youtube link doesn't work, at least for me.

Sorry, not sure why the embed isn't working. Here's the direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoEFLvoXJz0

fixed embed. it's just the last bit of the url in the youtube tags, ie the PoEFL... bit

I probably would have been charged with assaulting a law enforcement official if I bumped the dog.

I find it a little hard to believe we have law enforcement running around with dogs who will bite anyone that accidentally touches it. All things being equal I'd be more inclined to bend down and pet a police dog than a random dog based on the thinking that they should be better trained and wouldn't just bite anyone.

Think about it like this: most dogs are trained, more than anything else, to never bite a person. Police dogs (some) are specifically trained to bite people sometimes.

If there are two things my German Shepard knows, it's that I'm going to be upset if it poops in the house or puts it's teeth on anyone else*.

*she can play bite with me, but I'm the only one.

That would make for a ****ty day. Getting bit by a dog and then charged with assault just for cruising on a boat...

@de captain

Link broken, any chance these pics are stilll online?

Thanks for a great thread.

Unfortunately no. That was my brothers photo blog and he had to take it down to move it about a year ago because apple shut down their free service or something?

I actually set up a new installation for him but he's never done anything with it and I don't expect anything anytime soon.

About 100 of the best photos are available in the book, thats the only real option right now.

Oded, NH sir!

Keep on keepin' on, De Captain.

hey de_captain

I've been following this thread for a while and you've definitely been a source of sailing inspiration for me. I crewed a blue water sail from NZ to Fiji...the kind of wonderful downwind sails you've mentioned that people love to do.

I'm interested in crewing any sort of sail in the next 6 months or year or so. I live in Portland Oregon. What do you think the best way to get on a boat would be? I've thought about going to Hawaii or Japan and trying to crew my way back...do you think that would be likely?

I mainly want to do this to get more experience for my own sail around the world... do you think this is a good way to go about this?

Thanks!

This is incredible. Granted, the video won't mean much if you don't follow the America's Cup but if you do it's pure gold. Fwiw if you don't follow AC, offshore racing or Vendee and you want to, checking in at sailingAnarchy regularly is probably you're best choice.




We sailed into SF last month and stopped into the AC headquarters and a super cute & friendly girl at the desk spent close to an hour chatting us up, showing us every available video of the crash and explaining the finer points of the AC rules that make the crash such a big deal - as opposed to everyone's understanding of "LOL Larry Ellison has plenty of money, just build another".

Well grats on beating into SF without drowning haha. As I stated a few years ago this is the coolest thread and I'm glad you are makin out.

If you recall in '09 I was inspired to get sailing...one thing or other delayed us, but thanks to this inspired thread wife & I just finished a 1 week crash off shore course without dying so tomorrow we are otw to Florida to find our boat and sail away.

Thanks deCaptain......truly

This is very cool, congrats. I'd love to hear more about your experiences & crash course in sailing as well as what type of boats you're looking at and your future plans. If there is ever anything I can do or answer any questions just send me a pm.

de captain,
I recall you had your boat for sail, what happened?
Is there ever a chance for you to take on any more crew?

Ya thanks. We took our ASA 101,103,104 all in the span of a week on board a 43' Dufour. It was amazing that we only got off the boat once that week to pound beers at Schooners on Key Largo.

By weeks end we could pretty much single hand that boat safely, and are not a menace on the ocean to everyone anymore, although docking bow first using prop walk etc is a bit of a mystery still lol.

We are looking at a 46' Island Packet that has a lazarette big enough to store all the stuff I could dream of putting on her including my smoker. The deal is far from done but we hope to get someone to help us get it to the Caribbean if we are successful.

I'm still trying to figure out if I need to register the boat at home ice in Alberta or if I can do it in Florida or BVI? I'm trying to figure out if anyone will insure me...I need liability at least but prefer my ride is covered as well. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the boat during hurricane season (put it on the hard?)and on and on. It gets complicated I guess.

But I do know that I wore a huge **** eating grin when the breeze bumped up to 20 knots on a close reach in the Gulf stream trolling for Mahi and need to do that some more haha.

de captain,

Thank you for creating this thread and being such an inspiring person.

Thanks in no small part to the inspiration from this thread over the years, I have maneuvered my life to the point where I am now homeless, jobless, carless, and have a one way ticket to St. Thomas. I'll spend a week doing a sailing school liveaboard to refresh my ASA 101/103/104 skillset before spending the rest of the year doing whatever I need to do to get as much sailing experience as I can, wherever I can.

Assuming I can get enough experience under my belt to feel comfortable by the end of the year, I plan to start my own circumnavigation at that point. I've allotted two years for that.

Thanks again, and thanks on behalf of everyone who has appreciated your contributions here.

And obviously if you could use more help on your next delivery, just tell me where to be and when to be there.

Sorry I missed these.

I sold the boat and I currently just sail other people's boats for money. I plan to buy another boat that i'll grow old and die on. I probably won't get another boat for a couple of years though.

Yes, there's always a chance for us to take on more crew. Mostly though, it's just the 2 of us though since we have so much experience together and trust built up.

That's all very cool, super excited for you. An island packet will make a great, solid, comfortable cruiser/liveaboard. I'm not really sure, because lol Canada, but you probably want the boat to be documented as opposed to registering it in Florida.

You should have no problem at all with getting insurance, especially now that you've taken a course. Insurance cost is more dependent on where the boat is kept and what restrictions the insurance places on it's use.

If there's anything I can do to help to hesitate to send me a pm or email. If you need a hand refitting or getting the boat to the Caribbean let me know, that's what I do.

Very cool, sorry I didn't see this sooner. Good luck, I'm jealous, that's such a great plan. If you have any questions, or I can help in any way don't hesitate to send me a pm or email. Also post updates here as this progresses.

Good to see you back de Captain.

After all the experience you have gained, do you have a preferred/favorite boat style, size, and setup? Because sailing is an income for you, do you optimize what you are able for a speedy crossing or do you just do the best you are able with the gear at hand?

How long did it take you to feel comfortable enough with your skills and your brother's skills to make open ocean crossings?

Hallberg Rassy hands down. My next boat will most likely be a Hallberg Rassy 45. If I luck box into more money I'd move up to the 48' or 53'. I wouldn't go any bigger than the 53.

As far as setup I'll definitely rig as a cutter w/ roller furling on the inner stay. I've had mixed results with roller furling mains. Mainsail furling probably won't be a determining factor in which boat to buy but if I got to choose I'd probably take in boom > in mast >> slab reefing.

Other than that I'll rerun all of the running rigging to the cockpit and change a few things. HRs are amazing boats but I haven't been overly impressed w/ the running rigging layout on any that I've been aboard, but that's easy to customize to personal preference.


We optimize for safety, minimizing wear and ease of sailing - in that order. We don't optimize for speed, in fact we purposely never sail boats we deliver at anything approaching their maximum ability. No one wants you to sail their boat fast. They want it delivered with the minimum wear and tear and no damage.

To that end we purposely detune the boat a bit, don't fly spinakers or race sails and we don't try to go overly fast. Boats have a sweet spot, a speed where they're comfortable and not overly stressed. That sweet spot is usually over 90% of the boats max. You can sail a boat comfortably and not brake anything at that speed but when you start trying for that last 10% the ride becomes very uncomfortable and bad thing start to happen.

We didn't really have any skills when we started doing passages. I'd say by the time we got into the Indian ocean we were pretty confidant. After that we rounded the Cape of Good Hope and I lost some of that confidence.

Sweet, you'll be hearing from me.

Here's my month later update:

Took the liveaboard course to refresh my skillset, and pretty much everything came back to me fairly quickly. Much easier the second time around. Also easier to appreciate just sailing around the islands once you've done it once before.

Set up a mail service account with St Brendan's Isle, so no need to have any permanent address any more. They scan in the envelopes so you know exactly what mail you have when you log into their website, and they'll also open and scan the contents so you know if you actually care about having the mail forwarded to wherever you are.

Moved down to St Thomas a few weeks ago with a friend who decided that this sounded like a sweet plan and who wanted to come along to live down here and work from home. We found a kicking place over Hull Bay after driving all over the island looking at places. We signed a short term lease and move in later this week. Been chillin in Bolongo Bay the last two weeks via a VRBO rental. Made friends with all the bartenders at Iggie's which is how we got our lead on the Hull Bay place. Also made friends with a Hawksbill turtle that hung out in front of our place in Bolongo, chowing down on the sea grass.

Met the original owner/founder of Latitude 18 and almost rented his place from him (overlooking the old dolphin research center) but decided to go with the Hull Bay place on Suicide Hill instead. Also met and almost rented from one of the guys that runs the Rolex Regatta. I'll be volunteering for that next month to get some more actual sailing time under my belt. We also almost ended up renting a place at Anchorage Condos in order to just be able to walk over to the yacht club, but the Hull Bay place is just too sweet to turn down.

Spent the afternoon today walking along Hull Bay proper, then snorkeling the reef on the south side of St John Bay. Was not expecting much there due to being a public beach and very popular, but it was pretty sweet with lots of fish. Saw two parrotfish, they are always awesome. We're staying over in Sapphire until internet (Broadband VI) gets installed at the new place. Sapphire has more people than I'd like but it's nice to walk 20 steps to the ocean from the deck.

After we move into our place I'll start looking more actively for 3rd crew positions on delivery crews (hint, hint) in order to get some nm chalked up. Looking at the sites like findacrew, desperatesailors, 7knots, etc and will also hang out at the AYH and yacht club to see who needs a hand. Any suggestions here would be much appreciated. Probably also going to buy a little Sunfish or Laser and moor it in Hull Bay and spend my days puttering around refining my sail trim skills. Also might need to take up surfing, seems like Hull is highly regarded for that.

That's my update. Next one will have more actual sailing in it.

The view from our deck is solid - can see both Inner and Outer Brass Islands:

Why? How much difference does a few feet of length make?

boats go up in weight (bigger gear, sails, anchors, etc) and cost pretty quickly. A 40 foot boat is roughly 3 times the cost and size of a 30 foot boat, for example. The amount of effort it takes also goes up, bigger sails, anchor to crank on, bigger bottom to scrub, etc. Everyone makes a choice on how much space they can actually use and is worth the cost and effort. I guess Lance has decided 53' is his cut-off. Mine would be less, but I'm lazy and poor, and far, far less experienced.

Didn't you have trouble at different ports around the world when you did not have insurance papers? I thought this was mandatory.

Confirming now jealous of de captain and chopstick.

Chopstick,
Very cool, keep us updated. Living on STT is an adjustment and most people love it or hate it, sounds like you're enjoying it.

I said 53' because Hallberg makes a 53' model and there are quite a few on the market. Generally speaking though, I wouldn't consider buying a boat over about 55' for many of the reasons Lacky listed.

I wouldn't want a boat I couldn't comfortably sail singlehanded. Once you get into the 60' range your pushing the envelope for single handing comfortably. Upkeep costs go up quite a bit and there's just no reason i'd ever need a boat that big.

No