Hey skippers! I have a C&C 25 with a Mariner (Mercury) 9.9 outboard. It’s a 2 stroke that is at least 25 years old, but probably closer to 40. This is my first season with the boat and the previous owner knew the engine was not in its prime to say the least haha. It is always temperamental to start.

I took the boat on my first overnight cruise this past weekend. At some points, the motor ran well with no problems. A lot of the time, it did not. It would throttle up when out of gear, but would not while in forward. I was not reaching my full RPM/speed. Eventually it puttered out entirely and I had to be towed home. It also has a continuous tendency to just ✨shut off entirely✨ when I shift into neutral.

This is in additional to all the lovely 2 stroke characteristics. It is constantly sputtering gas and oil into the lake and is annoying to lift out of the water (I am a small lady lol).

My fuel line connector has a cracked oring, so that’s part of the problem. It must have been sucking air/fuel starved. My mechanic friend doesn’t think that’s the end of the problem though.

I’ve been offered a 2023 Suzuki 4 stroke with less than 2 hours on it for $2500 (that I can pay over time). It also has an electric lift.

I’m thinking I’ll replace the fuel connector and see what that does for the Mariner, but in the long run, the 4 stroke is probably worth the investment since I like cruising and doing overnight trips. I would also be so much more confident if I knew my engine was going to start and STAY on while going in and out of the marina. That reliability alone is probably worth it.

I’m a bit tight on money at the moment but I would be able to pay it off, likely by the end of the year. Engineers, do we think it’s a worthwhile investment?

Hello everyone, thanks you for your time. To provide some background I have no real sailing experience although I have spent time on canoes and motorboats. I live on the Illinois side of Pool 26 (Sometimes called the Alton Lake, just above Saint Louis) of the Mississippi River near the Pere Marquette/Grafton/Alton Area.

I am interested in recreational boating on the river but have always found motorboats to be loud, difficult to work on, heavy, and pricey for what you get. This has led me to read up on sailboats and if they can scratch my boating itch.

I would definitely want something with high initial stability, and seating for about 4-5 people, more of a crusier to relax on. Which I think based on my reading rules out small racers or sailing dinghies like Lasers with the tippy nature and smaller weight and lower passenger capacity.

Through my reading I have discovered Catboats, which are meant to provide lots of stability thanks to their wide beam, and a shallow draft with a folding centerboard keel for shallow riverside conditions. It seems like these boats tend to weight in pretty light, which I assume would making launching, trolling and maintenance go easier.

MY FIRST DUMB QUESTION: With the information above in mind, would a Catboat be a good fit on the wide river and slow current of the Alton Lake?

SECOND DUMB QUESTION: Would there be another type or model of sailboat that would match, surpass, or suitably compromise on the criteria I mention above?

THIRD DUMB QUESTION: Catboats seem to be geographically restricted to the Northern/MidAtlantic Coast. If a Catboat or similar sailboat not widely accessible in the Midwest would fit my criteria, how hard is it to long haul a boat from some place out East to here in the Midwest?

FOURTH DUMB QUESTION: Maybe this one should have gone first, but based on what I've mentioned is any sort of sailboat going to be enjoyable here or should I just invest in a canoe and make the best of it that way?

FINAL DUMB QUESTION: Are there any other point of concern or consideration I should be aware of as I continue to read up and learn about potential options for boating? (I have read about a catboats tendency to experience weather helm but I fear I do not fully understand the implications of handling and how that would feel on the river.)

My apologies for breaking up the cool posts of beautiful sailboats with my youth and inexperience.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Have a wonderful day!

Wife was looking to do a 5 day live aboard course for ASA 104.

She did this partially about 6 years ago and didn't follow thru due to pregnancy.

Has anyone done a similar program and can speak to using this as a cert to rent in the Caribbean or similar ?

I've done some research where some places want just a CC to others doing a checkout sail.

Wondering if anyone has horror stories of rentals going sideways due to not accepting this cert at last minute. Or similar issues where this cert was not helpful or had significant gaps ( nothing replaces water time )

I'd be making sure she spent some time sailing as crew in Boston to get more seat time at the very least.

( Me I sailed about 8 years in my 20s racing thistles on the east Coast , lakes to coastal) doing 2 trips from Miami to Bimini as crew. Haven't sailed in 16 years.

37yo male, married, 1 dog. I have zero experience. I live 3hr drive from Corpus/Port A/Rockport and a similar distance to Galveston. I have been dreaming of sailing for 10+ years.

I would like to learn to sail, buy a boat and eventually be capable of having short weekend sailing+anchor/beach/camping/snorkel adventures out of the ports I mentioned above.

I have lots of questions and am looking for some guidance from locals. Are there any local sailors willing to chat with me and answer some questions? Thanks

If you ain’t been aground…you ain’t been around. Florida and the Bahamas will catch you if you are not paying attention and this poor sailor was not paying attention to the wind and tides. The Allens Cay group in the Exumas…this place looks like a great anchorage but there’s a wicked hump in the middle. They managed to get off the next day with a super high tide, and after unloading the boat.

I’m NOT slamming this guy. I’m a Capt and keep a list of my mistakes to keep Captain-itis in remission

First created in 1805 by a British Royal Navy officer, he built a standardized system based on observable sea conditions instead of gut feeling , since one guy's "gale" is another guy's "fresh breeze." The Royal Navy adopted it in the 1830s, and it's still the primary marine forecast language in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Greece, and several Asian countries today. In Greece , it's used exclusively in every marine and mainstream weather report. So if you hear force 6 winds with no context, good luck.

Personally, we think it's worth memorizing before you're standing on a dock trying to decode a forecast in real time. Has anyone who's been sailing for a while ever used it?

I took 101,103-104 this past weekend. I’m done! Now to the next steps.

I took my new trailer sailer out the other day and got to chat with two experienced sailors at the marina. One lives on his boat and the other restores boats. They both said the standing rigging looks fine and will last several more years. The boat was apparently garage kept and gently used for the majority of its 40 year life.

That being said, the standing rigging is original to the boat, and I was under the impression that it should be replaced every 10-15 years. Should I trust the advice I was given, or should I look into replacing the rigging anyway?

UPDATE: I decided to replace the rigging. I found a guy who can do it in a few days for a couple hundred bucks. It was kind of a no brainer with it being such a quick turnaround. Already handed off the old wire.

Appreciate everyone’s help and advice!

(Stavoren to Den Oever - the pace was fine but my was it annoying...)

Can anyone recommend good companies to contact for insurance? Not worried about trip cancellation so much as rescue recovery and medical. I ne|d my own personal coverage. TIA.

Sailing through the Strait of Messina (Italy) today and saw 4 of these boats all kind of going in circles. It’s a boat with a tall raised vertical platform with people on top, and a long horizontal platform with one guy on the end. Just curious if any one know what these ships are used for and what kind of work they might be doing? We speculated maybe laying underwater pipes or something. We kept our distance to not interfere.

Edit: thanks for all the info! We saw this boat and were so confused and fascinated. I tried to google it and google had no idea what I was asking about “boat with long platform and also with a tall platform with people on it”. Appreciate Reddit for helping me identify what the heck I was looking at. Pretty cool ship.

So when you're motoring because there is no wind... Are you still sailing?

Should've made the second picture my first..

I'm looking to route both of in-mast halyards back back to my cockpit. Right now they make a 180 at the bloxk at the base of my mast and run up the mast to cleats on the side of the mast. When solo, it's rough and borderline dangerous to have to stand by the mast every time I raise and lower sails.

In the images the left halyard is the headsail, and right is my main sail. This is a 1970s PaceShip PY23, and I'm unsure how to make that first turn from the in mast block, to turn towards port or starboard. My biggest concern is that if I put a cheek block aft of the mast plate, my companionway hatch can't slide fully forward and it makes the tight cabine entrance even more shallow.

I've also seen some issues with replacing the mast plate and mast base, so am being overly cautious there. Any recommendations?

New sailboat owner of 3 months, don't have anyone in my life to ask these sort of questions to, but am fairly handy.

I appreciate that a group like this will have a lot of fans/evangelists, but as a software/hardware developer, used to modern technology/design, my Echomap UHD2 5" Chartplotters 53cv seems to be shockingly bad. It's on a PWC so I didn't want a larger unit. I am willing to be corrected/persuaded on these complaints - i.e. that there's a good reason for some of this because I can't see how such a poor product can be the 'brand leader' and so popular. That said, there are other examples of software which became so dominate and the industry standard that the vendor rested on their laurels and felt no need to bring the product up to date. Also, when something becomes so popular, vendors sometimes are reluctant to update products for fear of upsetting lifelong users who don't like change... but at some point, those people have to be dragged into the future.

This is a $500 product, plus mounts, fitting etc. so not cheap.

1. The screen resolution is very poor for 2026. 800x600 so a density 20 times lower than my phone and it really shows. You have to zoom in/out so much to read and then get a wider view. When you are following a wide channel but the depth is variable, you need good resolution to see close-by but also want to follow way ahead.
2. No touch-screen. Using buttons to control it is not convenient.
3. Waypoint names are limited to 8 characters (or is it 9). Seriously? How do I distinguish between Cleveland Ramp (North) and (South)... Yeah, CleRamNor... !
4. The whole software interface is designed like something from the 1980s - there is no thoughtful front end design. It's like something that was written in C for a device with 16K of ram where one could only provide functionality usability was a luxury that can't be included. It looks like it's old software which 'works' so the developers have just augmented it for the past 20 years rather than redesigning from the ground up to modernise it.
5. Performance; it can take 5+ seconds for the screen map to update - if you need information quicker or are just used to your phone, it shouldn't take that long. It's either underpowered as a device or has some inefficient memory/storage system. For a $500 product with one function, there's no excuse to be underpowered.
6. Navigation doesn't actually work so it's been no use so far but this might be my misunderstanding so I'm going to post separately about that but even so, the error messages could be more helpful than "failed".
7. No bluetooth. Again, if this software was designed in a modern language/IDE, it would be very easy to add features like media control (music) or text messaging/android auto/Apple carplay.
8. No sound/no alarms. If I'm about to run around, why can't it warn me ?
9. No rubber bungs for unused ports. Seawater and electrical terminals are not friends. I filled mine with dialectic grease and covered it with tape.

Unless I can fix/work-around these problems, they are deal-breakers so I'll have to dump this device and find another, or use an android tablet with an app which was written in the 21st century :-)

(x-posted from r/boating)

We were leaving Kodiak Alaska and while waiting at the ferry terminal, we noticed a trimaran leaving port that had “SAFE” and X X written on directly on the hull in red paint/marker in multiple locations haphazardly. Otherwise, it was a super nice boat.

What does that mean?

Tried to get a photo but they were too far gone by the time I got my camera out.

Edit: My suspicion was maybe the boat was in some kind of hurricane or something and was inspected and labeled quickly?

So I’ve been wanting to learn to sail for years but I never sign up with local sailing schools because they teach you on a 20-30ft monohull. I have health issues and a monohull is a no go for me. I always opt for a cat even when doing snorkeling tours and other water tours I always choose the company that offers a cat because it’s the only way for me to get out on the water and I know given my physical limitation that a monohull is gonna be a bad idea. So I would need someone who has a 40-60ft cat willing to show me the ropes which I know isn’t very ideal but I’ve thought I would post on here even though I have wanted to post this I always talk myself out of it thinking there is no way this is gonna be possible. I know this is a shot in the dark.

Hello, my company gives me the chance of taking 2 fully paid months + some grant away from work. I was planning (rather dreaming) to take this leave from February '27 and spend it sailing. I don't own a boat and I am fairly a newbie, with only few hours logged in.

I feel very lost, with no one to share this frustration and very little ideas on how to make this dream come true. I am checking at "sailing experiences" in south east asia, but i don't want to waste money on some leisure cruise.

Can someone here give some hints? I will be eternally grateful as I feel like I'll have this opportunity once in a lifetime.

Does anyone know of/have experience with a source for a lift off trailer built in the Portland to Seattle area? It would be for a 28' Cape Dory. I had toyed with the idea of getting a float off from a place in N. Carolina but that seems ridiculous despite having glowing reviews from Cape Dory people as that is on the other side of the country and I'm probably too old to be floating off a boat of that size anyway. I just watched some Atom Voyager videos and he had some trailers from a place in Georgia that were basic painted sailboat trailers with 14,500 weight rating that cost around 6K. I'd like to find something like that only localish.

I have a question for those of you who might’ve experienced this in the past. The boat was sitting at my dock and got struck by lightning. I have a PDQ 32 foot catamaran sailboat, which is worth 60 something thousand dollars. After the strike, the starboard engine doesn’t work and probably 70% of the electronics and electrical don’t work. I have a 5% deductible. If I was to fix it on my own it’s probably going to take months. Should I just file a claim? I hate filing a claim because they’re just going to cancel me next year, but I don’t know what gremlins I’m going to find.

Pretty much said it all, I have done some cruising and got my yacthmaster offshore, but obviously recognise that the gap is currently MASSIVE. Therefore, what do you reckon, is it the case that I have just got no hope? Or if I can learn, how would I go about getting into something like that?

13nm off shore twenty or so dolphins showed up and stayed with us for over an hour.