Crew And Boat Needed

[eric2802000]

Hi,

I thought I would post a topic here because I have been thinking about buying a boat and looking for people to go with me. Something like this might be in my price range. http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/7655

I dont have any sailing experience and would be looking for people with no experience and alot of time so we can learn together and go where we feel like it. I am not against people with sailing experience. I like warm places and beaches though.

I am 31, single and ready to go live life for a while. Ive been stuck behind a desk and I already gave my 2 weeks notice. My last day is March 28th.

If anyone is interested, has a 'cheap' but good boat, or if anyone wants to help let me know. eric2802000@yahoo.com

Sincerely,

Eric

http://www.myspace.com/ericnaumann

[imagine2frolic]

It's amazing what sitting behind a desk in the winter will do to someone. I can appreciate your thoughts of getting onto a sailboat, and discovering your way. It has been done, but mostly it leads to grief. The sea is something you need to prepare yourself for, or at least you should.

If it was me I would learn the functions of all the gear on a boat. I would learn to sail, and to especially to reef. To not understand the sea, and the boat is an unforgiving judgement. If you decide to seek advice? This forum is a wonderful place to get questions answered. There are no dumb questions asked. None of us were born with the knowledge to make successful passages. We had to learn the ways. Yes, it has been done what you have suggested, and that discovering spirit is beautiful, but more often it has FAILED!

Best wishes in your goal. Welcome here, and remember not to be shy with questions. No one person knows everything. All of us are smarter than any ONE of us.............

[Jonathan1]

Hi Eric

I completely agree with you. The others don't know what they're talking about. Go for it. I also want to commit myself. Or perhaps I've already been committed. Or perhaps also I am trying to commit that which so many have considered yet never taken the leap. Who knows. And who needs to know, anyway? Ignorance is bliss, after all.

Look, if Robinson Crusoe could do it, why not the rest of us, heh? Then afterwards we could get all rich and famous like Tom Hanks did in "Cast away". Only, he did it by airplane, which is kinda cheatin', don't you agree? Nowadays, if you go for a shipwreck, you're expected to go by airship. The old, slow way doesn't count anymore. Like how Tom Cruise goes shopping.

Well, If you're interested (or anyone else, for that matter), I'm planning on a long trip to southern, warm islands and beaches on my home-made raft. I'm already camping on it since they demolished my house here in Belgium. Yeah, I'm rarin' to go. Only trouble is, you need to catch an airplane to join me.

However, instead of coming the whole way here, you could cause the plane to come down somewhere in the Atlantic, just like they did in that Tom Hanks movie, thus saving yourself the time and hassle of coming with me.

Well, hope to see you down there some time.

ciao,

Jonathan

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[Nausikaa]

Guys,

Please take what I am about to write in good faith. You may not like it but my intention is just to give some sound advice.

I am afraid that you base the foundation of your argument upon fictitious figures. Admittedly Robinson Crusoe was based upon the events surrounding the marooning and subsequent rescue of the Scottish whaler Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was not shipwrecked. The ficitcious characters you mentioned are, well, just fictitious and thus cannot represent a factual argument.

Yes, some people have managed to pack everything into a small boat and sail away successfully, such as Shane Acton and Wilfried Erdman (spelling?) but these are few and far between. Most dreams, unsupported by careful planning, economic calculations and practical experience turn into nightmares.

My advice is not to give up the dream but go for it in an organised and sensible way thus making it achievable.

Aye // Stephen

[pabernet]

An old sailor's epitaph, ἐπιτάφιος : "There are old sailors, and there are bold sailors, but there are no old, bold sailors."

[cartooncorpse]

I have a little longer range plan/dream. i've been saving over 50% of my ducats for years now (im a computer geek...good number of ducats in that) i figure in 10 more years (im 45) I'll have PLENTY for a 40-50ft bluewater craft of undetermined age and luxury. in the meantime im researching said future craft, establishing my sailor library (handbook of sailing, heavy weather sailing, i subscribe to bluewater sailing magazine, etc), plan on taking some sailing courses .

i too sit behind a desk, though i've adjusted. the decade of my 30's was an unanticipated NIGHTMARE, including a $10 million patent lawsuit '94, unexpected father death from his first colonoscopy '97, and mother stroke in '99...and those are just the major events, not the handling of them! that decade turned me into a misanthropic (intimacy wise) confirmed batchelor hermit...been over 6 years now, and im LIKING it...do what i want, when i want, how i want, as long as i want.

anyway. i intend to bolster, sufficiently, my admittedly meager past sailing experience over the next decade, and at that point i can go bluewater forever (dream since grad school)...retire as a coastal cruiser...keep on working/saving (only 55 then) till im happy with my levels of preparation, or abandon the plan all together (unlikely). i plan on going singlehand too. so there are a lot of 'ifs' that i don't know about yet.

anyway...search the net and you'll find some excellent blogs. read about heavy weather...REALLY heavy weather...look at the lost yachts section of this forum!

bw sailing is what i want to do, im pretty sure, but going out without any knowledge of weather, sailing, ship systems, foreign port regulations, dangerous (pirate) areas...well that would take a lot of luck.

on the other hand i've read about bw cruisers who've circumnavigated 3 times and never encountered rough weather, though i imagine that skipper is probably a meterologist (don't know).

somehow i think accidentally running into 60ft seas (hurricainish) and 80 knot winds in a 30 ft boat this summer, with an inexperienced skipper and crew isn't going to end well...but i don't know...can you heave to? or lie a hull? would that even help? i mean 30 ft boats shouldn't even be in a hurricaine...not to mention it BETTER be a blue water designed boat. is that boat you're looking at one of those?

still part of me is like...dang i wish i could just do it now! good luck.

at least get some books and read about some of the techniques and skills.

[Nausikaa]

I like your attitude cartoonscape. You make a plan and have at least one escape route in case the first does not work out. That is good logistics and contingency planning. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses too is all part of good planning.

But after 36 years working at sea or in associated fields then I can say that hurricanes - and I have been through a few in different parts of the world - are nothing to mess around with whatever size of vessel you have. The art of survival at sea is one of risk reduction. Admittedly, sometimes you have to go where you might not want to be. The last time I encountered waves of 17 metres was when I commanded a coast guard cutter which was sent on fisheries patrol duties in the Norwegian Sea but I was sent there. it was my duty to go. In my own boat, I go where I want to at a time of year which suits me best.

Navigating around the world three times without encountering really heavy weather is definitely a possibility if you stick to the Suez / Panama / Torres Straits route and avoid the hurricane / typhoon / cyclone seasons. But isn't a calculated risk worth taking to see such beautiful places as New Zealand, South Africa and Patagonia?

Good luck with your plans.

Aye // Stephen

[cartooncorpse]

yeah my noob plan at this point is to run away from heavy weather like a chicken, since i don't have any particular place to be. and as far as hurricanes are concerned, i have a global chart (from a '97 bluewater sailing mag...really a newsletter format then) indicating annual global weather patterns and dates for storm seasons.

i was just saying, this guy, liking warm sunny beaches, could very well blunder into a hurricane by accident (what $15K boat has bluewater comm equipment?), but i can only speculate what would happen to a boat of that size in those conditions regardless of design.

then there's joshua slocam. went around the world without much equipment alone...but i think he wasn't a noob when he started his trip right?