Step Two: Get a Yacht

OK I had the basics from Eastsail and now what I needed was time on the water to put that theory and that practical experience to the test. Numerous sensible people advised me to join a yacht club and go sailing as a crew member for their Twilight races during the week and on weekends.That way I would find out if I was really going to enjoy sailing, and I would get help and encouragement from experienced yachties. If I insisted on jumping straight in and buying a boat they suggested getting a small boat, maybe a laser or a trailer-sailer,rather than something bigger and a lot more expensive that could be unsuitable or that I might end up hating. Or worse than that - and I am sure this was the scenario that was flashing before their eyes as they tried to calm me down - some sort of horrible disaster at sea that could destroy both me and the boat. They were all too polite and didnt want to hurt my feelings or dampen my enthusiasm, especially as I was a potential new member for their Club. They knew from all their own experience how unforgiving and dangerous and unpredictable the sea can be and were all giving me excellent advice but the problem for me was that

a) I knew I was going to love sailing and yachts - I already did;

b) I lived nearly two hours away from Sydney harbour so would never be able to do twilight racing;

c) I didnt want to learn racing anyway, I wanted to go cruising;

d) I didnt want a Laser or a Trailer-Sailer and

e) joining a club and going to races on the weekend would take too long.

I wanted to get sailing in my own boat RIGHT NOW - I had already wasted 40 years and I just didnt want to waste any more time. Everytime there was news about someone I knew or a friend of a friend being diagnosed with cancer or dropping dead with a heart attack at my age, my determination to get on with it was strengthened even more.So I started looking for a yacht.

I wanted one that I could sail by myself - so it couldnt be too big. I wanted one that could sail across oceans- so it would have to be well built for ocean passages. I was told not to buy a wooden yacht, even though I adored wooden boats, because they would require an enormous amount of upkeep and I am not a carpenter so it would have to be fibreglass or steel or ferrocement. And it would have to be second hand because Brand new yachts were way out of my price range.

I was on the internet for hours and hours and hours, looking at yachts for sale, reading yachting blogs, reading about the different types of rig, and keel and sail, reading about fibreglass and cement and steel, ocean passages, storm tactics,rescues, radio, refridgeration,communication...anything a search engine could come up with. I read yachting magazines from cover to cover, all the ads - everything. I went to the Boat Show and to Boat Books and bought manuals and guides and technical journals and I even joined a sailing club and went to a lecture by a solo circumnavigator half way through his voyage. And I enlisted the help of a yachtie, and paid him to look at some boats for me and offer an opinion about their suitability for what I was planning.

Eventually - and this was half way through my sail training - I had a short list of about ten boats that I wanted to look at. And after I had done that, there were two left - an aluminium Adams 35 and an Eastcoast 31,built of fibreglass in 1981. My advisor said either would be good, so I went back and had another look at them and decided I liked the EC31, Sapphire. She was then pulled out of the water for Survey prior to final haggling about the price, which only dropped a little, because she was given a clean bill of health by the Surveyor. He said he wished he was the one buying Sapphire and predicted we were about to have a terrific summer of sailing. At last I had my Yacht, and I was ecstatic. They say there are only two really happy days in the life of a yachtie - the day he buys his boat, and the day he sells it: well certainly the first part seemed to be true!!