Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

[sailnstink]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

Choose your own fate my friend. I choose to eat clean, move more, boat more. And excepting accidental death of course, l will boat longer and better then my peers who choose otherwise.

[PeteCress]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

Not thinking old will keep you young. We stop being able to move, because we stopped moving. Recovering strength and mobility is possible. Stay (or get)skinny and never stop moving.

Somebody once said "Pick an age you like and stick with it."

[skuthorp]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

The older one gets, the harder it is for one person to cartop, especially a boat that can carry two, and is fun to sail as well as paddle. All my current boats are trailer boats, although two of them could be easily be cartopped by two people, I find the need to go by myself drives me to trailering.

I also find that an important factor is setup and breakdown time, so I find myself drawn towards monohulls with unstayed rigs. The fewer tiddly bits the better. Something like a Goat Island Skiff pushes my buttons, but you would need to switch to a swing centerboard do meet your grounding at speed criteria.

In our society, one only is allowed to have one woman at a time, sometimes the best compromise is several boats.

Allan
(Thistle, Sunfish, and MacGregor sailing canoe)

It seems that you and I have similar fleets, (Australian Sailfish, MacGregor canoe, Sea kayak) and I do agree about the cartopping thing. Having just bought a new vehicle I'm thinking of building a side loader.
And JimD, 'septuagenarian' sounds so much older than 72 feels for me, but that's my parents legacy to me I guess.

[JimD]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

You going to choose your DNA, too? Not much else I'll say in the face of this kind of stupidity. Enjoy your eternal youth.

[sailnstink]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

Exercise changes your DNA. The fountain of youth is free and available to everyone.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

International 2.4

[Hantu Laut]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

And of course you should check out the great and varied small boat designs of John Welsford himself, many of which have large user communities.

"Old" is a very nebulous term. I was lucky enough to have designed an entry in the 1999 Mini Transat and the entrants sponsor flew me to the finish to "pit crew" the skipper and boat.
These are really extreme mini ocean racers, and remember that at the finish line in the Caribbean the boats had been single handed from France.
Two of the guys in the top 20 ( out of about 65) were over 70 years old, and were both planning to do the next event two years later.

John Welsford. Who will be 70 far too soon, and is not planning on slowing down until they put me in a box.

[Thorne]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

Have you considered something like a Bolger Old Shoe that has a deep cockpit and high sides for a backrest? Has to be trailer-launched and doesn't sail off a beach well, but is stable and comfy to operate from what I've heard.

[sailoar]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

That's one happy tiller.

[Binnacle Bat]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

A couple of weeks ago I managed to capsize a Sunfish (bight of mainsheet fouled on lifejacket in mid tack, and I wasn't able to clear it in time. Not my boat, not my lifejacket.

At 66 years old, 225 lbs, and not very good shape, I was able to right her and reboard without difficulty. Admittedly a Sunfish is designed for that stuff, and but not real comfortable for a geezer to sail in all day. One the other hand the lounge chair type boats (H12.5 and variants) aren't trailerable, never mind car top-able.

For the moment, my senior boat will be a hot molded I-14 hull (c. 1950) with appropriate flotation and seats, and a Goat Island Skiff balanced lug rig. The hull is sort of a baby Thistle, and the balanced lug will provide the simplicity of a sunfish rig, but easily reefed. The Thistle is a blast on the water, and I can single hand her in any reasonable conditions, but it's an hour at the ramp to rig and launch, and another hour at the other end. I'm guessing the 14 will row much easier that the Thistle, and be almost as much fun to sail. Small enough for a geezer to haul above high tide with rollers on the Main Island Trail.

Allan

[bamamick]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

I had friends who raced Stars well into their 80's, and pretty much everyone I know kept going into their 70's, which kind of bothers me since my body has really begun breaking down at the age of 57.

My friend Louie Nady has to be in his late 70's now and Lou still races his Finn. I guess it's absolutely and individualistic sort of thing, but right now my mind is on a glassfibre cat boat with comfortable seats that's easy to launch and retrieve and get the mast up on. I have some racing boats and I always will, but I really, really just want that one nice boat that is easy to rig and sail as well as being fun once you are out there.

Mickey Lake

[kenjamin]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

Probably not fast enough for Pete, but I love the heck out of my SCAMP. It's small enough to right in the chance of a capsize, very easily trailored or pulled off a sand bar or wrestled out of mud (like last weekend at Cedar Key), nice large dry cockpit, growing community of SCAMPs being built, one-design racing and informal racing with no rules also available. It can be sailed, rowed or motored. You can even camp/cruise on it if you like. I built mine in case I get old but getting her to go faster than she should is a whole lot of unexpected fun. John Welsford was gracious enough to let me try out my experimental curvy mast on his hull design.

[Don Z.]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

International 2.4

+ 1

[Binnacle Bat]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

+ 1

Fail

You cannot car-top it, you cannot reasonably trailer it, you cannot bring a friend. Stepping the mast and rigging will take an hour at least. You can't row or paddle it effectively in a calm, and it will never plane on a reach no matter how hard it blows. You can't beach it for a picnic.

If you have a mooring, an H 12 1/2 will be more comfortable, especially if you have company.

If you are going to trailer or car top, there are thousand boats better.

Allan

[Ted Hoppe]

Re: Old-Person's Sailing Vehicle?

A catboat with an inboard --- A Marshall 22 would work for me. It is part of my bucket list to do the intercostal loop on one.