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Old 04-18-2007, 08:44 AM   #1
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Hey everyone!

My name is Katie and I'm 22 years old. I have absolutely no experience with boats aside from the occasional summer afternoon with friends of my mom. I can tell you that nothing entices me more than traveling the world by boat. I want to learn everything I can about how it works, what all the crew members' different jobs are, how to navigate etc. I can't afford to go anywhere right now but hopefully some day when I'm older/have some money/married to someone with some money (haha) I'll get to embark on an excursion. Truth be told, I doubt I'll EVER be able to afford it. Boats are sooo expensive....and gas....and insurance...and God knows what else I' need. Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself incase you see this random clueless person popping up in different threas...yea that'd be me jut trying to learn. =) And if anyone ever thinks of an opportunity for beginners --like idk, dont boats need to be cleaned? I can SO do that haha. I'm willing to do almost anything to see what lifeat sea is like.

godspeed and happy travels!

katie
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Old 04-18-2007, 08:50 AM   #2
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Welcome aboard Katie - enjoy your stay and I'm sure you'll learn lots from the posts here.
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Old 04-18-2007, 11:02 AM   #3
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Welcome Katie,

Great dreams - look forward to hearing as you turn them into reality.

Cheers

JOHN
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Old 04-18-2007, 02:30 PM   #4
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Katie,

It is great to have you with us. Let me just reiterate what others have said, Welcome aboard.

I am impressed by your enthusiasm. We have all been in the same, or a similar, situation as very few of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths. Believe me, if you persevere you will succeed. The goal of owning your own boat is not at all impossible to achieve. You will learn a lot from this site and you will read discussions relating to expensive boats and pieces of kit but the bottom line is that the great voyages in small boats were mostly made by people of limited means. For inspiration read Slocum's "Sailing Alone arround the World". Sure it is dated but it does describe how much can be done with meagre resources.

In this day and age, when yachts are fitted with the latest bells and whistles and all manner of expensive gadgets remember Kipling, "This new ship here is fitted according to the reported increase of knowledge among mankind. Namely, she is cumbered end to end, with bells and trumpets and clock and wires . . . she can call voices out of the air of the waters to con the ship while her crew sleep. But sleep Thou lightly. It has not yet been told to me that the Sea has ceased to be the Sea."

In other words....all the technical equipment in the world does not change the sea and the bottom line is that a well found boat, no matter how simple, is far better than a lesser vessel equipped with all the technology money can buy.

Another famous quote also says, "A small boat and a suitcase full of money beats a 40 footer tied to the Bank every time"

The message is, "go simple and go now" (or at least as soon as you can). There are many examples of young people doing just that.

As I wrote in the begining, I am impressed by your enthusiasm. I will always take along an enthusiastic young beginer as a crew member in preference to an "old goat" who knows it all. I am sure you will succeed and I wish you all success in your sailing endevours. If I can help you in any way just let me know.

Keep the faith!

Aye

Stephen

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Old 04-18-2007, 02:51 PM   #5
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Katie,

I've been sailing all my life (though mostly in small boats--and my youngest child is older than you are!), but I didn't have a clue when I was your age that women like me actually cruised farther than a day's sail. It's wonderful that you have caught the bug early, that you want to learn, and that you're williing to do whatever it takes to get out there.

I know you'll learn a lot from the people here, most of whom have sailed to more exotic ports than I have and could fit my experience in one fist. But eventually my husband and I willl once more be freed from this dock and sailing to foreign ports, so keep in touch. You'll be able to follow our modest adventures at sailblogs or our website: seaventure dot us. I know I speak for most of the cruisers I know: enthusiasm and eagerness to learn is worth gold.

Blessings in your quest,

Normandie
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Old 04-18-2007, 04:59 PM   #6
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Welcome Aboard Katie,

You certainly have the interest and enthusiasm to fill in the blanks. I think it is great that you identified that so early in life.

There is much knowledge and experience here, willing to be shared, so start reading and asking.

Best Regards,

Jeff
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Old 04-18-2007, 05:30 PM   #7
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Hiya Katie,

Welcome!

I've been working on and messing about in boats most of my life and have been a full time liveaboard voyager for the past 14 years. And I wouldn't change a thing because I absolutely LOVE this lifestyle!

The BEST part about it, in my opinion, is the people you meet along the way. You'll never meet a nicer group of Free Spirits anywhere.

Several years ago, while living & working in Guam, I had the pleasure of getting to know a real cool neighbor - April. She was 20 years of age and living on a little, purple sailboat in our marina. She bought the boat for less than a grand. It was very basic but it was comfortable and a capable daysailer.

She worked as crew on several boats out of our marina on whale watching boats, snorkel boats, party boats, dive boats... whatever and whoever needed help that day. The pay was crap but she told me that she loved the work and being out on the water every day. She worked with me on the boat I drove sometimes, too.

Whenever she wasn't working - she'd take her little purple boat out for some wet fun in the tropical sun. She really didn't know too much about sailing but she was real personable (and cute) so she never had any trouble finding someone to go along with her and show her the ropes and how to get maximum performance and fun from her boat. She became active with the local yacht club and was soon in high demand during the races.

She sailed with us on countless occasions and we became close friends. She impressed me with her eagerness to learn and the skills she had aquired so, just before we departed, I wrote a letter documenting a few weeks of seatime and a letter of recomendation and had them properly notorized with a big gold foil stamp and presented them to her when the moment was right. She didn't really seem to know what to make of it but I told her how I felt and suggested she try to apply for positions on the biggest and nicest boats she came across and to document all seatime and experience on every boat she workd on in the future.

We departed a week or two later. April was 21 at the time.

We arrived in the Caribbean two years and 16,000 nautical miles & smiles later.

Shortly after we settled in the Virgin Islands, we received a postcard from April postmarked Acapulco. She was working as mate aboard a very famous comedian's private motoryacht, was heading for Panama and had just earned her USCG 100 ton Master's License! We could tell she wes stoked!

Her famous boss passed away a few years ago and she has since moved on to crossing the Atlantic a few times to work the Med-in-the-summer - Caribbean-in-the-winter circut on some of the finest yachts in the world. She drops by to visit whenever she has the time and hearing the tales she tells, I must admit, make me a little bit jealous... but not for long.

Last we heard, she'd jumped ship in New Zealand after doing the South Pacific Milk Run through French Polynesia. She has a lead on a paid position on a sailing yacht departing soon for Alaska. In the meantime she is continuing to love and live life to the fullest.

So can you... if you wish.

To Life!

Kirk
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Old 04-18-2007, 06:08 PM   #8
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Wow What an awesome group of people!! Thanks for your thoughtful responses! Stephen those quotes are wonderful thank you! And kirk thanks for that inspiring story!! That sounds amazzzing!

yay! I'm excited!
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Old 04-19-2007, 02:31 AM   #9
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I, too, welcome you. Remember, there are no dumb questions, so ask away.

Fair winds,

Jeanne
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Old 04-19-2007, 04:25 PM   #10
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Hi Katie,

I just want to encourage you in living your dream.

Getting into the scene and on a boat, learning alot and gaining experience. There is nothing to add to Kirk's wonderful story.

Or starting out small, "go simple, but go now" as Stephen put it, is another way, and this - I know out of own experience - works!

Being about twenty of age back then, I dreamt of an own seaworthy sailboat and doing some 'real' sailing, being a little tired of racing these little centerboarders on inland waters. I dreamt of going from A to B with tasting the salty spray, sleeping on board of the own ship, feeling the wake of the sea, looking at the stars at night wile under way...

It was then that I red a book by Shane Acton (Shrimpy - A Record Round-the-World Voyage in a 18 Foot Yacht, published by Patrick Stephens Cambridge in 1981) a young man, starting out on a low budget and a very small boat (a Caprice, designed by N.A. Robert Tucker) which finally brought him around the world. It impressed me. The boat impressed me.

And just a short time later I found a Caprice advertised in a yachting magazine. Well, it was just the bare hull, and alot of wood and plywood and some gear, but it was very reasonable priced. And when you really want to do something, there is a way to get things on the track: borrowing the money to by it, finding someone else's backyard to complete the boat and finally to get the boat into the water after a little over a year of boatbuilding - with quite some drawbacks but at the end with many valuable experiences! I remember buing a suitable CQR-anchor with 30 meters of chain in a chandlery and lacking a car then, I somehow managed to get it the 23 kilometres ot to the boat on a bicycle!

And how good it felt, to be out their on my own boat - I'll never forget that. Everything was very simple, no engine, just the very basic equipment (but with a kerosene heater installed, I bought very cheap). But I was sailing salty waters. And then sailing three months at a time northword, following the melting ice of the northern Baltic Sea in the springtime, when harbours and marinas did not collect harbour fees. ...a dream came true.

So Katie, just get going - it will be fantastic.

Cheers

SY Aquaria
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Old 04-19-2007, 07:25 PM   #11
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Hi,

We are very new to this too and dont have a lot of experience but we are in the plannning phase looking for just the right boat then getting enough experience to become full time cruisers. We want to take our two youngest with us and show them the world and see it ourselves. Hope we can learn a lot togwther on this forum. There definitely seems to be a wealth of knowledge and experience!!!

Dave & Jenn
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Old 04-20-2007, 10:39 AM   #12
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Katie,

You can also start to learn some sailing knots:

Animated Knots (fantastic site for learning - click on each knot for animation)
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Old 04-22-2007, 02:08 AM   #13
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Hello Katie,

I am new to this board though not to sailing. I, like you, was (and still am frankly) a young female who was interested in cruising. When I was 18 and just out of highschool I decided to just go for it and I bought my first boat via the internet. I would like to point out how lucky you are that you are getting into sailing with such a great thing as the internet as a resource. When I started out it was still pretty early on and was not able to use great resources such as Ebay and the great cruisers forums and others that have really made it much easier to 'break' into the lifestyle.

Now, 11 years later, I am aboard my second boat and still cruising strong. I would not do it any differently a second time around. You just have to get out there and do it.

By the way, my first boat only cost me $6000.00 to buy and my second (which I currently live aboard and cruise full time in Mexico (for now)) only cost me $4600.00.

Don't let high price boats fool you. It is not the initial price that is what counts. More importantly, learn about boat design and determine what sort of boat is for you based on what you intend to use it for as well as your personal needs. Start simple and small and get out there. Once you have a better handle on how to do it as well as what you are looking for, now based on your experience actually out on the water, you can sell the first and buy a second boat that more suits your needs.

If you have any specific questions for me feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.

According to the rules of the message board I am not able to lead you to my blog which contains information on cruising small boats on a budget (albeit in sputs and spurts as I do talk about other things as well) so if you would like my blog address just email me at lauratkennedy at gmail dot com. The same goes for anyone else who may want to take a look.

Hope that is useful and good luck to ya!!!

Cheers!

Laura Kennedy

S/V Andunge

Sea of Cortez, Mexico
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Old 04-22-2007, 09:45 AM   #14
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@cgoinggal

Please do - let us have your blog details on the "Cruiserlog Yacht Club" board - and a bit about yourself and where you're cruising (just as long as it's not commercial).

Welcome aboard.
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Old 04-22-2007, 04:32 PM   #15
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Thanks and consider it done.

The links are under the Yacht Club board.

I appreciate the forum tips.

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Old 04-23-2007, 03:57 AM   #16
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Thanks everyone! You all are wonderful!

LOL Even if I had a boat, sittin in the marina, all mine with the key....lmao at the idea of just figuring it out as i go...would definitly be fun and exciting hahaha.

I'm going to go down to the local yacht club this summer and see if I can help do anything on anybody's boat.
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