First day actually sailing! And some questions for the old timers

[OverEasy]

On the ballast aspect…
Q: Did you close the aft fill valve?

If you left it open then the ballast can/will drain out as you sail!!!
It was never designed to be left open.

(This is Especially with the vent left open all the time.)

Best Regards
Over Easy

[returnofthemac]

If something is taking away the fun and/or relaxation, you need to nip it...

Agreed 100%

I have been launching from a State Park. To launch and park costs $15 for the day. If I go sailing twice a month, that is $360 a year.

A private marina is about $600 a year to launch from. I don't mind trailering, but I'm not into renting a slippage because if I was, I'd have bought a Catalina 25 for half the price! I'm going to scout some of the local marinas during the week and see which one would be the least painful to for passengers.

I am actually embarrassed to take some of my friends out (especially women) because of how awful the situation is at a public ramp. I don't mean to be judgmental, but the types of people there are, shall we say, not the best? So while we can have a great time sailing, the before and after can really put a damper on the whole thing. Tensions at the dock are not really what someone expects from a sailing experience

[Jimmyt]

Looking at your second picture you appear to have forgotten to fill your ballast tank. That is way too much heel for the apparent wind based on the wave heights.

I'm going to hypothesize that this had more to do with trim than ballast.

The previous owner rigged up an easy way to tell if the ballast was full. When the ballast valve is open, the light will stay on until the tank is full. Any overflow goes into the bilge. All of his other mods seem to work just fine, so I will assume the ballast was full!

There were a few gusts that took to boat to about 30 degrees and on one's own it can be a bit scary but when it's expected it's fun.

The captain who taught me how to sail called the clinometer the 'fun-o-meter'.

Your second picture is displaying at 90 degrees to horizontal, so looks like you've suffered a knockdown. He was just injecting a bit of jocularity...

[Jimmyt]

If something is taking away the fun and/or relaxation, you need to nip it...

Agreed 100%

I have been launching from a State Park. To launch and park costs $15 for the day. If I go sailing twice a month, that is $360 a year.

A private marina is about $600 a year to launch from. I don't mind trailering, but I'm not into renting a slippage because if I was, I'd have bought a Catalina 25 for half the price! I'm going to scout some of the local marinas during the week and see which one would be the least painful to for passengers.

I am actually embarrassed to take some of my friends out (especially women) because of how awful the situation is at a public ramp. I don't mean to be judgmental, but the types of people there are, shall we say, not the best? So while we can have a great time sailing, the before and after can really put a damper on the whole thing. Tensions at the dock are not really what someone expects from a sailing experience

Yep. That's why I go during the week. One of my buddies nearly got into a fight with some drunk moron who backed his boat and trailer down the ramp that we were sitting in. I had just docked and was about to go get my trailer, when the guy pulls up and backs in right on top of us. He was so wasted, I don't know how he got it down the ramp. Anyway, I completely understand now.

[returnofthemac]

Looking at your second picture you appear to have forgotten to fill your ballast tank. That is way too much heel for the apparent wind based on the wave heights.

Whooooosh

^ the sound of that joke going right over my head

I'm too new for humor!

[returnofthemac]

On the ballast aspect…
Q: Did you close the aft fill valve?

If you left it open then the ballast can/will drain out as you sail!!!
It was never designed to be left open.

(This is Especially with the vent left open all the time.)

Best Regards
Over Easy

I didn't explain properly but yes I closed the aft fill valve!

[leefrankpierce]

Never had an issue with the people at a ramp, but we did stop camping at State Parks due to the decline in our society, so I can imagine.
Still
The effort of the all day affair required for hooking-up/towing/rigging/launching/recovering/derigging/towing/parking etc.. of our boat has resulted in it sitting in the driveway some years.

We are about 1/2 way through our first year of having it in a slip.
It is a totally different experience to just meet up, pull the covers, drop the lines and go.
It makes spur of the moment cruises a real possibility, even if it is just a powered cruse for sunset with a sandwich.

Is it worth the 3->4 K a year (in our area)?
That is still to be determined, however it is likely we will sell the boat if the answer = no.

[NiceAft]

Keep it.

If the recent Texas weather keeps up, you can use the as an everyday vehicle.

[DaveC426913]

Looking at your second picture you appear to have forgotten to fill your ballast tank. That is way too much heel for the apparent wind based on the wave heights.

[pitchpolehobie]

Looking at your second picture you appear to have forgotten to fill your ballast tank. That is way too much heel for the apparent wind based on the wave heights.

I should see if my 2002 26x has a water ballast. That may be why my rails are always in the water.

[Highlander]

Nothing like a wee bit of heel for excitement





Also make sure ur ballast tank vavle is closed & not leaking



Just sayin thats all
J

[returnofthemac]

Never had an issue with the people at a ramp, but we did stop camping at State Parks due to the decline in our society, so I can imagine.
Still
The effort of the all day affair required for hooking-up/towing/rigging/launching/recovering/derigging/towing/parking etc.. of our boat has resulted in it sitting in the driveway some years.

We are about 1/2 way through our first year of having it in a slip.
It is a totally different experience to just meet up, pull the covers, drop the lines and go.
It makes spur of the moment cruises a real possibility, even if it is just a powered cruse for sunset with a sandwich.

Is it worth the 3->4 K a year (in our area)?
That is still to be determined, however it is likely we will sell the boat if the answer = no.

I believe it is this experience - and the reality of the cost - that makes boating quite inaccessible to a lot of people. $600 a month to store something is quite a steep price. I've never understood how marinas get away with charging so much, but it is what it is!

As for societal decline: I have noticed a strong police presence every time I dock. These are literally police, not park rangers, both at the top of the ramp and in the water. They must be there for a reason!

[Jimmyt]

I should see if my 2002 26x has a water ballast. That may be why my rails are always in the water.

[OverEasy]

You’re not alone in your perspective of COPs at the ramps.
Local LEOs in SC have had their hands full for the past 6 or so years that we’ve seen at the more popular boat ramps.
Asked our Sheriff Deputies what seems to be the problem and he just chuckled and pointed to the flags and hats of the crowd they were sorting out. The Deputies advice was to avoid areas where those were present and come back when they were gone…

Fortunately for us the Deputies point us towards some very nice ramps a little more out of the way that are excellent…at least on the week days, we haven’t tried to use any of them on Saturdays or Sundays after the fiasco(s) we’ve seen. While most boaters are nice decent respectful people there are always those that think the general rules don’t apply to them for some convoluted reason.

In some measurable part It’s why we chose to eventually rent a marina slip down south…it avoided the ramp issues.
The marina we decided upon had a great reputation and zero tolerance for misbehavior.
It was a very pleasant experience and well worth it for us.
We’ll most likely continue to rent a slip in the future.

Our slip cost about $400-450/month.
We rented for 12 weeks (3 months = 84 days) and used our boat an average of 4 days per week (48 days).
Our general cost was $1200 which converts to a bulk daily cost was $4.76/day and our cost per day of use was $8.33/day.
Our time savings was roughly 2 to 3 hours per boating day by not having to prep/launch/retrieve/de-prep for a cumulative time savings of about 96-to-144 hours which directly increased our time on water.
Then, as we were in a tidal estuary it relieved us of a lot of the logistics of timing our launches and retrievals to be done at high tide ( the ramps at low tide are abysmally slick & who wants to be on YouTube anyway while drifting out to sea in a minivan ).

So for us it worked out great!
Our relatively high utilization rate helped.
Doubtful we would have been able to get out even a quarter of the days we did if we hadn’t been in a slip.
(Very doubtful we would have had as an enjoyable time if we’d had to contend even once with the situations our Sheriff Deputies had to contend with even if we weren’t directly involved but merely bystanders. Just one incident would have soured the experience.)

Everyone’s situation is unique to their needs and desires which they have to find the balance that works for them.

We’d suggest that if one does rent a slip try to do it when you know you can get the most number of days of use on your boat.
(Even if you pay a higher monthly rate than as a full seasonal slip.)

Best Regards
Over Easy

[Be Free]

If something is taking away the fun and/or relaxation, you need to nip it...

Agreed 100%

I have been launching from a State Park. To launch and park costs $15 for the day. If I go sailing twice a month, that is $360 a year.

A private marina is about $600 a year to launch from. I don't mind trailering, but I'm not into renting a slippage because if I was, I'd have bought a Catalina 25 for half the price! I'm going to scout some of the local marinas during the week and see which one would be the least painful to for passengers.

I am actually embarrassed to take some of my friends out (especially women) because of how awful the situation is at a public ramp. I don't mean to be judgmental, but the types of people there are, shall we say, not the best? So while we can have a great time sailing, the before and after can really put a damper on the whole thing. Tensions at the dock are not really what someone expects from a sailing experience

I'm not sure how much of the $15 would be covered, but have you looked into an annual park pass? Last time I checked they were around $70 per year and covered entrance and parking (at least).