Hi,

Just let me explain the situation.
I am becomming father later this seison.
Due to this I am without regular crew (did all regatta's with my wife).
Now I am not sure if I should keep my F18 cat or change over to a 1 person which we can use both at the time?
And what kind of boat would you choose?

Thank for you info.
BR

A class if you want a single hander only.

F16 if you want the option of sailing 1 or 2 up (good from when the Grandparents look after the little one!!!)

Baby carriages don't have hulls. You are out of luck buddy. For a while. MAybe forever, depending on your wife-handling skills.

B,

It will be the F16 or the A-cat. You've been exposed to spin racing and like the rest of us you're probably hopelessly hooked. The A-cat appears to be a great ride for something without a headsail :-)

But, as an F18 chairman I'd be delinquent in my duties if I didn't tell you to stick with the class. Train a newbie and get a new person hooked. I know it's a hassle and nobody is really going to be able to measure up to your wife (that's been my experience anyway) but it will have its own rewards.

BTW, congrats!

Take a nanny to the regattas.

If you can, keep the F18 and continue sailing with your wife. If this is something you used to do together, dont let go of it!
If you are unable to go sailing together, but you can get a kitchen pass, go A-cat or F16. If wife also likes to sail, and will have ago while you look after your kid, go A-cat as that is the lightest one to handle on the beach.

Primarily, I would look after someone to take care of the child while I went sailing with the wife.


Congratulations with the family! Take care of your kid, your wife and yourself

I'm a stay-at-home dad. I took a year off sailing after our daughter was born, but even with full-time parent responsibilities, I've been able to keep up a fulfilling race schedule. I'm not making the 20 or so events a year I did when I was single, but I'm still having a good time. I'm primarily a crew, but I bought an F18 in 2006 and have had a great time putting together events with quite a number of skippers in the last three years. I was fortunate to hook up with a steady crew for a full season, but a move across the country broke up that party. Even then, it was not too difficult to fall back into the routine of making some phone calls and drumming up someone fun to sail with for a weekend.

I would encourage you to hang onto the boat unless you have a sense it would sell without much effort for a price that you wouldn't regret. Here in the US, prices have taken a bit of a jump this year, so it may prove expensive to replace the boat later. If you think your wife is willing to give it a go, try getting a sitter, grandparent or nanny to watch the tyke for a day sometime next season - I've known several couples that got right back to racing once sleep deprivation and feeding schedules became less of an issue.

As others have said - congrats. It changes everything, but I think having a family is well worth the shake-up.

Personally, I'm still in my dating phase (trying to set a new record for that, mind you), but I can therefor relate to losing a crew/skipper.

There is always the option of finding another person and form a new doublehanded team; in that case you might as well hang on to the F18 you already have.

This is not what I did, however. I also never considered the A-class cat seriously. I do keep my boat on the beach for 6 months of the year and I wouldn't want to take out a passenger/crew on a A-cat or use it for a distance race on the North Sea. Beyond that I'm hooked on the spinnaker and I do appreciated doublehanding regulary (like the annual NAM-REM race that is held at my club). I noticed that you are located in the Netherlands as well. Are you sailing of the beach or on the lakes ? I do think this will influence any decision towards an A-cat.

My decision eventually came out towards the F16 boats and the reasons for that were simple :

-1- lightweight (under 110 kg ready to sail) but still robust
-2- Same performance when doublehanding as the F18's (sloop + spi has a Texel rating of 102)
-3- Same performance when singlehanding as F18 AND A-cats (mainsail+spi has a Texel rating of 101)
-4- Switched between singlehanding and doublehanding within the time you can raise or lower a jib ( <5min)
-5- Is very similar to the other boats like F18 I was used to. Is basically a slightly smaller but much lighter brother to the F18's.
-6- Cost. I did my own boat for 13.500 Euro's (fully race ready sloop + spi) back in 2003.


As far as I know the new F16's are still at 15.000 Euro's ready to sail in sloop+spi mode using pentex sails by saillofts such as Landenberg, Glaser or Ashby using full carbon daggerboards, rudders and in case of the Stealth F16 a carbon mast as well. As such they are still noticebly cheaper then comparable race oriented new F18's.

I've never looked back since 2003. I have sailed/raced seasons on my own and did seasons with a dedicated crew, both using the exact same hardware. Typically, I just go to the beach when I feel like it and rig it up for for singlehanded sailing. Regulary a clubmember without a boat walks up and joins me to doublehand the F16. Quite a few times I started sialing 1-up before lunch only to do 2-up after lunch. In those cases, I often just forgot about the jib sailed 2-up with main and spi only. Performance is slightly less that way (wouldn't do a race like that) but no where near large enough to make a difference for some good recreational sailing. You'll loose maybe some 5 to 6 Texel rating points that way (5%), which is hard to tell without other boats around that are racing you.

This way sailing is a dream. You never have to phone around, just show up, and still get some doublehanded sailing in regulary. The latter is especially nice for long distance races. Basically, you'll keep all options open, even the one where the wife gets back into sailing. And you keep up your F18 sailing skills while extending it with a safe ( = solo righting !), fun (=fast) and practical (= ligtweight) singlehanding ability.

Personally, I would strongly suggest the F16's if you decide not to hang on to your F18.

Best regards,

Wouter

Taipan F16

Option #1
Buy an RV, keep the F18, and find a sitter or a new crew
#2 A Class and an RV
#3 F16 and an RV

Is thier some kind of trend here...?

I love the F18, and REALLY love my A Cat, but depending on where you are at, F16 might fit your bill. Go with the fleets, you wont lose.

BTW, congrats on the new addition...I was just out watching my 10year old practice on his Opti, cant beat that proud parent feeling

I am with John. Sailing with yer main girl is mui importante~
However, if your resouces permit, sail an A for the next 2 years.
E

I think you'll have at least one year (or more) to think about it. Depending on your spouse's attitude toward sailing now that the little 'peanut' is here in the world, and your logistics (opear/nanny/sitter) you may only be off the scene for a short while. Most regattas are family events, and your family will have a wonderful time with all the other families in attendence

If, however, your spouse thinks baby is more important than sailing, you could probably find crew around the sailing locations you frequent. Steady crew could be slightly more challenging.

If your spouse wants you home 'to be a family' all the time, sell the boat and crew for other skippers. It's a lot less aggrivation than watching your boat collect spider webs and dust..

Am I a bit jaded?

Not as jaded as my sarcastic response!

Get your priorities straight! Sell the wife and kid and sail year round! (just kidding, and congrats)

After our twins were born, my wife would stand in the doorway, one in each arm, and say nice things like, "Say goodbye to your daddy girls, he would rather go die on his motorcycle than stay home with you..." when ever I would take my BMW R100 out for a ride. The bike was gone a few months after the twins arrived. The boat (J-24) had already been sold for a house down payment, the appartment we were in didn't allow kids.

My sympathetic squadron mates had a "Name the Babbies" contest, the easy winners, "No Boat, No Bike". It was 6 long, dry years before I got another boat, and I still don't have a replacement motorcycle.

Wow.

I'll tell ya, you fellers say you don't understand women. Reading stuff like this, I don't either.

I just can't understand chix who marry a guy and then go about trying to change him. My sympathies. Really Timbo, she stood in the frickin' doorway and said that to your children? Did you just not help her out at all? Sorry, I'm honestly shocked to hear that.

I learned from having an alcoholic dad that I'd WAAAAY rather have a feller with a hobby than a drunken sh!thead. Maybe if you offer your gals that comparison then they might come around. I have made that very point to a couple of 'sailing widows' at regattas, girl comes up looking for sympathy for being left on the beach, don't get nuthin' from me. Go shopping, girl. You get the guy, you get the baggage. Vicey versy.

Perhaps consider trading out baby duties and working out a sked. Marriage is about compromise, right? You EACH should be able to engage in activity outside the family duties or there will be bitterness.

Debbie and I have a traditional marriage, who ever yells the loudest wins.

Hu? How that even possible? Who's enforcing this, the landlord? Let me guess: there are also policies against pets, noises after 8pm, loud sex at anytime and parking a cat in the car park?

Yes, all of the above, here in the land of the Free...

Seems illegal to me (not a lawyer... but i did stay at a holiday inn last night)

It was in the lease we signed.

How do you explain "Adult Only" communities? Or "Over 55 Only" trailer parks. Some won't even allow the grandkids to visit!

I am probably the most jaded person I know... but here is my take on the wife/kids thing.
What I always found interesting is that somehow you are supposed to feel guilty if you occasionally go sailing and the wife is home taking care of the kid(s). I didn't have a problem not sailing to take care of the kid but I never understood why both of us had to be home and miserable when we would rather be somewhere else doing something else. My wife is somewhat into mountain biking and I was always saying "if I am going to be here, then go for a friggin bike ride or something." I think, in the end, my wife just wanted me to be home AND as miserable as she was. Made (and still makes) NO sense to me.