MacGregorSailors.com

FOR a typical sailing season

If you "dock", your boat . . . how often do you actually sail?

If you trailer your boat . . . how often do you sail?

for me:

DOCK . . . sailed twice. I think I need to streamline my operation, trailer my boat and get more sailing time.

Here are my totals over the last 6 years with our X. You can see the full logbook with details of every trip at my web site http://www.ddunn.org/Boating.htm

We may still get a few more days in this year. As you'll see if you look at the details most of the trips are multi day from 2 days up to the longest of 23 days. Almost all the trips are also with a crew of 5 on board, my wife and I and our 3 boys now ages 15, 11,and 8. All trailered, we have never kept the boat in a slip.

Logbook Totals: 89 Days Aboard, 1,486.43 Nautical Miles, 215 hours 05 Minutes Underway
2006: 13 Days, 176.6 Miles, 28 Hours 14 Minutes
2005: 10 Days, 145.22 Miles, 18 Hours 43 Minutes
2004: 31 Days, 651.96 Miles, 92 Hours 58 Minutes
2003: 14 Days, 228.75 Miles, 30 Hours 45 Minutes
2002: 8 Days, 117.53 Miles, 18 Hours 13 Minutes
2001: 13 Days, 166.37 Miles, 26 Hours 12 Minutes

All the distance and time totals are straight off our GPS log. I'm sure the actual distance and time is a bit more as the GPS doesn't count when you are going slower that 2 Knots.

I bought my boat to cruise it. This year, 3 cruises, over 1800 miles and 50 days on the water with another 20 days cruise, 750 miles, to go. What is nice about the Mac is that when I need to get somewhere I can do it at 15 mph in the best of seas. This is the reason for the high miles.

More than most, but I really like the water vers other type of vacations.

Ive found the years I trailer I do about 150 miles on the boat, and at dock about 800 miles per year. Basically being able to day sail without rigging hassle increases my usage 5x.

This year my stats were messed up by the fact that we daysailed our Island 17, so we trailered and did 4 long trips totalling 350 miles (one Ontario, three Cape Cod) on the Mac. I like this mode of operation as I have an extra boat buck and a half to spend on mods.

TRAILER - So far this season:

Launchings: 16

Days of use: 30 (sail: 28 + motor: 2)

Days solo: 14

Major outings: 2 (4 & 5 day cruises, 6 hours road time each way)

Typical daysail: launch to haul out: 14 hours

Shortest daysail: launch to haul out: 6 hours

It's ironic, I think, that I'll drive 45 minutes / launch / park / step / rig, to sail for a few hours, (then repeat the reverse) in the same bay were my folks live/moor their ODay 19, and they talk about the hassle of getting ready to sail. I think the few times they spent on my boat this summer was double what they spent on theirs!

My first season was spent trailering, rigging, de-rigging. When my wife suggested slipping the following season I said, twist my rubber arm. It is not that we live to far to trailer, it is the perceived hassle that makes it appear onerous and therefore de-motivating. With a slip only 15 minutes away we are always tempted to go at a moments notice, even an after work dinner sail is feasible when the days are longer. We tend to get more use, especially day sailing use with a slip and we don't have to watch the tides. Since we live close to a marina we only go there to sail, unlike many others who go to their boat/dock to hang out. Slippage is obviously seasonal here in the pacific northwest and it is only worth buying for 4-5 months, the remaining months are trailering.

Trailering only.

Sailed 9 trips -overnight on the boat on every trip
Total days on the water-23.
Total distance on the water-230 miles

Managed to get sail up on all but one day of the 23

So far our new boat has cost about $4000 an outing-what a bargain!

I gotta sail a lot more!

We have “The Other Woman” stored in a “mast-up” storage facility near our local lake. From trailer hook-up to floating usually takes 5 minutes. We’ve owned her for a year and a half. Our season is 6 months long, and sadly, due to possible freezing nights and winterizing the outboard, it’s over locally.

Here are the vitals:

In 2005

Sail hours 55.25
Motor hours 42.75
Trailer miles 1532
Hours on the water 147.25
Days 39
Nights 3


In 2006

Sail hours 56
Motor hours 37.2
Trailer miles 2965
Hours on the water 204.25
Days 30
Nights 8

Nice touch Kayak Dan!
So far we’re down to $464 per outing!

Boat is kept on water. Last year tally:

15 trips.

All day trips except one cruise (3-days). The shortest daytrip was 1.5 hours after my father-in-law became sea-sick.

The benefit of keeping it on the water is when we do short cruises such as a late afternoon for picnic dinner and watch the sunset (leave around 4 PM return around 8:00 PM). I would never do that if I trailored.

Hello,
I have a log book dating back to 1995. I haven't kept a "Duane" record of our trips. In the early years the boat got out 8~10 times but as we get older and busier the work of prep & launching seems more than the payoff. The last 2 years have been very busy with everything except sailing. This year we got up to the San Juan Islands but chartered a larger boat with 2 other couples. The mac only got two short overnight river trips with almost no sailing and I had a new genoa to test. Our new motto seems to be "wait until next year." Leaving the boat behind is not why I bought it. Now we are taking care of my mother in law who can't be left alone. We'll have to work it out somehow, I really miss the water & being alone with my honey.

I dont have a distance log either however we Dock and use the boat around between 30 and 50 times a year between launching and retrieving.

We live 20 mins from the boat and 5 mins to get on the boat and throw the lines off

This is our second season with the boat.

The first season we only trailered. We only got out on weekends, but It got to be too much! Between the time to rig, launch the boat, then fight the power boaters to get back to the ramp and then derig, it got to be too much

This year we got a slip in a great marina on the Delaware. We still only go out on Sundays, but it is a pleasure Especially when we motor past all the boats trying to jockey for position at the ramp. We just go to our nice 30' slip.

There is just no comparison. None.

We still trailer the boat to special places; like the Adirondacks for two weeks in August, or some flounder fishing five miles off the coast of Atlantic City in the Spring.


Ray

A slip (easy and no launch delay, a full cover (no goose poop to clean up) and I sail 100 times more frequently then I ever did trailering.

Only down side is same lake every time.. When I get that urge to travel then I pull and trailer to Erie or some other big water..

Looks like a trip to Grand Haven is in the plan for next summer so I guess I better get familiar with the rig/derig proceedures..

Good/Bad news is I have all Winter..

Fair Winds
Tim Stone Wind Dancer

"The Nuts" is in the water at Marina Del Rey. I stay on the boat 4 nights a week while I am in LA playing poker. I sail EVERY day I am there and the weather is decent (95% of the time). Most I ever do is put on a sweatshirt and I always wear a bathing suit(I NEED to start wearing my good PFD ). It's a tough life By the end of the year I will have been out almost 200 times this year and will have taken 3 boat trips of over 75 miles (like to Long Beach, Newport Beach, or Catalina Island). I also had one trailer trip (500 miles total) to Lake Mead this year for Mead Madness but it will take a great must do can't miss this one type opporotunity to get me to go through the hassle of unrigging and getting ready to trailer a long distance and then rigging again upon arrival. THAT WAS A HASSLE I can do without

Rick