big news this week is that I sold SV Uno. Unfortunately, she’s moving out of state. I spent a good portion of Saturday getting her ready to haul out, but couldn’t do the actual hauling out due to high winds. I hope to finish the job on Sunday, fingers crossed. A hauler is set to pick her up Wednesday morning. As I write this, I’m a little stressed about the whole thing and I hope it all does go according to plan–or something close to it.

The links are light this week. There were loads of political ones I could have included. However, like most people at this point, am exhausted by the coverage and state of affairs. So, I’ll spare everyone, for the most part anyway.

Links