Catamaran certification course

[Rick 67]

So after our recent vacation my brother is thinking about buying a 40' Catamaran. The first step would be to get certified so we could rent one a few times to even see if it is something we would enjoy. We found a course in Ft. Myers Florida. It is around 5k for a 7 day course. This would include lodging and the certification course and my wife would stay "free".

Any one ever taken one of these? Is there a better/different way to get the certification? Is it as much fun as it looks?

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[BillyVance 34]

All I can say, having never done one, is to research as much as you can into the costs of owning one and its upkeep, including storage, then decide what you guys want to do.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Glitch 0]

It is a boat... and you know what that stands for!

Randomly f'n thingies up since before I was born...

[airdvr 197]

I can't speak to the course but I've sold boats for a living and I currently own one and live on it almost every weekend in the summer.

I would think your $5K could be spent better here http://www.moorings.com/?gclid=Cj0KEQiA9eamBRDqvIz_qPbVteABEiQAnIBTEA6y5eQrUrcFsAWrbx7yKfLY4iVLR71kd2m4QoSnqOEaAkDr8P8HAQ watching and learning. Why do you need a certification? I don't know of any governing body that requires a certificate for personal use.

Is this your first boat? A 40 footer is a bit ambitious to learn on and the costs can get pretty steep. Used boats are a object lesson in things that go wrong. It's truly a "you get what you pay for" scenario. Have it inspected by a marine surveyor before you buy. Your insurance company will want a copy of the survey.

A boat that size won't likely have a trailer so you'll have to rent a slip. Here in Ohio my slip costs $2,300 for the season. Season here is a couple of weeks before Memorial Day to a couple of weeks after Labor Day. If you are planning on using it year round your slip costs will be more. Of course here in Ohio it's pretty cold so my boat sits 'on the hard' for the winter. Winterizing, shrink wrap and storage run another $2,000. Heaven forbid you need to get anything fixed by the marina service department. Last summer I discovered a bad bilge pump on a Sunday evening. I couldn't stay with the boat as I had business dealings Monday morning. If your bilge pump doesn't work your boat could sink if it takes on water. It's a $50 part but having the dockside service department replace it cost me $450.00. You'll have wind power so you don't need to hear about filling two 75 gallon fuel tanks with marine gas at $4.00/gal.

Of course, even after all that boating is a blast. Like being on vacation every weekend. Go for it but make sure you really can afford it.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Rick 67]

Thanks for the detailed reply.
We have only owned small boats. Bass boat and john boat types. No sailing experience except for 30 years ago when we were Boy Scouts. I think the little sailboats were called Sunflowers.

We were recently on a cruise and we saw a lot of private boats in the ports we hit. We thought it would be fun to get a boat and make our own cruises. We figured we would rent one a for a long weekend a few times to decide if we liked it enough to buy a boat. From what we saw you cannot rent one without the certification. Even if it's not required maybe a good idea anyway so we feel comfortable on our own.

Maybe it would be a good idea to rent a boat with a skipper first to see what is involved.

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[ryoder 1,381]

Rick

Maybe it would be a good idea to rent a boat with a skipper first to see what is involved.

Hire Captain Ron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPl21EVhaU

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[airdvr 197]

Ahhh. I know the lure of seeing those blow boats in the harbor. Pretty tantalizing to think you could escape from the everyday and disappear to the Caribbean with just a wind generator, a fishing pole, and a bikini clad first mate.

Attached pic is Iles des Saints December 2010.
http://www.cntraveller.com/recommended/tropical/caribbean-islands

I could have stayed there forever. We were on the larger sailboat to the left but I would have changed places with just about any of those small sailboats.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Rick 67]

ryoder

***
Maybe it would be a good idea to rent a boat with a skipper first to see what is involved.

Hire Captain Ron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPl21EVhaU

just watch out for the guerrillas

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[ryoder 1,381]

Rick

******
Maybe it would be a good idea to rent a boat with a skipper first to see what is involved.

Hire Captain Ron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPl21EVhaU

just watch out for the guerrillas

I'm sure you said gorillas!

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[Rick 67]

Yes that's what I'm talking about. We were at a black sand beach in Martinique (see attached). It would be great to sail up in there and spend a day or 2 on your own boat.

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[Rick 67]

correct no gorillas but apparently guerrillas

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[BillyVance 34]

ryoder

***
Maybe it would be a good idea to rent a boat with a skipper first to see what is involved.

Hire Captain Ron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPl21EVhaU

If the captain starts singing the Gilligan's Island theme song, get the fuck off the boat.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[normiss 620]

Ask Bram?

[RMK 3]

There is nothing more relaxing than a bareboat yachting holiday. Bareboat meaning you’ve rented the boat and it’s just you/family/friends and you go when/where you wish. You’re doing the right thing by seeking some instruction, I’ve got over 20,000 miles offshore and have seen injuries and/or property damage due to people not knowing what they were doing.

I hold a RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Ocean License with commercial endorsement, but the basic levels such as a Day Skipper course will get you on the water safely. Regarding license systems, either a RYA or ASA (somewhat US equivalent) license and training will provide you the ability to bareboat charter globally. Albeit the RYA tickets are more widely known. Here’s a chat on the differences: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f112/asa-or-rya-140692.html

The way it works with most yacht bases is that they will have different requirements for different length boats or locations (i.e. nearly anyone will turn you loose with a 34ft Beneteau for a weekend in the bay, but will want to see more skill/experience if they’re handing over a 55ft yacht for a week off Antigua). Also rental companies will vary requirements by location; such as being more lenient for rental for the Leeward Islands such as Virgin Islands).

Yachting holidays sound extravagant, but bareboat charter can be quite a good deal – your hotel/transportation are the same, much/most of your food is cooked aboard (not because it’s cheap, because it’s fun to grill on the back of the boat and eat outside).

Some notes:
- easiest place to sail in Caribbean is the British Virgin Islands
- Moorings www.moorings.com is the yacht equivalent of Hertz
- LateSail www.latesail.com is the yacht equivalent of LastMinute.com
- Cats better for shallow waters like Bahamas, Monohulls more comfortable in rough seas. Monohulls also faster upwind, but Cats are damn roomy.
- For first charters, if not fully comfortable to be your own yet; you can
1) hire a skipper (usually about $100/day)
2) do a flotilla week (you’re solo in control, but you go from island to island in a group of boats following a “lead” boat with professional skipper

...Nothing better than after an afternoon sail, dropping the anchor in a nice cove, making some G&Ts and putting some steaks on the grill.

"Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

[Rick 67]

thanks RMK and airdvr for all the good info . I now have some places to start researching how to move forward. I will keep you posted. Hope to have some adventures to relate to you here in the future.

just what I needed another expensive hobby

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[airdvr 197]

Do it while you're still young enough.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[yoink 321]

airdvr

A boat that size won't likely have a trailer so you'll have to rent a slip. Here in Ohio my slip costs $2,300 for the season.

I crew on a 42ft boat in San Diego and the slip fees there are crazy. They're over 1000 bucks a month...
It's incredible how fast costs rack up on boats.

As Airdvr says, you need to watch out if buying 2nd hand. It'd be easy to buy a boat only to find the sails need replacing in the first season - The ones we use are about 7 grand a pop.

I definitely wouldn't start at 40ft. Learn the basics of sailing first on small boats. Unless you and your brother are experienced, it's unlikely you'll use a lot of function on a bigger boat. Getting the spinnaker sail up with only 2 people on a big boat can go horribly wrong!

The attached photo shows us racing a couple of weeks ago - it gives an idea of how many people you may need to sail a 40+ft boat...

It also depends on how thorough your education needs to be as to what kind of course to suggest. If your intention is to buy a boat and sail it off shore, you're going to need to know not only the boat-handling stuff, but also maritime laws, navigation etc.

Most of my research on boat rentals on the west coast show that it's possible to rent 30ft boats without showing any experience but giving a credit card deposit (only last week I watched a renter crash their boat into a very expensive motor boat which was moored up because they didn't know how to bring the rental into the slip...), but for anything larger they want you to take a course with them.

I'd strongly recommend against doing a rental with no experience for anything other than inland sailing, or in a bay. Coastal / ocean stuff can get gnarly pretty fast and when things do go wrong it sucks to be a long way from help.


All that said, I love sailing and quit skydiving to do this most weekends. Let us know how you get on and have fun!

[Rick 67]

Thanks Yoink.
We have decided to book a trip with an experienced Captain to get an idea of what we would be getting into. With the eventual goal being able to sail by ourselves. Do you think with some training my brother and I along with our wives would be a large enough crew to sail a 40' Catataran?

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[Calvin19 0]

Rick

So after our recent vacation my brother is thinking about buying a 40' Catamaran. The first step would be to get certified so we could rent one a few times to even see if it is something we would enjoy. We found a course in Ft. Myers Florida. It is around 5k for a 7 day course. This would include lodging and the certification course and my wife would stay "free".

Any one ever taken one of these? Is there a better/different way to get the certification? Is it as much fun as it looks?

Unless you are going to be doing commercial stuff with your boat you should not need a certification. If you need a cert to rent that is something I do not know about.

I have owned 1/3 share of a 40' cutter-rigged sloop since 2005. Initial cost we paid 17k$. Between the three of us since then we have put about $70k into it and it still is a POS. If you're looking for a partner, a friend and I are putting $ together for a 38-42' cat. (If you find something under 100k$ it is probably too good to be true)

As many have said, boats are expensive. I've also owned an airplane and it was less than half of the upkeep/storage cost of a cruising boat. Get and keep insurance.

Sailing is magical, but it is also uncomfortable, cold, wet, seasick hell sometimes.

On a run from Baja to Monterey CA (in february) we spent 11 days outside land view. Through a storm. It WAS hell, 50 degree air and water spray, 14' @17sec seas. I never slept more than an hour or two. Three-hour shifts between three people.
I was cold and wet and miserable for the second half. But the second I got out of the shower in Monterey (Moss Landing) all I wanted was to get back out there. That was years ago and it still calls me at least once a day.

[Calvin19 0]

Rick

Thanks Yoink.
We have decided to book a trip with an experienced Captain to get an idea of what we would be getting into. With the eventual goal being able to sail by ourselves. Do you think with some training my brother and I along with our wives would be a large enough crew to sail a 40' Catataran?

Good call on the Captain trip. I bought my boat with two friends who were in the Navy. We all had sailing experiences growing up, mostly racing smallboats and short day sailing in sloops. We set out into the pacific with little more training than this. The first two weeks was easy, and we learned (or thought we learned) a lot about cruising. the last leg we decided to go the long way, (you know, for the honor) and went NW from point conception, CA. We got cocky and ended up losing our spinnaker pole and blew our mainsail in half with improper reefing. Then the storm hit.

4 should be plenty on a 40' cat as long as everyone is willing to do their part.

I'm confident I could sail my 40' sloop alone indefinitely in good weather. In long weather I feel like 2 would be barely enough.

[Rick 67]

yes it looks like something not to get into without a LOT of research. I will let you all know when we book our first trip. I got a PM with a Skipper recommendation.

thanks everyone I see now that there is a lot more involved than we initially thought.

Hopefully you can teach an old dog new tricks.

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[billvon 2,384]

>All I can say, having never done one, is to research as much as you can into the
>costs of owning one and its upkeep, including storage, then decide what you
>guys want to do.

Critical line from his post - "my brother is thinking about buying a 40' Catamaran"

From my experience, the very best way to get into sailing is to have a friend of yours buy a sailboat.

[Calvin19 0]

yoink

***Getting the spinnaker sail up with only 2 people on a big boat can go horribly wrong!

Aint that the truth.

[Rick 67]

billvon

>All I can say, having never done one, is to research as much as you can into the
>costs of owning one and its upkeep, including storage, then decide what you
>guys want to do.

Critical line from his post - "my brother is thinking about buying a 40' Catamaran"

From my experience, the very best way to get into sailing is to have a friend of yours buy a sailboat.

you got that right It was his idea. I will take the classes with him (if that's what we decide) and split expenses on whatever cruising we do.

I'll let him buy the boat he doesn't have any expensive hobbies yet
and we all know everyone needs at least one

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[yoink 321]

Calvin19

******Getting the spinnaker sail up with only 2 people on a big boat can go horribly wrong!

Aint that the truth.


Our bow-man forgot to attach the clew of our spinnaker last race... Gib came down, Spinnaker went up and then just started flapping like a flag as the boat came to a grinding halt.

oops.