The Curmudgeon Chef: A boating solution

I liked sailing a small boat. I've just completed a few weeks of research into boats, working within the limitation of the lack of a place to park a trailer, much less a trailer hitch toting vehicle. That part could be fixed, with money, or paying more for a boat that is light enough to manhandle onto a roofrack, which is also a matter of money.

This sailboat, the RS Aero 9 would be the one to buy if money were no object. Its well designed, weighs around 70 pounds, made from carbon fiber and fiberglass and some plastic. Its a good design. But its a lot of money, around $9K. There is a smarter answer.

The local lake has a yacht club. Its $75/year to join. They have a fleet of Sunfish sailboats, which members can borrow. This means that next spring, in the new year, I can join the club and take one of the boats out. By then it will have rained enough to refill the lake. And by borrowing a club boat I don't need to buy a boat or store a boat or deal with the issues of a trailer. They also teach boat maintenance, which I want to learn, and racing, and like people who can crew existing boats during races.

Note that a sunfish sailboat is a lot like a thicker surfboard, with a sail in the top and a rudder and daggerboard in the bottom, with a footwell. You sit on the deck and get wet in any kind of waves. This is fine in the summer, but probably not as nice in the winter.

Dad thinks I should buy a Ford F-250 or 150 truck, suitable for towing an Airstream and some kind of woman. That would be astonishing, because I can't think of any kind of woman that would want me. The truck, that I can do. By the time I can afford one, after getting a real paying job, rather than an unpaying job like I have now, I will be able to afford a truck, and probably even the sailboat that suits me best rather than the one that makes you wet and requires you to wear a wetsuit to use it. The reason for an Airstream was brought back to the foreground after trying to sleep in a noisy motel. I realized I haven't properly slept in a motel room in around 10 years. Too much noise. Their A/C barely works, and rattles loudly. This is what you get when Indian people buy them up, charge too much, and do a lousy job compared to the Mormons that used to run them so well 20 years ago. I miss the Mormon inns. Those places were always so nice, and very affordable. $39 a night rather than $159. The crappy modern motels are a great reason to think hard about RVs again. Sigh. Its that or tent or give up on travel.

If you have to carry your boat with a trailer anyway, why not trailer one that's comfortable yet still fast? There are so many which have a seat inside instead of on top of the deck, and a mast a foot taller gives you the wind back, so why not? The math on this isn't that hard. Sort of like how, if you know enough carbon fiber techniques and use lighter foam inside, you can make a laser the same size and shape, and takes their mast and sail, but weighs half as much. Which means you can fly a smaller sail, if you want, and go just as fast. The whole "one design" thing has its point, but there's alternatives. This is why the Classic Moth appeals so much. I just don't care about flying a boat above the water. In the America's Cup it was interesting to see because it is new and weird, but it just doesn't feel like sailing. It doesn't look like a boat so much as an aircraft.

The other upside of the Moth is that it is an evolving type of boat, which means you can pretty much make them how you want, from whatever material you want, and I'm the sort of man to research boats and build one from the best design I can find, and materials that are both efficient and light. And if I can fit this under the house? Even better.

A classic moth is pretty. And a pretty boat is something worth owning. Its also lighter weight than a Laser, under 90 pounds. If I find out, from joining the club and racing Sunfish and as crew on various boats, I may see about a mast that uses carbon fiber, something commercial, with a sail you can adjust up and down so the sail you're using is the right amount for the conditions. On a very windy day, use less so you don't flip over. This is sensible, and is how lighter people sail a Laser. They use a smaller sail. For some reason nobody makes a commercial version of the classic Moth.

The only downside to a moth, that I see, is its a stayed sail. That means there's a wire running from the boat to the top of the mast. In this case, three of them. I think I'd design the mast mount to avoid this so I can use the mast from a Laser or something similar to it. One that just free-rotates. There's lots of fun things you can do with that.

There's supposed to be a boat class called a Solo. There's also a Finn and a Europe, and quite a few others. If you consider a Hobie catamaran, 14-16 feet long, those are fast too. But they don't lean, and I kind of like the leaning.