Fin!

I am, for now, finished with my exploration in sailing and sailboats. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to learn as much as I can, I'm just not going to post anymore blogs.

Well, this was fun. I learned about how wind interacts with the sail, the parts of a sailboat, sea lingo, How to fix a hole in the hull, how to fix hull blisters, many types of knots, and other little extras. I think that's a lot for someone who's never sailed before. Like a crash course! 

I just really hope you're right, Mrs.S, that this project will be beneficial to me. Although I did think you referred to the different ways of researching and organizing information, not of the actual subject itself... oh well. Plus, I won't be needing this information for a good number of years anyways. I can't really purchase and maintain a sailboat now, I'm way too busy! I'll buy one hopefully a bit after college, you know, when I'm settled in and all that.

Anyhoo, I have to say goodbye. This is my last post and I got to end it well.

Goodbye and thank you!

Boatpox!

Yup. Boats can get sick. The above is a sick case of boat pox! :O Gasp!
No, actually it is called hull blisters and these need to be treated immediately.

So pull out the boat onto dry land, remove any sea creatures off the bottom of the boat, inspect for blisters, if any found pop them with a knife allowing the brownish ooze to seep out (it smells like vinegar...), take an electric sander and remove any wet paint and saturated fiberglass, and then let the hull dry... might take a loooong time. After it's dry, apply an epoxy resin to the damaged area, let that cure, then apply a fiberglass filler compound mixed with resin to fill in the holes, and let that cure. The sand the area smooth to match the texture of the boat and apply another coat of clear resin.

That's it. All it is to it... except kinda vague so if I were you I'd look the same instructions up elsewhere but in more detail. Sorry. That's how I condensed it.

It's not cheap

Sailboats are a lot to keep up and maintain, needing constant maintenance and neglecting it would only make its condition worse, kind of like children. And like children, you'll have inevitable expenses for as long as you keep it. And again like children, you'll be willing to pay because you love it. Cute metaphor, right? I think so.

So there are a lot of things to take into consideration. For starters, would I rather have a new sailboat or a used one. A new boat would have the advantages of being in top condition, squeaky clean, and of having a lasting warranty. The downside being that because it is new, necessary equipment would have to be bought (which can cost a lot to buy, like a trailer, life jackets, navigation electronic equipment, anchors and lines, etc.), and certain parts of the boat- like the sails- would have to be updated. A used boat on the other hand has the advantages of coming fully equipped and... well, that's pretty much it. Oh! And it is much, much cheaper than new boats. The downside would be that it will probably be pretty old, some equipment may need replacing, it may be damaged somehow (the reason for it being sold maybe), and limited or no warranty.
So what's my decision? I think for my first I'd rather have a used boat. If it was used, it was probably worth buying by the owner in its initial purchase. Plus it's cheap and all the equipment is there and ready. I think it would be cheaper anyways than buying a new boat because with a new boat I'll have to buy the expensive sailboat in addition to all the equipment and upgrades, while a used boat is cheap, would only have to replace a few items, and repairing it and bringing it back to good condition wouldn't be so costly, only a lot of work.

A used boat it is.

(boats can be to a few thousand dollars to up to a hundred thousand dollars :O woah!)

Monthly costs would be: insurance bill, loan bill if got a loan, repair and maintenance, docking/storage costs, and "surprise" extra costs. That's a lot, right? Right!

Fixing Boats

Ok today I learned how to fix a hole in a boat like this
<----

In reality, it wasn't that complicated. When i first took a look at the page of instructions, I was like "Oh no no no" but now I'm like "I can do this!".

Its basically just making the hole wider and concave, placing a backing, placing this stuff called roving (like a fabric almost) into the hole in layers and with resin and then topping it all off with a fiberglass cloth. Let it dry for 8 hours, take off the backing when its dry, add a layer of gel coating and cover with plastic wrap, wait 8 more hours, take off plastic wrap, smooth down the coating with sandpaper, buff and shine... done! Easy-peasy lemon squeezy.

Yeah... if you really are going to patch up a hole don't go by what i just said above because it is not detailed at all and you'll most likely do more damage than good.

Monohulls vs Multihulls

So I was researching for my project and I was working on the "different types of sailboats" section. I learned that there are huge differences between monohulls and multihulls besides the number of hulls.
Monohulls are sailboats with- guess what?- one hull. The picture above basically says it all. The thing with mono's (that's what I'm calling them. It takes too long to write out the whole thing, gosh!) is that they need a ballast, or something heavy, to put in the center of the boat in order to stabilize the boat because apparently without it, it can roll over easily and that's not good. And because of that ballast, it's slower than its true potential and not so easy to manuever.
However, these are the most common and most popular, especially for leisure sailing.

Multihulls have more than one hull, usually two, sometimes three, and these multiple hulls allow for stability without a ballast. In turn, no ballast means higher top speeds and easier manueverability. Also, it adds bouyancy so that if all quarters were full of water, the boat would still float.

So which one would I rather have? Despite the multi seemingly being much better, I have to go with a mono. I don't know why, It just draws me to it, it's wierd. I like it though. No judgments.

Flying Sailboat

Check this out!

Knots

This morning I learned how to make all kinds of knots. Some I already knew, like the square knot and bowline knot. I didn't know there were so many and I bet there are many more. And imagine, I have to know them all! It is going to be hard memorizing how to make them all, but it'll be worth it in the end. There are all sorts of things to tie while on a sailboat that I have to know anyways.

I found a great website that shows many knots, how to make them, and visuals and videos on the step-by-step process: http://www.animatedknots.com/indexboating.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

Check it out, it helped me tons.