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SAIL AWAY

Cardiff boy Roy

Cardiff boy Roy

Guest
Jul 16, 2016
133
151
76
Cardiff S.Wales UK
#1
I guess this could be more away from Music and Bass,but for a long time now I have been drawn to the sea.
Ever since I was a kid I have love boats,sail boats especially.
Here in the UK I class myself as really lucky. I have a house with no mortgage and lots of time on my hands.
Last year I was planning to visit a very dear friend of mine who lived in Louisiana.
Sadly he died this year back in May.

We had so many plans ,as he was also in the same position as myself with time on his hands ( or so we thought )
I was going to visit there and we planed to checkout some boats. I myself loved a boat that is well known in the boats world , A Westsail 42 footer.

But as I've said them dreams now lay shattered. But I still have a great pull to the sea.
I just wondered ,do we have any guys on here who have the same kind of dream ? Just to sell up and break free of this crazy world with all its read Tape and Banker and Politicians that rule your every move.

If so how about sharing your dreams on here and telling us whats your Dream would be.
Im sure a little break from reality would give us all a breath of fresh air,and god knows we can all use it . :thumbsup: right ?
 
#3
My dad was very into sailing. I have many good memories of going sailing with him off the So Calif coast, mostly San Clemente and Long Beach. He lived on a sailboat berthed in Santa Barbara for a while. A Columbia 32 as I recall. One time we were sailing and some mechanical part on the top of the mast broke. He was a mechanical engineer, and he sent Columbia a sketch for an improved version of the broken part. Columbia wrote back to say they would be using his improved design on future new builds. How cool is that.

I was basically the 3rd wheel on those outings but it sure made him happy and he taught me a lot of good stuff about sailing.
 
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#5
Alkali Ike said:
My dad was very into sailing. I have many good memories of going sailing with him off the So Calif coast, mostly San Clemente and Long Beach. He lived on a sailboat berthed in Santa Barbara for a while. A Columbia 32 as I recall. One time we were sailing and some mechanical part on the top of the mast broke. He was a mechanical engineer, and he sent Columbia a sketch for an improved version of the broken part. Columbia wrote back to say they would be using his improved design on future new builds. How cool is that.

I was basically the 3rd wheel on those outings but it sure made him happy and he taught me a lot of good stuff about sailing.
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Yer I some times feel looking out to sea how free and relaxed it make you feel. But just like a wild animal it can turn in the blink of an eye, ready to rip you apart. Is it the fear that pulls us to it? Or its mystery that lays where only fish play.
 
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#6
image.jpeg
Your post prompted me to dig out this old photo of my dad's sailboat. A Columbia 8.7 meter. In feet that's like 28.5. Which is interesting to me now because my dad always boasted of it being 32 feet. Lol. Size matters when it comes to bragging about the size of your wannabe-yacht! Maybe it was 32 when including the bow pulpit & rudder.

The pic was taken by a friend of my dad who was sailing alongside us. That's me at the tiller, my best sailing skill. Ha.
 
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#7
No dreams of living on one but I have been on a few sailing excursions. All three times it was to the B.V.I's. I must say , yes , it is nice to not have any real worldly restrictions. Go where you want when you want. For me and Seahag (my lovely wife) it was scuba diving that brought us to the boats.
As to the life on a boat , the boats we were on were owned by relatives. When they weren't using the boats , they were available for rental so they kind of paid for themselves. I have also known a few folks that actually lived on boats. They seem to love it. I grew up near the east coast of the U.S. and have been near water most of my life. I can attest to the fact that there are innumerable marinas with literally thousands of folks living your dream just in the Chesapeake bay area.
Personally , I own way too much equipment and have too many other distractions to be able to confine myself to the small spaces of boat living but I must admit that every time I cross over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland and see all the boats down in the water , I feel the pirates life style beckoning me.
 
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#8
I couldn't have cared less about any kind of boating until i was 21 and happened upon a job working maintenance at a summer resort on Lake Superior. There was a marina filled with boats owned by people with a lot more money than i could hope to see.

I discovered that there was a non profit organization called "Sea Scouts" that taught kids how to sail and they owned a variety of sail boats including a 16' Hobie cat, 3 Lasers, 19' and 21' sloops and (my favorite) an "X-boat".

The director told me that they needed someone who could put a lot of work into fixing and maintaining tbeir boats and equipment so I volunteered my time and i spent a lot of my summer as an "advisor" learning how to sail from the teenage kids who were the "students".

I absolutely fell in love with sailing. It connects you directly to the natural elements in ways more closely than any other activity that I can think of. Later in life, i realized that sailing is a nearly perfect example of some fundamental aspects of the philosophy of Taoism.

Tacking into the wind is the pure embodiment of tbe principle of "Wu wei", or "action without force", and a sailor experiences this intuitively. The boat has no power of its own - the wind is all that makes it go. To move in the same direction the wind is coming from is impossible if you try to oppose the wind by force. By letting the boat accept the wind and carefully channelling its power in the right direction you can go anywhere you want to. To me there is no feeling like it and i had to give it up by age 30 when i moved my family to the city for better job opportunities. And also for much better music opportunities (but that's another topic).
 
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#9
I used to sail, but not so much anymore. I have a Morgan IO 28 that has been neglected, rotting in its cradle for the past 10 years and a 15' Precision daysailor that sits in my driveway unsailed. It was once a dream to live on a sailboat in the Caribbean, BVI or USVI mostly, years ago, but nothing came of it except for some happy dreaming.

Maybe I'll go for a sail next weekend.
 
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#10
Alkali Ike said:
View attachment 917617 Your post prompted me to dig out this old photo of my dad's sailboat. A Columbia 8.7 meter. In feet that's like 28.5. Which is interesting to me now because my dad always boasted of it being 32 feet. Lol. Size matters when it comes to bragging about the size of your wannabe-yacht! Maybe it was 32 when including the bow pulpit & rudder.

The pic was taken by a friend of my dad who was sailing alongside us. That's me at the tiller, my best sailing skill. Ha.
Click to expand...


O yer thats so cool love it :thumbsup:
 
#11
D M C said:
I used to sail, but not so much anymore. I have a Morgan IO 28 that has been neglected, rotting in its cradle for the past 10 years and a 15' Precision daysailor that sits in my driveway unsailed. It was once a dream to live on a sailboat in the Caribbean, BVI or USVI mostly, years ago, but nothing came of it except for some happy dreaming.

Maybe I'll go for a sail next weekend.
Click to expand...

I bet you wish you had followed your dreams now when you look back on them yer ?
 
#16
My dad was an avid sailor and ocean racer. He taught all us kids to sail from the time we were very young. We vacationed on our Colombia Challenger, a 24 foot sloop, to Catalina Island every summer. After I grew up and got married, I taught my wife to sail and she loved it. Our first boat was a 21 foot sloop. Then we moved up to a 27 foot ketch. Had that boat for 15 years. Then I got lazy and now we have a larger more comfortable power boat that my dog likes to drive.:smug:. Catalina Island vacations are still made every summer. Once you get the ocean in your blood, there is no getting away and it stays for a life time.

27 foot "S2" Ketch
S2 ketch 3.jpg
 
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#19
D M C said:
I have few regrets. The time that I might have done so would have changed my life enormously. I am reasonably happy now.

I don't wish to discourage your dreams. It would not be a bad life at all at sea.
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I believe your Avatar is Hayley Mills ? Back in the late 60s early 70s I use to live near her in London off the kings Road.
I was a salesman for a wine company and she use to come into the shop many times.
 
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#20
Cardiff boy Roy said:
I believe your Avatar is Hayley Mills ? Back in the late 60s early 70s I use to live near her in London off the kings Road.
I was a salesman for a wine company and she use to come into the shop many times.
Click to expand...
It is. I fell in love with her in the early sixties, though I was late to the party. It was Pollyanna that did it for me.
 
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