Ahoy There

[MichaelW]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick introduction to let you know I'm now officially lurking on your boards.

My name's Michael and I have a wife, Kay and 3 year old son Aden. I'm the only one in our family with any sailing experience to mention, and that quite limitied.

I currently am a member of Middle Harbour Yacht Club (MHYC) based in Mosman as part of Sydney Yacht Squadran (SYS). I race on a DK43 (Pla Loma IV) for Saturday pointscore and also do all the off shore stuff on her. I just finished racing the Sydney-Hobart Cat 2 race this Christmas which we completed in 3.5 days. I'm a fore deckie, sailing as primary bowman on Pla Loma IV, so spend most of my time plugging in headies and getting pounded around a bit. Doing the inner harbour stuff I throw kites up and down and jhybe the symetrical on the pole.

I've done a few intro courses and chartered bareboats a few times up in the Whitsunday Island group in QLD, both mono and multi-hulls. My wife loves the multi's for their space (we chartered a Seawind 1000), but I prefer the mono's as that's my gig.

I'm currently contemplating buying a cruiser as a potential liveaboard and heading North for 6 to 12 months. The work situation is tennuous and it has been a long held dream of mine that might be brought forward. I'm looking at something like a Compass 29 or even a fero-cement Hartley South Seas 38 for a bit more liveaboard room. Would welcome some guidance in this regards from the more experienced cruisers on the forum.

Thankfully my wife doesn't work and my son's pre school age, so we're pretty mobile.

Looking forward to getting to know you all.

Cheers,

Michael

[MMNETSEA]

A sincere the cruiser's forum..

"My wife loves the multi's for their space (we chartered a Seawind 1000), "

This love may turn out to be the most important input when it comes to settling on a boat to go cruising with. Cruising may mean sailing 20% of the time and the rest in an anchorage or berth somewhere.



Richard

[Lighthouse]

Welcome aboard Michael, Kay and Aden - good to have you here.

I can see that you could very easily get hooked on FULL-TIME cruising.

Make yourself at home - the VBs are on "Swagman" all week.

[Swagman]

G'Day Mike,

Can't help guide you on your local choices - when back in Oz we spent 100% time racing so spent little time on cruisers.

But Richards got it right - in fact when cruising now we spend 95% of out time parked up and 5% sailing - so agree with him to stick with what you need for that majority time.

Good luck in effecting the plan.

JOHN

[MichaelW]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the hearty welcome aboards! I agree with the importance of liveaboardability, particularly if I have a 3 year old on board as well. I might scour the brokerages and see what multi-hulls are available in our price point too.

Whichever way we go, it will be great to head out of our home port, turn North and see where we end up. I'm going to start building my cruising library now so I'm as fore-armed as possible prior to taking the big step.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

Michael

[Istioploos]

Welcome Michael and Kay.

When we first started cruising our youngest daughter was the same age as Aden. She has grown now in her thirties and is a terrific sailor.

Vasilis

[delatbabel]

Hi Michael,

I'm based in Berry's Bay, not far from MHYC of which you speak, and I believe that I've raced on Pia Loma IV once before myself. I used to do a lot of racing out of MHYC when I lived in Manly, pretty much every weekend, although I wasn't a regular crewie except for a year on Westerly in div 3, I'd just turn up on a Saturday am and check the whiteboard.

If you want to check out my liveaboard setup then you're welcome to drop down. Email me at del at babel dot com dot au and we can set up a time. I also have some friends in the bay here who have a liveaboard cat so you can check that out too.

Del