Another Newbie with asperations and silly questions.

elefantman · Post by **elefantman** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:54 pm

Evening all

First I'll introduce myself.. I'm Jay and hail from darkest suffolk... I've not sailed in over 12 years.. I'm a classic car and bike nut (restorer) and for some unknown reason I have recently found myself looking at boats again...
As I say I've not sailed for a long time and even then my only real experience solo was with lasers (on a lake) and occasionally helping as "crew" (loose term) on a friends seawych... and now I find myself in a financial situation where I can consider owning and keeping a small yacht.. Infact I fancy something like a seawych (around 20ft/4 berth)... but as you can tell I'm not ready to take anything on sailing wise (I'm already considering a course with a local RYA sailing school).
But I'm also keen to find alternative routes to start gaining skills... any thoughts? (I'm already checking out my local clubs).

Also what are the legal requirements for owning/sailing a yacht in esturies and coastal waters (other than the obvious insurance)?

all advice and piss taking accepted... Cheers J

Post by **Jeff** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:24 am

Hi Elefantman, welcome to Yacht Forum!

There are no legal requirements whatsoever. You don't even need insurance for most things. The only thing you might "need" insurance for is as a condition of your berthing provider, but even then sometimes there is no need. And with a 20 footer, perhaps you'd be trailer sailing?

On that note, you'd need to have a trailer endorsement on your driving licence.

As for RYA courses, I'd strongly recommend them. I did Dayskipper as a correspondence course on the net and really enjoyed it. Having said that, if you stuck to quiet estuaries and lakes on good weather days, you could certainly take a small boat out without having done the course - given that you already have some experience of sailing. But the RYA course and a set of charts will not only make it less likely for you to hit the bottom (except where you want to) but will IMO make the whole experience more enjoyable. It's one thing to sail backwards and forwards and enjoy the wind in your sails, but another thing completely to plan a passage, taking into account wind, hazards, crew and tide, and complete it successfully. I'm more into the latter part of things than the actual sailing itself if I'm honest. Do love the sailing though

Best of luck with whatever you do, and please do post on here to let us know what you decide and how you get along!!

elefantman · Post by **elefantman** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:48 pm

Thanks for the info Jeff..
I've spotted a small yacht for sale locally which I hope to go and look at over the weekend (assuming the missus doesn't twig the real reason for visiting the coast)

I'm hoping if I buy one to find someone who has local knowledge of the river esturies in suffolk that will take her out with me for the first few times and help me remember any skills I once had! Might give someone a good chuckle at my expense!

On top of this I will definatly get myself some additonal RYA training.. as at some point I'd like to feel confident enough to take longer trips than just round/round the local esturies/backwaters.

I'll definatly keep you posted with progress.

Post by **Jeff** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:37 pm

Great stuff

Good luck with the viewing!!!

elefantman · Post by **elefantman** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:41 pm

okay.. quick question.. which is likely to be easier to handle for a newbie and safer in estuary waters.. a bilge keeler or drop keel?

From what I've read/been told the bilge keeler is less likely to have issues in shallow water but the drop keel is likely to be faster/easier to handle?

Reason to ask is I've now seen examples of both and am trying to decide which I think will suit me best.

Post by **Jeff** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 5:27 pm

You can't necessary go aground with a drop keel boat - at least without leaning over quite a bit. The bilge keel is always "dropped" so to speak so there's nothing to worry about or faff with so less to deal with. Perhaps a drop keeler might be better to windward, and better on a run, but it's possible we're talking minascule differences. A bilge keeler seems rationally less likely to have issues with righting moments... as in, if you got the boat heeled _right_ over and the lift-keel was in the UP position, is there not more of a chance of it remaining over or worse, going further. Perhaps lift keelers have extra ballast low in the hull to counteract this - not sure.

Our last boat (and first boat) was a bilge keeled Westerly Centaur. Can't say I've noticed a massive increase in ability to point upwind with Isabella (fin keeler).

Bilge keeler also has less to go wrong, but beware of one that's been sat on a tidal mooring where it takes the ground regularly. The repeated force on the keels can cause the hull/keel join to weaken and sometimes leak. We had that with ours. Having said that it wasn't a major leak and when we had it fixed at a yard, the bill really wasn't too horrendous.

elefantman · Post by **elefantman** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 11:10 am

Thanks Jeff.. you opiion just confirms the way I was leaning anyway!
I'm off on a lads fishing holidy to scotland next week so I've got some time to think about it.. when I come back I'll have another look about and see if anything new has come up.. if not I'll likely have another look at both yachts just to be sure.