Bigger is better, right?

Bigger is always better. At least that’s what we’ve been taught to believe. Wasn’t it McDonalds that was telling us to “super-size it”? I hate to generalize, but women want bigger diamonds. Guys want bigger engines in their bigger trucks. We all want bigger houses – 3500 square feet isn’t enough. We need bigger TVs to watch while we sit on our bigger couches (to accommodate our bigger bodies).

But what does this have to do with sailing. Perhaps if we were out sailing more, (or just working on our boats) we wouldn’t need bigger TVs and bigger couches (and we probably wouldn’t have bigger bodies!).

So, how big does my boat need to be? Very good question! Some people will suggest that you get the biggest boat you can handle. I think they mean “that you can ‘really’ handle”, not what you ‘think’ you can handle. I know a lot of people that really can’t handle “B’Gosh”, Isaac’s eight foot wooden pram. Sure, they think they can handle a boat, but if you watch, they’re the ones who rub the boat against the dock to slow down when docking. They’re the ones who don’t realize that easing the main will allow you to turn downwind with less rudder.

So how big does my boat need to be? I suppose that really depends of what you want to do. Want to impress your friends? Get a boat that’s a few feet bigger than you can afford. At least you’ll have bragging rights and you can tell everyone that you own a bigger boat. Oh, wait, the boat will own you, and so will the bank.

Personally, I think my Laser is about the right size. Easy for me to launch, sail and put away. And the slip fees are great – or, the lack of slip fees. But, there’s no room for the microwave or the shower. And what do we do when we want to sail together as a family? I suppose we could buy a few more Lasers so we would all have our own, but I don’t think that would cut it. In fact, I know it won’t. When we did own six Lasers, more than enough for everyone to get out at once, we never had more than two in the water at a time.

What I learned about boat size, I learned from Mike. There have been a couple of ‘Mikes’ in my sailing life. The most recent was filming the arrival of the Spanish Open 60’s as they were offloaded from the container ship here in Baltimore today. But, he has nothing to do with boat size.

Another ‘Mike’ got me into me sailing instructor career and my involvement with US SAILING. He also got me into dinghy racing. And I skippered his 34’ boat for a couple of season of racing. While I consider him my mentor in many things, boat size is not one.

Then there’s the ‘Mike’ that got me into racing originally. Frustrated with working on boats and not having a boat ready to sail, I answered an ad for race crew. It turned out to be a blast. I got to love the boat I was crewing on so much that I found one and boat it. That was my Express 30, Pony Express. But it wasn’t the racing that taught me the lesson on boat size. Mike’s words of wisdom were “get a boat as big as you can handle”. Yeah, I’ve heard it before. But he went on. Get a boat as big as you can really handle. That meant a bunch of different things.

Get a boat that ‘you’ can handle. If you always depend on someone to help you sail the boat, you’re going to be limited in when and where you can sail. You’ve got to be able to handle it by yourself. When we bought Pony, Sam was still rather terrified of the whole sailing and heeling things. Anna loved it, but was too young to do anything. When Isaac came along, he required attention which kept either Suzanne or I taking care of him and the other one sailing. So, when a couple sails with little kids, one of them is going to be single-handing the boat while the other is playing parent.

Mike’s “handle” also meant maintenance. Get a boat that you can take care of. Granted, there are a lot of people that have big boats with big systems that they pay other people to take care of. All they know about their engine is that you turn the key and push the button to start it. What are they going to do when something goes wrong away from the dock (assuming they ever make it away from the dock)? I suppose that’s why SeaTow is in business.

Mike also meant that you should be able to do the work on the boat yourself. He felt that 30’ was all the boat he wanted to sand when it was time to sand the bottom. 30’ feet of bottom is a fair amount of sanding. 30’ of topsides (really 60’ because you have to do both sides) is a lot to buff and polish.

I don’t know this, but he might have meant you should get a boat you can handle financially. Being cheap, I hate giving my money away to people who don’t need it. I can’t see paying interest to the bank so I can own a boat. I guess technically, if they’re financing it, they own it. That makes it even worse! They want me to pay them and do the work and spend the money to maintain it? Not this sucker. If I can’t afford to pay for it up front, it’s not going to be mine. We own Condor, not the bank.

So, is Condor big enough? Is she too big? The bottom surface on a 36’ boat that draws 6’4 is exponentially more than a 30’ boat that draws 5’6. That’s a whole lot more sanding! In fact, Suzanne has nicknamed Condor ‘the big blue whale’. When you’re standing under Condor sanding off the many old layers of blue bottom paint, you feel like you’re trying to roll a big blue whale.

Yes, 36’ feet of boat is a fair amount to handle whether you’re speaking of single-handed sailing, or sanding, painting, and buffing. But Condor is a comfortable size for us, we think. And in this case, bigger would probably not be better.