Bigger boat?

[noelH]

Seems like almost everyone tells me I need a bigger boat to sail on L.Superior. Outside of Terry, a live aboard and retired blue water cruiser. Every time I note that I think I need a bigger boat he notes I would have as much fun.  He has two boats at the marina a ?39ft Morgan and a ?22ft Morgan. He sails the 22 and lives on the 39.
There is an interesting "bigger boat" for sale at the Washburn Marina. A Lord Nelson 41 cutter rigged full keel ~15 tonner. The draft looks to be ~6ft. The solid Burma Teak interior and all the other wood looks to be major upkeep. Along with all the mechanicals. Even has a heating and a/c system. 1983 model with recently overhauled diesel power system. $79,000. Terry is right. I would not have as much fun. Too much upkeep. Or a significantly high annual depletion of the $$$s to pay someone else. Which is not fun.
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[Captain Kidd]

My bigger boat jump was from 11' to 15 1/2'. LOL

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[noelH]

Bigger boat would not sail any faster on days like what we have had since Saturday. Today, 0-3kts nearshore, ~6kts at the buoy(45006) 30nm NE of Outer Island. Just a larger floating deck. Front forecasted to move in Wednesday/Thursday. But you gotta like thunder and lightning. Typical August summer thunderstorm weather.

[Norm L.]

Something like a Stonehorse 26 would fit there. Full keel and cutter rig so adaptable to all the wind changes.
I would have bought one but the channel to the marina would occasionally have one spot that would fill to where you would need a draft less than 6' to get through when that happened. I know I rubbed bottom with the S2 so went to CB boats. I occasionally watched a keel boat do "the boom and all the crew over to one side to make it heel" maneuver, power the inboard, and wiggle the rudder.

My classmate had a Stonehorse for decades sailing Penobscot Bay. He recently downsized to an 18' cat boat; I think a Marshall.

[Riley Smith]

I'll admit to thinking about it over the years. For one reason or another the boat has remained the same, and so after all these years, there's no use crying about it. It is what it is. There is however, enough material squirreled away in places to build a fine ....something. I've always wanted a gaff cutter with a cabin. I'm sort of convinced that a cabin on anything shorter than about 18 ft is a great waste of time and effort. Ah...prolly never happen, and some younger-than-me now old fart will get his hands on my wood when I croak, and be gleeful.

[Doug SC]

I consider my time these days more important in the doing than the building. I do enjoy working on projects. I just don't want to take on big time-consuming projects. Though I have to admit that I still think about taking one on. Building the Scamp tent was fun and a learning experience, but its primary purpose is to make the Scamp more useful for future sailing/camping trips. I haven't done the amount of canoe and kayak camping this year as usual. Primarily the heat in midsummer is more of a deterrent at my age than it used to be. Then several week long-distance trips to be with my father this year have cut into the freedom to do other things. He turns 101 in November. Also, family keeps making plans that take up my time. Anyway, the planning is part of the fun, and I have been doing that.

As far as a bigger boat I just don't need one to do what I enjoy doing.

[Captain Kidd]

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In my post above, I pictured my "bigger" boat. I went from my SD 11 to the CIY 16. But that wasn't my first jump to a bigger boat.

My first build was a self-designed dinghy I named Pixie. She was 7'6". I would say she was a bit cramped except maybe as a tender (which wasn't my intended use). So I built the SD 11 which I named Li'l Bit, since she was a little bit bigger. LOL

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PS: To be accurate, my first boat was a 23 foot fiberglass pocket cruise (which I later "upgraded" to the Macgregor 26 and then "downsized" to the Hunter 18.5).

[rfrance0718]

A couple of notes from this trip. I haven't seen a single trailer sailor the whole time. There was one young couple with a Pierson 26, and everything else has been 30 or longer. There are a lot of boats in the 34 to 37 range.

This boat has performed really well, but she hasn't been really tested. The point of a trip like this is to take your time and choose your weather. Right now I'm sitting in Tobermory, probably waiting until Tuesday for a kinder forecast.

Getting here was interesting for a small boat. I went through the bridge at Little Current with 2 other sailboats. One was a 37 Beneteau and the other a Catalina, maybe over 40. My plan was to sail 40 miles to an anchorage and then get up and do the 22 miles into Tobermory this morning before some big winds arrived.

At some point I checked the weather and it said that the big wind would be on much earlier, like 4 AM. This was probably about 10:00 AM and Tobermory would be another 47 mi. If I averaged over 5 mph I could be there between 6:00 and 7:00, so that was the new plan. from that point the wind was medium light, but a good direction, and I was able to motor sail at about 6mph. That breeze held almost all of the way and I pulled in at 6:30.

So now, back to the bigger boat issue. There was a couple there who greeted me and helped me dock. They were the Catalina that went through the bridge with me and were wondering whether I had been heading for Tobermory, and they were wondering how long it would take me and they were pleased to see me get in.
I don't know when they got here, but they had motored passed me pretty quickly. I was doing 5 and they were probably doing better than 7. Between their longer water line and big diesel they probably beat me by 2 hours.

There are also some issues about conditions that will give me problems. If I have a following sea then my auto helm doesn't function well. If I have to steer then something like the 62 miles I did yesterday would be difficult.

A bigger boat would help with all of this, but then we pulled the boat up here in 6 hours, where it would have taken another 5 to 6 days if I had sailed up.

Hmm. I could do some upgrading. My outboard is a 6hp. Yesterday I ran it for 11 1/2 hours. I like to keep it at low rpms, which I could easily do yesterday. Heading into some chop and breeze is a different story. A friend has an 8hp that she was talking about selling. I might give that a try. And then try to do something about the auto helm. Not too sure what the solution might be. This design is at least 30 years old. I don't know if there have been improvements I need to research that. So far, by improving things, I've avoided 2 more feet disease.

And finally, the couple in the Catalina ended up being from my marina on Lake Erie. Sailing is a small world. 

[Frank B.]

There is no such thing as the "perfect" boat for a lifetime.  There is only the "nearly perfect" boat for the present time. 

First was a 17' built at a local yard, plank on frame rig set up to use lightning class sails. Believe me it did not sail like a lightning. Then moved up to a Columbia 24 Challenger, a flush deck design, then moved up to a Columbia 8.7M (29') then moved down to the current Compac 23IV and considering the next step which would be down again for sail along with a cruising/power/shanty, or the like, slow and comfortable.

The first three were in a partnership which is a great way to own a boat if compatibility exists.  Initially it did, then it didn't.

Most fun, the Columbia 24, however, that could very will be the time in life as much as the boat.

[noelH]

Not really into cruising. Not into multi-class ballasted monohull racing. Just a daysailer.  If on a warmer body of water would have been happy just sailing a Laser or Club 420. Board shorts with long sleeved rash/sun guard and maybe  1.5mm neoprene top for most days.  Dream on.... I've worn a long sleeved 2mm shorty just one day in the last couple seasons of windsurfing. Last windsurfing session(early August) needed a 4/3mm.  Vela is a relatively dry boat. Occasional spray showers on choppy days to remind me how cold L. Superior can be. I have worn my rain gear more days for spray days than for rain days.  No real desire for a big boat, big maintenance, big maintenance cost, big.....No need for slip saves $$$$s.

I think Vela is the smallest sailboat out of all the marinas on this side of the peninsula. There use to be couple Potter 15s. One owner moved his Potter to the family cabin on an inland "lake".  The other that sailed out of the Ashland Marina I haven't seen in the past couple seasons.