Anyone here in the sailing hobby? I'm thinking to take up the hobby with the lady friend who has 40+ years sailing experience with her Dad. Ideally searching for a boat with a swing keel, 22-25 feet that is able to be hauled and launched with a trailer. I'm 6'4" and 275 pounds, so interior cabin room is going to be tight IF at all possible in a boat that size. Not really looking for a good racer, just a cruiser type. It's the one hobby that the lady friend can tell me what I'm doing wrong....and she'd probably be correct.
I spoke with a sailboat broker last week and gave him my concerns, and having been in the business he put it like this: "You can get a boat that is small enough to "trailer sail", and it will probably take you an hour and a half to rig it and launch it the first few times, then you'll cut that time down to half, then when you have a wonderful day on the boat and something goes wrong during the take down, it kind of ruins the day. At that point you'll be thinking how much easier it would be to rent a slip for a few months and only have to haul out and launch the boat once or twice a year. Now the trailer is going to take up space somewhere, and since you are paying for the slip, you wonder "why didn't I get a larger boat to begin with?".
I'll be looking at a 30 foot boat this afternoon, at a "I'm tired of dealing with 3 sailboats and I'm old" kind of price. Problem is it's a BIG boat in a 33,000 acre lake, a fixed keel, no trailer, it weighs 8000 pounds and there is only one contractor in the area that will lift this size boat out of the water at a cost of $1500. The slip rental is $200 a month. The boat has been for sale for quite a while with no takers. It's more of a coastal cruiser and I can't imagine what it would cost to get it to where there is a larger body of water (the gulf coast) and maybe the resale market would be better because of the location. Of course I'd have to rent a slip there and then drive a few hours to go sailing.
So, from those experienced in the sailing hobby, thoughts?