A question for the sailors among us
July 31, 2024 4:05 PM Subscribe
In the story I'm writing, the main character has a relationship with a sailboat, but I don't know exactly what it is. If you know about sailboats, can you share some insider info?
My character lives in Los Angeles and has plenty of money. Those are the givens. He might spontaneously buy a sailboat (something he's always wanted to do), or he might already own a boat that's ready to sail, or he might own a boat that needs work before it's ready to head out on the sea. Ultimately, he's thinking about heading off on some far flung adventure because his life has just imploded. Assuming he owns the boat already and it needs work, is it plausible that he would leave it for an extended period of time just sitting at the marina? Or if the boat has been neglected, are there other places he might store it? If the boat needs work, how and where would that get done? And if he buys a brand new sailboat, what are the logistics of taking possession of the boat?
This is set in the 90s, but hopefully things are roughly the same then as now.
My character lives in Los Angeles and has plenty of money. Those are the givens. He might spontaneously buy a sailboat (something he's always wanted to do), or he might already own a boat that's ready to sail, or he might own a boat that needs work before it's ready to head out on the sea. Ultimately, he's thinking about heading off on some far flung adventure because his life has just imploded. Assuming he owns the boat already and it needs work, is it plausible that he would leave it for an extended period of time just sitting at the marina? Or if the boat has been neglected, are there other places he might store it? If the boat needs work, how and where would that get done? And if he buys a brand new sailboat, what are the logistics of taking possession of the boat?
This is set in the 90s, but hopefully things are roughly the same then as now.
Sailing is incredibly diverse in motivations and equipment. What kind of person is he? How skilled? How adventurous? How eager to learn? How old? How wealthy? Single or no? Wants to be on a larger crew or no? I've known build your own people in the 80s and 90s who could single hand a Venus ketch, and rather wealthier sorts who could afford far fancier yachts - or pay for a place in serious races and prestige events. It's a bit like saying you have a car driver, tell me about cars - anything from a vintage Mini to a Maclaren. It might be more valuable to lurk on forums for a while and see how people talk about their own boats. Or even better - join a club and learn to sail at least a dinghy. The value of understanding the technical aspect of a well established community can not be underestimated.
posted by Ardnamurchan at 4:34 PM on July 31
posted by Ardnamurchan at 4:34 PM on July 31
I've worked in boat yards (in the UK and elsewhere) and seen boats parked for many years, and taken out occasionally. I've seen people living long term in boat yards - there's often the feel of liminal space, they are after all a place between land and water - and their owners are in the same state. In my experience many yards have a kind of social porosity with the criminal world.
I also often find boats stored long-term in barns and other isolated sheds - in some contexts that's a lot safer for the boat (especially from theft).
Boat work is normally done in the yard, boats are often built in the yard too - so a boat builder may rent (or own) a shed typically making one or two boats at a time - and doing repairs across the yard. They're often places of the most advanced, and the most primitive technologies imaginable - often in the same boat!
Re boats and wealth; the best definition I've seen for boat is -
a hole in the water lined with timber, steel, concrete, or plastic into which you pour money
posted by unearthed at 4:51 PM on July 31 [4 favorites]
I also often find boats stored long-term in barns and other isolated sheds - in some contexts that's a lot safer for the boat (especially from theft).
Boat work is normally done in the yard, boats are often built in the yard too - so a boat builder may rent (or own) a shed typically making one or two boats at a time - and doing repairs across the yard. They're often places of the most advanced, and the most primitive technologies imaginable - often in the same boat!
Re boats and wealth; the best definition I've seen for boat is -
a hole in the water lined with timber, steel, concrete, or plastic into which you pour money
posted by unearthed at 4:51 PM on July 31 [4 favorites]
“Sitting” at the marina, in a slip? And not checking on it periodically? Not a good idea; people do it but it’s dicey. You’re depending on the kindness of your neighbors to keep an eye on it. Bilge pumps fail (ask me how I know). The marina don’t like it, boats can look neglected very fast.
Hauling out with a Travelift and putting it on jack stands, maybe shrink wrapping it to store? You have to haul out periodically anyway to scrape and paint the bottom, check the zincs, thru hulls, the prop…maintenance stuff. But yes, people also haul out and leave it for years and some end up walking away. You can also have it towed to your backyard if you’ve got the space.
To work on it, you go around to boat yards and see who’s available. Like any trade, there’s good ones and bad ones so your guy would ask around other boat owners. A lot of them do the work themselves.
It’s…a big subject. Your guy can always charter a sailboat and crew and head off to Tahiti. Or he can sign on to deliver someone else’s boat to Tahiti (while the owner flies there).
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:14 PM on July 31
Hauling out with a Travelift and putting it on jack stands, maybe shrink wrapping it to store? You have to haul out periodically anyway to scrape and paint the bottom, check the zincs, thru hulls, the prop…maintenance stuff. But yes, people also haul out and leave it for years and some end up walking away. You can also have it towed to your backyard if you’ve got the space.
To work on it, you go around to boat yards and see who’s available. Like any trade, there’s good ones and bad ones so your guy would ask around other boat owners. A lot of them do the work themselves.
It’s…a big subject. Your guy can always charter a sailboat and crew and head off to Tahiti. Or he can sign on to deliver someone else’s boat to Tahiti (while the owner flies there).
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:14 PM on July 31
Yeah having grown up in LA in the 90s around a lot of people involved with the world of sailing in various ways, I'd say "Sailing is incredibly diverse in motivations and equipment" really sums it up. Which is nice as a fiction writer because almost nothing you dream up is completely implausible. Unusual? Sure. Impractical? Maybe. But it was unusual and impractical for most people to own a boat in LA in the 90s in the first place.
In the late 90s a family friend sold the sailboat that had been their only domicile for decades for a literal sack of cash. If you put that in the book, well, I can tell you it isn't unrealistic. These things happen in the boating world. It's part of the charm. There's a certain lawless, stateless vibe knowing your neighbors the next slip over could pull up anchor and disappear tomorrow.
posted by potrzebie at 5:20 PM on July 31 [2 favorites]
In the late 90s a family friend sold the sailboat that had been their only domicile for decades for a literal sack of cash. If you put that in the book, well, I can tell you it isn't unrealistic. These things happen in the boating world. It's part of the charm. There's a certain lawless, stateless vibe knowing your neighbors the next slip over could pull up anchor and disappear tomorrow.
posted by potrzebie at 5:20 PM on July 31 [2 favorites]
I had a friend where the dad was a boatbuilder by trade; when we were teens he built the family a boat and they sailed around the world for 2 or 3 years. The mom was a teacher and my friend and her brother were homeschooled while they did it. I was always impressed that they had a gun on board in case of pirates - like many kids I assumed pirates were figures of the past, but no!
We had a wooden boat, and every fall we hauled her and stored her on our property. It’s an incredible amount of labor getting a boat ready for the winter and then prepping her in spring. Sail and line maintenance, scraping and painting, etc etc. Every spring we put her in the water and then spent a week pumping the bilge and letting her swell back up so she didn’t leak too much - the wood dried out while she was out of the water.
My grandpa had a fibreglass sailboat he kept in Chicago. He also hauled her every winter and stored her in a boatyard, and in the spring would spend a nice fussy time getting her prepped and then would have her put in the river and would motor her down to the marina for the summer. Less maintenance overall but still pretty intense.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:04 PM on July 31
We had a wooden boat, and every fall we hauled her and stored her on our property. It’s an incredible amount of labor getting a boat ready for the winter and then prepping her in spring. Sail and line maintenance, scraping and painting, etc etc. Every spring we put her in the water and then spent a week pumping the bilge and letting her swell back up so she didn’t leak too much - the wood dried out while she was out of the water.
My grandpa had a fibreglass sailboat he kept in Chicago. He also hauled her every winter and stored her in a boatyard, and in the spring would spend a nice fussy time getting her prepped and then would have her put in the river and would motor her down to the marina for the summer. Less maintenance overall but still pretty intense.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:04 PM on July 31
It's definitely not uncommon for people to leave boats in the water at a marina for extended periods but, if the boat was in a poor state of repair, probably not possible, if only because a marina wouldn't let them. It's more common for people to leave boats for long periods at old-style boat yards, because modern hard stand facilities are expensive. On balance, if the boat needed a decent amount of work and/or was being stored for a long period, it would be more likely to be found in an old somewhat run-down boat yard, more like the kind of small coastal town boat yard you might see on TV shows.
It's unfortunately common for people to buy cheap boats with a view to 'fixing it up and just sailing away', but then life interferes with that in various ways, so the boat sits there largely forgotten except for the occasional wistful visit when the thought takes the owner that it's time they did something with it. In your story, it would be reasonable for some big life event to spur the owner into hiring some crusty local to finally get the boat fixed up, with all sorts of funny/tragic/romantic/dramatic or whatever possibilities. It could be that, despite having the money to pay someone, part of their dream has been to fix it up themselves and sail off into the sunset (which is why it's just sat there, despite them having the money to get it fixed).
I don't know about Los Angeles but, here in Australia, there has been an enormous amount of work done to clean up the pollution from boat yards, with many older ones being closed down because they can't contain chemical run-off etc and many sites being closed up as irrevocably polluted and the land never to be used for any purpose again. So things were a lot more free-wheeling in the '90s than now and a run-down boat yard with the protagonist's boat sitting there for years would be far more credible then than now. It's not impossible that it's stored at a disused parcel of land next to the water, having been picked up and placed there by crane, or lots of similar possibilities.
posted by dg at 9:24 PM on July 31 [1 favorite]
It's unfortunately common for people to buy cheap boats with a view to 'fixing it up and just sailing away', but then life interferes with that in various ways, so the boat sits there largely forgotten except for the occasional wistful visit when the thought takes the owner that it's time they did something with it. In your story, it would be reasonable for some big life event to spur the owner into hiring some crusty local to finally get the boat fixed up, with all sorts of funny/tragic/romantic/dramatic or whatever possibilities. It could be that, despite having the money to pay someone, part of their dream has been to fix it up themselves and sail off into the sunset (which is why it's just sat there, despite them having the money to get it fixed).
I don't know about Los Angeles but, here in Australia, there has been an enormous amount of work done to clean up the pollution from boat yards, with many older ones being closed down because they can't contain chemical run-off etc and many sites being closed up as irrevocably polluted and the land never to be used for any purpose again. So things were a lot more free-wheeling in the '90s than now and a run-down boat yard with the protagonist's boat sitting there for years would be far more credible then than now. It's not impossible that it's stored at a disused parcel of land next to the water, having been picked up and placed there by crane, or lots of similar possibilities.
posted by dg at 9:24 PM on July 31 [1 favorite]
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On the hard is generally less expensive than in the water [commutercruiser]
posted by HearHere at 4:32 PM on July 31