My kid wants a boat!

[bamamick]

Some of you have met my youngest daughter, Chryssie. She has sailed with me on the Dragon and now the 210, and has really shown an interest is learning to drive the boat on her own. In her words, she wants to be able to sail without depending on anyone else. Yesterday, as she and her mom and I were pulling the 210 back out in anticipation of this tropical storm, she told us that she wanted to learn to sail a Sunfish, and she wanted me to see if I could find her one. At some point in the near future she will either be moving on to a PhD program somewhere, or moving to Colorado to experience life out there, and she thinks she can carry a Sunfish with her anywhere and find a place to sail it (she's probably right. There's hardly a large city in America that doesn't have a sailing club nearby, if only on a very small lake).

My kids all came up through the Opti program at Fairhope YC near here, and though they all enjoyed daysailing we were always racing and they never really liked it that much. Chryssie has been racing now for a few years and has done very well, but I think she'd rather just sail than race. I am thinking that if I can find her a nice, clean boat for the right price I will go halvsies with her, and I tell you, it's a proud moment in old dad's life to think that my daughter enjoys something that I helped hand down to her so much that she wants to carry it on herself. It's a nice feeling.

Mickey Lake

[johnw]

Penguin?

[bamamick]

John, you know how it is with choosing a boat, no one can choose the boat you want for you, and she picked the Sunfish. I could probably set my Penguin up with floatation and that would work great for her, but I think that a Sunfish would work very well for her, as well, and it's what she wants.

Mickey Lake

[johnw]

Well, your water is warmer than ours, so that should work. Nice to see new people devoted to the sport.

[DGentry]

Met her at the WOOD regatta - you should be proud. And, bravo for her! Nothing wrong with a Sunfish, and there's still a lot of racing in them in some places. As you probably know, they went with a new sail and foils a while back, for racing, so it's now very cheap to get the old style stuff, which still works fine.
Also, as you likely already know, she'll need a dolly, but should be able to cartop it all by herself.

Boulder, Colorado is the only place to be if she heads that way. I bet they have a PhD program in her field, too . . . .

[Todd Bradshaw]

I spent about three years sailing a Sunfish, back when it was all I had access to and I was pretty broke. I sailed that sucker on a big reservoir lake through thick and thin, including some very windy and choppy days when the only sailors on the lake were me and a couple of guys on sailboards. Once you really get into the thing and learn beyond the basic simplicity of it, it's actually a very capable boat that can take you through all sorts of conditions and challenge you to be efficient. As a learning platform, it was second only to my Star, which probably sounds like a joke, but is very true. Someone who can sail a Sunfish really well is worth watching. Get her a copy of "The Sunfish Book" to go along with it. Add a masthead fly, some telltales on the sail and run the mainsheet down to a stand-up swivel block on deck aft of the daggerboard slot, then off to big open-topped Clamcleats on either side and you're good to go.

[bamamick]

Todd, Donnie Brennan, who has won races at Sunfish Worlds, is a good friend of mine and the guy who keeps up my boats for me (with his partner, Tom Copeman). If you can win at a high level in Sunfish you are as tactically sound as anyone in the world (and Don is). My own first boat was a Sunfish I bought and paid for when I was 18. The most fun I had with it was sailing it in the Gulf off the beach but I did race it a few times. I moved on to a Windmill shortly thereafter, mainly so I could invite girls to go sailing (hey, it worked!).

If over the next few weeks the kid is still serious we will find her a boat. I am pretty happy that she wants to do this, but she has to get her stuff moved back here from Atlanta first and get a few other things in order.

Dave, my middle daughter lives now in Boulder, and that's where she's going. If she winds up in Boulder she will pursue another Masters to begin with, and continue trying to get into PhD programs. It's really, really competitive, and her Masters from Emory is no guarantee of anything, apparently. Still, she is a great kid and a great person, and she'll land on her feet.

Mickey Lake

[wizbang 13]

I am tempted to drop a dime on you to the child protective agency for encouraging this type of addiction.

[callsign222]

Wait-- she is about to enter a Phd program and is just now getting into a Sunfish? Shouldn't she have had a Sunfish years ago?

I am confused. Could be the wine.

Sunfish is a great boat. Lots of tenacity. Lateen rig looks hot. Easy to move. Like a Laser. I car topped my Laser everywhere and got my boat-fix on where ever I needed.

It's off to a better place now.

Good luck! We need more young sailors who aren't in it for the Prep-school cred, Bermuda shorts, and HH/Henri Lloyd gear, but are in it for the love of it.

[the_gr8t_waldo]

i would think that an requirement for any adult is that you be out of the water..that coupled with car toppable narrows the field down. i like the "duck punt" ..mainly because basic enought to provide a bit of challenge for the skipper, but not very expensive, since we all move on at some point

[Dan McCosh]

Laser or Sunfish are the obvious choices. Around here, the Laser has a following of crazies out in all kinds of weather.

[bamamick]

Maybe a Laser Radial, but I am thinking about the expense. A clean used Sunfish should be relatively easy to find around here. I guess I could find an older Laser and get her the Radial rig? I will look into it.

Mickey Lake

[John B]

Good news Mickey.
I've one out of three that might carry on sailing. My eldest girl is a talented helms... er person and couldn't care less. The middle one , the boy ,wants a keeler but can't figure out how to pay for it ,and my youngest girl wouldn't know how to tie a bowline if it bit her .
It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out in the future.

[Chris.]

Just throw her in at the deep end and get her a Finn :-)

[DGentry]

Older Lasers often have serious issues with the hull - they really need a special trailer design and many folks didn't get them. Lengthwise trailer bunks just don't work, unless the boat is stored and moved upside down.
The mast step can be a problem, too, so much so that they sell mast step repair kits.

She would do just fine with a full rig, in any case. If she wants to race, then that's where a radial rig would be called for - though, depending on where she lives, there might not be any racing in them. And, no, they are not actually competitive with a full rig in heavier air, though you could certainly beat the slower sailors (true no matter which they were using, or course).
Personally, I'd rather have a Sunfish these days - they are just a lot better behaved, and certainly easier and quicker to rig.

A growing fire just started in the open space of SW Boulder (by NCAR) last night - I hope your middle daughter won't have to evacuate. I can get her a place to stay if necessary, so shoot me a pm if things go bad. {I lived in Boulder for many years, and if your daughter is a climber I likely have met her, or at least seen her around!}

Dave (former Bubble resident)

[bamamick]

Dave, the fire in the Flatirons is of concern. I am not sure exactly what's going to happen.

Mickey Lake

[richincident]

Mickey I hope your daughter is fine where she is. I vote for the Sunfish as well. It's what she wants, it's pretty near indestructible, and you can sail it in almost any kind of weather BARRING a dead calm, when you feel as though you are being roasted on a griddle. I have one that I salvaged after a neighbor decided it was too waterlogged and offered it to me. Fun to sail, easy to care for, and doesn't take up too much space. You can't lose!