| My first introduction to sailing was through a book about Transatlantic sailing. I was heavily interested in historical tall ships and pirates and used to read an amazing amount of books on the subject. When I was a kid, one of my favorite topics to draw were sailing pictures! Even today I have yet to master some of the angles when drawing a boat. Which is why I take lots of pictures on my camera phone and draw from these! |
I can get into sailboats too!' Well that was just the beginning of my fascination with sailing.
After reading a most amazing story of a man who sailed the Atlantic with his friends and family, I was hooked.
I couldn't stop reading more and more books! I also would learn more about the sport of sailing after I ordered the magazine 'Sailing World'. I would enjoy looking at the beautiful sailboats inside its pages and the exciting articles.
I didn't slow down reading all these books and magazines until I finally took my own sailing
lessons in Marina Del Rey, California.
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| Albie's Favorite Sailing Books, click on pic! |
After the basic classes were over, I even took a class in bareboat cruising and coastal
navigation in which we sailed to Catalina island. I learned a lot from that class!
All in all I highly advise going to a sailing school and taking sailing lessons as this will greatly improve your understanding.
It amazes me when I see some people in their boats how
they don't know the rules and do all kinds of crazy things they shouldn't be doing.
One afternoon I saw a small power boat motoring right down the channel reserved for sailboats. I was so mad at him!
I realize the bigger party boats need to use the sailing area (as they are just a size smaller than a ship and need all the draft they can get). But the regular size power boats should use the going out and coming in lanes assigned to them. But if you don't take sailing classes and learn sailing, than I can see how its very possible you will have no idea what to do!
There really are few signs posted. Needing a license for a boat is not required. You only need to get insurance for your boat. Still, after having sailed around with crazy boat drivers and hearing stories of horrendous accidents, even though you don't have to have a license, I
would highly recommend taking a class!
The sea is not one to play around with! To give an example, one time while at Catalina Island a skipper anchored his boat and went to Avalon to have some fun. When he returned, his boat was gone! He obviously didn't know how to anchor properly and how to give the anchor the proper anchor scope. So the sea took his boat and I believe it was days before the coast guard finally found it!
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| Book a boat ALMOST Anywhere in the World! |
Okay, so with that in mind, my experience has still taught me that after taking some lessons, the next best thing to do is to own your own boat.
There is no better way to learn how to sail than by this. Even if its just a small boat.
With a small boat you can learn some of the basics even better! And you need your own boat so that no one is looking over your shoulder telling you what to do.
You need to be able to make your own decisions and be able to make your own mistakes. Hopefully you will have learned how to avoid the really serious mistakes from the sailing lessons!
Well after taking lessons, I finally found a boat I could afford. For one hundred dollars I found myself a nice sunfish boat. I began to sail this everywhere. Lakes, rivers, marshes and then even out in the ocean.
After finally turning this boat into an outrigger boat with hopes of sailing to Ana Cappa island,
I sailed it on a test run on the ocean out of Redondo Beach. Realizing I had hardly any ability to come up wind with it, I gave up that endeavor.
But I did at last sail it somewhere really interesting. One Christmas night I even 'sailed' it onto our roof, disguised as Santa Clause. That gave the kids something to talk about!
But as for the boat, after many years it was getting old and after over use it finally started falling apart. After this I bought my own catamaran and took this everywhere too (except this I hooked on to our trailer).
Catamaran sailing is an art in itself and I had to read a book about it before sailing it. Out on the water, it was a really fun boat to sail. But it took me a while to figure it all out!
I used to also own my own dinghy. Dinghy sailing is fun if you have a good boat. My dinghy on the contrary, was needing repair on the fiberglass and had no mast, sails or rudder. Being the creative person I am, I found parts to make do for all it lacked. In the end I learned some incredible sailing lessons but didn't have as much fun as I was hoping!
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| Traveling? Check out prices through Expedia via Albie's Travel! |
There are so many sailing yachts down at Marina Del Rey. I know that many of them range from a couple thousand all the way up to half a million dollars and above.
Some of the yachts there are so beautiful to see as I sail by. I have a habit of always looking at the names of the boats as I pass along. Some of the names are so creative!
My friends have owned Catalina 22's and they are great looking boats. I love how the front hatches open out and upward to provide shade! One day some visitors came by my dock and told me that they could identify my 22 foot boat by the markings on my sail. They said every boat had the length of the boat on their sails. So for instance, a Catalina 22 sails would have the markings 22 right on them.
So, I'm guessing that if you were sailing and had some binoculars, you could see the numbers right there on the sails and know what size the boat is!
So in conclusion, I ended up with a Columbia 22 instead of a Catalina 22. Catalina's are a nicer looking boat. But I believe the Columbia 22's are stronger. Well they should be as I've heard they are blue water rated. And this is probably one reason why I'm still alive after two handfuls of gales and 20 foot waves of Catalina. S
So I really have grown to love my boat, but I still think the Catalina 22's are better looking. And that pop up roof is so cool!
Now that I own my boat, comes the job of paying for it monthly! Which takes me to trying to make my slip fee cost effective. As nice as it is to have your boat in the marina near other nice boats, it still costs money. You see, I have to pay quite a bit each month for my slip fee. I've looked for sailing jobs before in hopes of perhaps helping to reduce this cost but have never found anything that would work for me.
That is one of the reasons I decided to go after my captains license. I found out that if I do a minimum of four hours each time I went sailing and record my hours, I could get my captains license one day after taking a test.
Then I could charge to give sailing lessons -which would help me pay for my slip fee too!
In the last five years I have completed a total of over 360 days and now only need to take the test. I look forward to either being able to have a part time job teaching sailing or be able to have my own sailing school!
A Story about a Storm and Sewing!
I know this sounds crazy but I have greatly enjoyed repairing my own sailboat sails and watch them endure high winds and still stay together! My own story began after I went through an awful gale just off of Catalina in the spring. Coming through 40 knot winds (more than 40 MPH) and 20 foot waves, put my Columbia 22 sailboat through unbelievable stress. I'm still not sure how she made it through, but am wildly thankful to my friend Brad, my boat and to God who helped us get through safely!
Your probably wondering what this has to do with sewing my sails, so I'll tell you! After that storm, I had my first inch rip across my main sail. I put some white duck tape across it and forgot about it! It gave me a wake up call when another storm ripped a two foot 'Z shape' in it!
That storm was not quite as bad as the other - having only ten foot waves this time. As it was, I was just outside of Marina Del Rey when this happened and was able to get back safely into the harbor. But the rip had devastating effects on being able to control the boat back into my slip. With the heavy winds I was not able to tighten it up enough to make a close reach up wind and get in. Thus I ended up drifting down by someone else's boat who so generously volunteered to tow me into my slip! Thank you Rob!
After this I was forced to either buy a whole new main sail or learn how to repair my own.
Since I didn't have the money, I used the heavy thread and sticher my friend had so generously given me. Two years later and more small craft advisories than you can shake a stick at and that sail is still in good shape!
However, that was only the beginning. Another gale ripped my front jib in half. I ended up mending that too and half a dozen other small sail rips as well! If you want to know my half crazy method that worked so well on these sails, please just leave me your email and I will share it with you!
Still, after a certain amount of years, the material of the sail can become really worn and though sewing may save it for a while, I wouldn't advise taking that sail into a gale. It will certainly not make it through.
After that I took up sewing some of my favorite sailing clothes too! When I go out sailing with my friends on their boats, I often see them wearing nice sailing apparel. I tend to see quite a few things from the West Marine store. Ok, I've bought a bunch of things there myself. Having really nice sailing apparel is fun when you go out sailing with your friends. But when I am alone, the most enjoyable apparel in my estimation, are the clothes and jackets that you have personally sewed back to life!
Which makes me think of my sailing flags! I have had a few sailing flags of my own since I've owned my own boat. And I've enjoyed them all.
My first flag was a black pirate flag which I thought was great fun! I flew that flag everywhere including through many gales and storms. A year and a half later that flag looked like a real authentic pirate owned it; as it was so tattered and worn away you could barely see the skull and crossbones anymore!
My next flag was the sailing code 'A' flag. Of course it doesn't look like an A. It is blue and white. This flag my wife bought for me on my birthday as it was the 'A' flag for my name 'Albie'. Another year of sailing put that flag in the tattered category too.
By that time my sewing skills had improved and I was just getting ready to sew the hem back to life, when a friend I took out sailing was an expert at sewing and did an amazing job repairing it. Nevertheless, after some 'small craft advisories' (just a step down from a gale) and more high winds, it too came to a place where a whole do-over was essential. For this my mother stepped up to the plate and is still looking for the right material to replace half the flag with.
Still, when material begins to rip, it may not be worth mending as the material may be too old to be worth it. Putting needle holes in it can just create another excuse for it to rip in another place.
Thanks for your comments!
~Albie
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