“You guys must be really experienced sailors?” is usually the thing anyone says when we talk about our upcoming plans to live on a boat and go exploring for a few years.
“Not really” is the honest answer but then again we’re not total beginners either, so here is where we’re at:
The dream was started by a book and a boat show. The book was called An Embarrassment of Mangoes and was about an older Canadian couple who spent a couple of years sailing from their home to the Caribbean and back. It’s a good read, full of sunsets and Gin and Tonics (and Mangoes). Around the same time as finishing the book we went to the Fremantle Boat Show and got onboard the first catamaran we laid eyes on. Sitting on the tramps looking at the oily water in the harbour sealed the deal, we just felt there was no other place we’d rather be than on a boat. That kicked off a 5 year plan to learn to sail and save enough money to live on a boat for a few years after selling our house.
We started by buying a Mirror dinghy. They are a funny little boat, built of thin plywood from kits, they were made hugely popular in the 60’s when the Mirror newspaper launched a competition for someone to design a boat that the common man could build in his shed and be raced competitively. The winner was a boat that would fit on a roofrack but could take 2-3 adults and had all the sails and adjustments of a big yacht including a jib and spinnaker. We found our mirror in the newspaper, a 1973 built number with original sails in mint condition. None of the proper rigging was in place so it’s quite possible she was never really sailed properly before we got her! The guy I bought it from had had her in his shed for quite a few years. He tried to sail her once but the 3mm chord that he had attached to the boom as a main sheet burned into his hand so he just rowed her around. Had he known the main sheet is usually 8mm rope rigged in a 3:1 pulley system he might’ve had more fun with her! I almost got into the middle of a domestic between the seller and his gun wielding teenage son but that is a whole other story. His biggest selling point on the boat was that it was painted with rust proof paint…. ah yeah it’s a plywood boat, anyway done deal.
We had lots of great times on that mirror, sailing on the Swan River for picknicks, out to Penguin Island for a snorkel or around one of the great Estuaries down South. It was our time with the dinghy that probably taught us the most about how to actually sail a boat.
Our newly born company had an office in Hillarys Marina, a place to dream whilst enviously watching other boats heading out for a sail while we navigated our way through the shark infested business world. During our lunchtime strolls down the docks we became acquainted with many of the local boat owners including the resident sailing instructor. Knowing our plans he approached us one day and offered to show us a boat that had just come onto the market and would be an ideal keel boat to continue our learning on. Shortly after “Bunch” was ours, a UFO 34 she was a 80’s era boat, known for seaworthiness and a forgiving nature. Many of her sisters have circumnavigated and braved some of the wildest seas. She was a perfect step for us, just far enough outside our comfort zone to keep us focused but easy to sail and handle with just a crew of two (plus two slightly less enthusiastic junior crew). She also came pre scratched and dented so we didn’t have to worry about being precious with her. Bunch was great for us and we spent many pleasant hours sailing from Hillarys down the coast.
Unfortunately she wasn’t particularly well laid out for a family of four and there was an ever present smell of diesel that we could never quite shake despite the many litres of cleaning fluids, de-greasers, smelly candles, etc we tried. She was not a boat the family could take away on any extended overnight trips without it feeling like camping in a garage.
Our final boat in this chapter was really the result of a radical impulse buy, born out of frustration (we had been trying to buy a catamaran but couldn’t get a pen) and a fantastic deal. The combination of a high Aussie dollar and depressed European economy presented an opportunity to buy a new French built boat at an incredibly good price. The chaos of selling our company that we’d built over the last 5 years slightly overshadowed the excitement of being lucky enough to buy a new boat but we’ll never forget the day we stood outside the Fremantle docks loading area, peering through a 3m high chain link fence at the shrink wrapped hull shaped object that was to be “Sandy Feet”.
A few days later we were a little more sombre, looking at the now unwrapped hull towering above our heads and wondering if we’d bitten off more than we could chew. At 45ft or 13m long and 4.5m wide with a mast whose top is 23m above the water this is not a small boat!
After initially getting spooked at the size we figured it was best not to think about it and from that day refused any thoughts about whether we could handle such a large boat with just the two of us. As it turned out we were right not to worry, the Beneteau 45 is an incredibly well laid out boat with technology that actually made her easier to sail than Bunch. The biggest challenge was getting over the psychological factor of having a brand new boat without a scratch on her.
I soon overcame that by putting a ding in her on entering the dock for the second time and clipping a dock cleat (which was promptly moved to a new location). Our dock is easily the biggest challenge as we have to reverse into it and the afternoon seabreeze blows across the bow making it necessary to come in hot with lots of speed to maintain steerage. Finally we had a boat to start learning more cruising skills rather than just sailing. Navigation, night sailing, anchoring and mooring, launching and retrieving the dinghy, etc etc. We were away as much as we could squeeze in between running a crazy busy company and running an equally crazy busy family.
I am typing this whilst sitting on Sandy Feet with whiskey in hand. We love her now as much as the first heady days where we had to keep pinching ourselves to believe this was our boat. Sadly the time has come to continue our boat evolution and move onto the boat that started the dream so now Sandy Feet is for sale and we spend a great deal of time surfing boat brokerage sites in the US, looking for our next boat, a 40-50ft Catamaran.
So whilst by salty sea dog standards we are still very much land lubbers, we’d like to think we have amassed enough experience to keep us safe while we continue to learn. Sailing and Cruising is one of those things where you will never stop learning but it’s also one of those thing where a good dose of common sense will see you through most situations and as long as your prepared to stay within your limits then the risks are as manageable as everyday life on land.
