Greetings,

We just built on a quarry lake. It’s beautiful but tiny.

Albon lake in Maumee, (Toledo) OH
0.5 miles by 0.18 miles, about 60 acres.
There are shallow areas but it’s 50-60 ft deep.

I have never sailed and would love to learn with my son who is 11.

The questions I have:
a) is the lake too small for sailing?
b) if it’s sailable, what small boat (for 1-2 people) should I look at. I would like to use the boat on larger lakes as well when we go up north to Michigan.

I would really appreciate any suggestions/input. Thanks in advance!

Arjun

We did a lot of sailing on a small lake with foam sailboats. Formex, Sea Snark, and our latest is a Snark Sunflower. Lots of fun, low entry price, and they will teach you to sail. Easy to get upright when you flip them over. My son has a bunch of video on his YouTube channel. Here is one to find it:
https://youtu.be/XrgdgpdHmmA

--
Bryan in Poplar Grove, IL
Supercat 17, unknown year. Future project
Hobie 16, 1977 - died a spectacular death https://youtu.be/Y7O22bp2MVA
Hobie 16, 1978 - current boat
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Thanks Bryan.

I’ll look into those recommendations.

The video is awesome, looks like a lot of fun!

There is a Kool sailboat listed on Toledo craigslist for $1000, that is too much. Here is one for $160, but missing the mast and sail.
https://jxn.craigslist.or…son-boat/7346537955.html

You can get a new mast and a couple of booms from an aluminum supplier, about $30 each. Sails are available on eBay.

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Bryan in Poplar Grove, IL
Supercat 17, unknown year. Future project
Hobie 16, 1977 - died a spectacular death https://youtu.be/Y7O22bp2MVA
Hobie 16, 1978 - current boat
--

Perfectly reasonable suggestion, one of those little styrofoam Snarks or Sunflowers - I excavated and resurrected a Sunflower (that my wife had as a kid) from beneath the cottage after it had been forgotten there for decades. Amazed to find they're still supported:

http://www.castlecraft.com/sunflower_sailboat.htm

The craigslist one mentioned above would be a fine candidate for an econo resto - just about any decent sailing shop has a pile of junk spars (five or ten bucks for a mast and boom), you can buy a new sail from Castle Craft or a used one online - or just stitch one up yourself. Then you just need a daggerboard and rudder - a little woodworking and spar varnish. But honestly, you should be able to find one fully-equipped for a hundred or two. Even on that tiny lake you'll get an idea whether you're interested, and if it sticks, you can move up to a "real" sailboat like a Laser and graduate to larger water.

--
Southern Alberta and all over the damn place.
*
1981 SuperCat 20 "Roberts' Rockets"
1983 SuperCat 19
TriFoiler #23 "Unfair Advantage"
Mystere 17
Unicorn A-Class (probably made by Trowbridge) that I couldn't resist rescuing at auction.
H18 & Zygal (classic) Tornado - stolen and destroyed - very unpleasant story.
Invitation and Mistral and Sunflower and windsurfers w/ Harken hydrofoils and god knows what else...
--

Across the Pond, some of the clubs sailing Dart 15’s,(small catamaran), are on pretty small water. There’s no shame in sailing a puddle, & it’s a great place to learn.
They may be hard to find in the USA, but we had a couple of Bombardier Invitations. They’re almost an identical copy of a Laser, but with a cockpit 2 adults & a small kid can fit.
The really small,kids fleet is the Opti, they have a worldwide racing organization. I was on a trip once, with about 50 kids from Japan, all carrying their race sails for some regatta in Canada. However, those boats are for a kid only. Here’s a photo I took of a string of grommets, in Manly Beach, (Australia), being towed to open water in their Optis .
There are a couple of small Cats that would work, but for really small water, I think the sailing dinghy is better. With the Center board, They turn on a dime. It’s a great learning tool to drop a float, then sail figure 8’s around it. You will quickly learn all points of sail & sail trim.




Edited by Edchris177 on Jul 19, 2021 - 09:42 AM.

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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

I'm not sure a catamaran is the ideal first boat if you are teaching yourself to sail, even with YouTube at your disposal. The rigging is a lot more intimidating than an unstayed lateen rigged boat. Here is a flip:
https://youtu.be/s8xkTyNqb4w

That was the Formex boat.

Ideally learn to sail on something small and get a beachcat for Michigan. Not that I would hesitate to take the little boat on a big lake.

Plus doing it for your son is a great excuse to have 2 boats ultimately!

--
Bryan in Poplar Grove, IL
Supercat 17, unknown year. Future project
Hobie 16, 1977 - died a spectacular death https://youtu.be/Y7O22bp2MVA
Hobie 16, 1978 - current boat
--

Though I've been exclusively multihull for about 40 years, I heartily second that advice: It's better to learn on a monohull, because they're sensitive in ways that cats aren't, and it's easier to learn techniques that will help you later on cats.

The examples I like to cite are the weird exercises our instructors put us through when I was a kid on Flying Juniors in sailing school: Go out to the middle of the lake, take out your rudder and sail home. Go out to the middle of the lake and sail home backwards. One of the things you become aware of is the angle (heel) of the boat in the water, what the waterline looks like, and how the "banana effect" helps you steer. Can't really teach that on a cat, but the lessons you learn carry forward to multihulls.



Edited by jonathan162 on Jul 19, 2021 - 04:44 PM.

--
Southern Alberta and all over the damn place.
*
1981 SuperCat 20 "Roberts' Rockets"
1983 SuperCat 19
TriFoiler #23 "Unfair Advantage"
Mystere 17
Unicorn A-Class (probably made by Trowbridge) that I couldn't resist rescuing at auction.
H18 & Zygal (classic) Tornado - stolen and destroyed - very unpleasant story.
Invitation and Mistral and Sunflower and windsurfers w/ Harken hydrofoils and god knows what else...
--

Ha, we had 3 rudder failures on the Formex before I built a new rudder and tiller assembly. Steered using the paddle.

--
Bryan in Poplar Grove, IL
Supercat 17, unknown year. Future project
Hobie 16, 1977 - died a spectacular death https://youtu.be/Y7O22bp2MVA
Hobie 16, 1978 - current boat
--

Yesterday's sailing. My kid's buddy bought the Formex boat with the red sail for $30.
https://youtu.be/sYUNB2AKcvk

--
Bryan in Poplar Grove, IL
Supercat 17, unknown year. Future project
Hobie 16, 1977 - died a spectacular death https://youtu.be/Y7O22bp2MVA
Hobie 16, 1978 - current boat
--

Quote

Yesterday's sailing. My kid's buddy bought the Formex boat with the red sail for $30.

nice!

Thank you all for your input. I’ll start by calling local yacht clubs and see if they have courses. Getting a small monohull boat makes sense. I’ll keep you all posted. Thanks again!

waiex191

Yesterday's sailing. My kid's buddy bought the Formex boat with the red sail for $30.

That totally rules. We jam econo.

--
Southern Alberta and all over the damn place.
*
1981 SuperCat 20 "Roberts' Rockets"
1983 SuperCat 19
TriFoiler #23 "Unfair Advantage"
Mystere 17
Unicorn A-Class (probably made by Trowbridge) that I couldn't resist rescuing at auction.
H18 & Zygal (classic) Tornado - stolen and destroyed - very unpleasant story.
Invitation and Mistral and Sunflower and windsurfers w/ Harken hydrofoils and god knows what else...
--

We are into the cheap sailboat thing. My first was a Formex for $200, incorrectly advertised as a snark. I've replaced the mast, booms, sail (twice, made them both), and rudder. Daggerboard is as it came and we recently failed the hull. Still, it got me sailing. Ironically, the $30 formex was found just before we failed the hull on ours. But we had already told my kid's buddy about it and it got him sailing. So it's all good.

Next was a Sea Snark that my kid found for $100. I had to make a new daggerboard for it. I also went to a bigger sail (that I made) along with new booms and a mast. The extra power was great but now we need some repairs:
https://youtu.be/hcRpHW9wr8I

We replaced the Sea Snark with a Snark Sunflower my kid found for $180. It needed a mast as the original was at the bottom of the lake. We moved the new sail & mast from the snark in the video to it. My favorite Snark sailboat of the two. It has 4" more beam and is a lot more comfortable for an adult.

We got our Supercat 17 free not counting the expenses to go and get it from Florida. More money to be spent on it soon.

Our first Hobie 16 was originally up for sale for $200. The guy backed out, and then a month later re-listed for $400.

The current Hobie 16 we found for $300. It was missing a bunch of parts but mainly we needed hulls. After we bought it my kid found a pair of hulls & tramp for $50. Bummer on the timing.

Would it have been better to buy a good $2000-2500 H16? Most likely. But we had fun and learned a lot, so no regrets.

--
Bryan in Poplar Grove, IL
Supercat 17, unknown year. Future project
Hobie 16, 1977 - died a spectacular death https://youtu.be/Y7O22bp2MVA
Hobie 16, 1978 - current boat
--

Heh. Okay, here's my cheapie story: Years back I thought it'd be a good idea to get a dinghy for our girls to learn on. Spotted a Bombardier Invitation (very Laser-ish, but with a bigger cockpit) in the local listings for a couple of hundred bucks and picked it up. It was in pretty good shape - I think the vang was missing and I had to replace some rope and sort out the traveller, but overall little extra cost or effort.

Then I spotted a second one in the ads, but hull only, nothing else. For another hundred I figured I'd have either a spare hull (these have been out of production for many years) or scavenge the rest over time. So I meet the guy and do the deal, and while we're loading it up I ask him what the story is. He says it was donated to his scout troop and he'd hoped to fit it out and use it for teaching, but it just never happened. Okay, I say, but where's the rest of it?

"It was the product of an extremely acrimonious divorce. He got the hull, she got all the other bits."

--
Southern Alberta and all over the damn place.
*
1981 SuperCat 20 "Roberts' Rockets"
1983 SuperCat 19
TriFoiler #23 "Unfair Advantage"
Mystere 17
Unicorn A-Class (probably made by Trowbridge) that I couldn't resist rescuing at auction.
H18 & Zygal (classic) Tornado - stolen and destroyed - very unpleasant story.
Invitation and Mistral and Sunflower and windsurfers w/ Harken hydrofoils and god knows what else...
--