The other day someone emailed the blog and asked me if I thought that $50,000 was too little to spend for a boat to learn to sail on. I won't bother with my reply but the question did get me wondering about a couple of things...
I learned to sail on a Sunfish (back when Shonisaurus were the catch of the day in Avalon) because my dad picked one up as a leftover prop from a commercial shoot. A lot of my friends have learned on other various and sundry small craft, and in my mind nothing beats a sailing dinghy for learning basic sailing technique.
That said, I can understand the desire to get a "real" boat to learn on but then I often have really stupid desires...
But it did get me thinking about the cost of used boats, so I did a few searches and found so many scary cheap deals that I was seriously tempted to buy a second boat as I found a sister ship to "So It Goes" on Craig's List for $2000...
I do realize that a 42-year old CAL 34 for $2000 will have an issue or two and require some serious TLC to make it cruise ready, but even if you had to gut the interior, put in new bulkheads/interior/dreaded beam, replace the motor/rig/what have you... it still comes out a deal. Fact is, I'd prefer a boat of this age to be a complete rebuild project than doing it on the installment plan as we have been doing with "So It Goes"... Working through stuff is a heck of a lot easier than working around stuff!
Of course, I don't need another CAL 34 but having one would allow me to do a lot of testing of systems and having a control "stock" boat to compare it to... Wouldn't that be great for testing various rigs, or what? Imagine being able to apply real science to something like the junk or balanced lug rigs... Just being able to put the windward performance issues of the junk rig to rest once and for all would make it a worthwhile investment.
Truth is, since the boat is in San Francisco, I won't be getting it but if it were down here in the Caribbean or even on the East coast I'd be hard pressed not to jump on it (it would also be perfect for a DVD project I have in mind) in a New York minute...
Listening to the Wailin' Jennys
So it goes...
