DaySailer.org Forum

Guys, look the trips the folks in these other boats (Wayfarers) are taking!!! I'm envious!
http://wayfarer-international.org/WIC/C ... Chesapeake

Daysailers could do these cruises too! Let's go!

Canoe,

Yes they can do these trips. I've quite a bit of beach/island camping with my boat in the last several years. I have not slept aboard my boat yet but it is on my radar to give that a try. I've done the Florida 120 the last two years. Check it out and consider joining us May 2014:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FL120/

Several Daysailers have made this trip and it is a great time. About 13 or 14 hours from northern Virgina but it's an 8 hour drive for me and I'm already in Florida!

UCanoe_2; I have done the Texas 200 4 times (unsuccesful my first year). See http://www.texas200.com/ or "Texas 200 Sailing Club" on Facebook. The Texas 200 is about 200 miles of sailing up the Texas coast, 5 days of sailing, 4 nights of camping. As ChrisB has mentioned there is the Florida 120. In September there will be the OBX130 on the east coast not far from you. These events are a good time.

John

UCanoe_2 wrote:Daysailers could do these cruises too! Let's go!

There have been published reports of quite extensive cruises with DaySailers. Perhaps there's interest in collecting a set of links in this thread? These might include links to older forum topics on cruising or cruising style events. The Texas200 event, which John has detailed in the past also in the DaySailer Quarterly seems to be more of a collective cruising-style event than some of the Florida events, which seem to have an element of long-distance racing. Some info we have here on the site detail single boat cruises. (I'm very much hoping one of you will beat me in digging out these old posts).

Yes, the Texas 200 (June each year) and the Florida 120 (May each year) are both cruising type challenge events, while the Everglades Challenge which takes place off the west coast of Florida in March each year is a 300 mile race for small sailboats and kayaks (also canoes, stand up paddle boards, etc). The Everglades Challenge has filters to keep large boats out such as starting the race by pushing the boat off the beach from above the high tide mark. Boats competing in the EC camp along the way. Two Day Sailers have competed in the EC in the last few years. A DS1 in 2010 (finished) and a DS2 in 2011 (did not finish).

John

I propose that DaySailer.org add a forum for "Cruising."

The problem is that the Day Sailer adventures are spread across lots of topics. If a person installs a second reef to handle winds on open water, it shows up in "Rigging." If you figure out how to anchor off a lee shore, we read about it in "Seamanship." If someone completes the Texas 200, it shows up in "Events," but if a person sails the Texas gulf coast on their own, we probably don't read about it all.

What's necessary to request this change?

John, the TX 200 sounds like a bit much for me! The Wayfarer folks do trips to Smith, Tangier, and Watts Islands in the Chesapeake that sound more mellow and plenty adventurous. http://wayfarer-international.org/WIC/C ... index.html

Talbot, a Cruising forum is a great idea, and I hope the administrators will create it.

BTW, the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival (31st annual) is coming up in just over a month at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and I highly recommend it. There are usually 2 or 3 Daysailers in attendance. http://www.cbmm.org/mascf/index.htm

The CBMM annual boat auction is Labor Day Weekend -- this coming weekend. http://www.cbmm.org/g_boatdonations.htm
They are selling a 1982 DS in need of some repairs. If you are interested in moving up to a larger boat, they are also offering a Rozinante that looks really sweet! http://www.cbmm.org/img/boat_donations/1890_large.jpg

talbot wrote:I propose that DaySailer.org add a forum for "Cruising."

The problem is that the Day Sailer adventures are spread across lots of topics. If a person installs a second reef to handle winds on open water, it shows up in "Rigging." If you figure out how to anchor off a lee shore, we read about it in "Seamanship." If someone completes the Texas 200, it shows up in "Events," but if a person sails the Texas gulf coast on their own, we probably don't read about it all.

What's necessary to request this change?

I like this idea, and talbot is absolutely right: it seems that the majority of folks on here are "daysailing with their daysailers".

For those sailing in the SE, another great group to check out is the West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron:

http://ftp.ij.net/wctss/wctss/

Already there are too many topic areas on the forum. I think. Reason one: whatever doesn't fit on the screen will be ignored by a substantial fraction of users. (A not insubstantial fraction never posts anything outside the category for their specific DS model.) Reason two: the more areas there are, the more people will hesitate where to put things. Reason three: the traffic in topic areas is very uneven.

As a moderator, I can move posts and topics, but I can't change the basic layout (and I think the fewer changes we make at that level the better off we are).

Over my term as moderator so far, I've tried to help move topics to make the topic areas (categories) more consistent. When discussions become very wide-ranging, I quickly reach the limits of what can be done. (I'm not always able to split topics in a clean way and then I remind myself that this is a forum and not the wikipedia).

I would like to move this particular cruising discussion to fleets/locations because I believe that cruising (including the information on cruising locations) is equivalent to the "business" of the "independents", that is those of us who are not part of a (racing) fleet. In my view (not belonging to a fleet) the independents "deserve" to live on equal footing (and the fleets aren't really active on this forum, so posts tends to be on how to find one).

Because the category is named Fleets/Locations, the most useful way to organize topics would be by location like "Cruising the Chesapeake" or "Lakes of Minnesota". Having said that, general discussion about cruising would be appropriate by extension.

Going further, I believe that cruising-related events belong in the Events category - if they have a name and a date, they are events.

Finally, while cruising results in different modifications to rig and equipment, I don't think we want duplicate racing/cruising versions of categories for repair, sails, rigging and seamanship. I am open to more aggressively move racing oriented discussion to racing/performance, and would appreciate suggestions.

While I haven't gone back in the DS1 and DS2 forums to pull out older topics into their proper categories, I am not opposed to doing so, if someone has a suggestion for a particularly well motivated move.

Please post these on "website info" in a new topic like "suggested site maintenance" rather than sending me PMs.

A final note: while fixing DS1 floorboards is a "repair" and so is fixing the DSII CB downhaul, to me these are "typical" topics that are best categorized by DS subtype. But in many other areas, such as sail selection, rigging etc. there really aren't any differences and it would make sense to pull out some of those topics into the more generic categories.

If we moved the 50 most interesting, yet currently mis-categorized topics it could strengthen the site, so post your suggestions under website info. (I'll move this topic in a few days).