Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
If you have read the "Why Sailing?" post, you know Helga and I are interested in cruising as well as day sailing, but we are still a few years away from real cruising.
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| Sailing Bella, a Hunter 36, to the east side of Tampa Bay, we tied up and had lunch at Hooks |
After we returned from our sailing instruction week in St. Petersburg, I have to admit both of us were bitten pretty hard by the sailing bug. We had been waiting all fall and winter for the planned week of sailing in Florida during Helga's spring break. We had been watching sailing videos on YouTube, and after a week immersed in actual sailing we weren't ready to return to sailing vicariously. Timing was interesting as the Pacific Sail and Power Boat Show, in Richmond was scheduled for the week after we got back from Florida.
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| Our marina at St. Petersburg, at sunrise |
Through the fall and winter our boat interests and preferences went through a progression. In the fall we started thinking about getting the largest sailboat we could get on a trailer (boat weight plus trailer weight less than 10,000 lbs.) and put it on Lake Tahoe each sailing season and store it in the back yard through the Fall/Winter/Spring. The boat would be our weekend summer place at Lake Tahoe, so we were looking for something that would be comfortable to live on but still fit on a trailer. At the same time we were looking for a place to keep the moored.
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| A typical sailboat that can be easily trailered |
This is when we discovered that none of the places we found would allow overnight stays on the boat. This was the first big downer. Next, we started to consider the short boating season at Tahoe (four or five months), the wonderful but relatively limited number of sailing venues and places of interest, and finally, sailing Lake Tahoe on a relatively small, light boat would not teach us much about the cruising life.
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| Sales photo of the Lagoon 42 |
About the same time, I first ran across some of the promo videos for Lagoon, Leopard, and Fountaine Pajot catamarans. I knew about racing catamarans and was aware that there were some cat's that one could use for cruising, but the new designs blew me away. They are like floating luxury condos. Of course, they cost about as much as luxury condos. With a monohull (a traditional sailboat), there is on deck, and there is down inside the boat, where there is little visibility as to what is happening outside, or any decent view. With the new design catamaran, there is huge fore deck, great for sun, and relaxing as a passenger in calmer weather, and a big aft patio great for any weather. The salon, which generally contains the kitchen and enclosed dining area, is on the same level as the fore and aft decks. The salon generally has big picture windows so you can have situational awareness and great views inside or out. It was this new interest in catamarans that prompted me to add the catamaran qualification class and the bareboat catamaran charter after the class, to the plan for St. Peterburg.
A couple typical videos I was watching are:
Lagoon 42
Leopard 40
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