Hi,

Live in Madison, sail out of SSYC in Milwaukee. Crew on SnakeBite, a Pearson Flyer. Race on Wednesday evenings, most scheduled weekend regattas, Port Washington and Queen's Cup.

My wife and I hope this is the year we upgrade to a Great Lakes cruising boat in the 34-36 foot area.

Ah Snakebite - I know that boat! I think Wayne was saying he knew the skipper of that boat. We were watching you guys to gauge our start for the Queen's Cup last year because we didn't know what the heck we were doing

Welcome Paul!

What kind of cruisers are you looking for? Guy and I have been on a boat shopping extravaganza for the last couple years. I think between he and I we've covered most of the local boats for sale.. Guy moreso than I. But we've both purchased this last year so we won't be in competition for any of them

I see you've got a MacGregor? What do you think of it? I've always been interested in them, but my love of the classic designs prevented me from going to see them.

There is a guy over on the sailfar.net site that sails that same boat all over the Caribbean and East Coast.

Hi Paul,

Glad to see you to here. Welcome.

Hey Paul. Welcome to the site.
I also sail on Wednesday nights aboard Phantom, a Jeanneau 39i-P. This will be my second season aboard as crew.
Good luck in the boat search and keep us all updated. I feel like hearing about a boat search is almost as good as doing one yourself!
Let's make sure to connect this summer in the beer tent after racing some night. It's always nice to put faces to names.

-John

SnakeBite ... Ted Bailey is the skipper/owner. QC was a slow ride last year but we made it unlike two years before that when we were dead in the water for lack of wind. Moved up from JAM to spinnaker last year. Still working the bugs out as we chace down the JAM fleet while getting run over by the big boats. We never did figure out what Apache does to be so successful. Identical boat to SnakeBite but flys around the course.

The MacGregor is what it is. It's located in slip D27, SSYC, when the water isn't so hard. It's an OK sailboat that can go fast when you have to, nothing more. Easy to launch, single hand & recover. A little tender ... heels to 15-20 degrees right now and then hardens up. Scares the hell out of people when they don't expect it. It was a great first sailboat for a powerboat family learning to sail. She-who-must-be-obeyed says we WILL get a more stable boat with a proper kitchen & head. (That's what hapens when you charter a 36 footer for a week in the San Juans).

Having a trailer sailor loses its charm when you move into a condo and have to store it off site. At that point, you might as well have a slip and put a keelboat in it. Got the slip last year (and you do sail more when it is drive-up ready to go.) Time to fill it up with a bigger boat.

Looking at 34-36 foot Catalina's and Beneteau's right now with the Beneteau 351 on the very short list.

I looked at a couple of C30s. The Catalinas sure are roomy! I chased my tail on buying one for the longest time, but unfortunately the ones I could afford were in bad shape. I decided that if I was going to buy a fixer-upper I needed something without a hull liner. I love the room inside and all but the c30s are so wide for their length. I think this improves at 34, 36 as you are looking at.

Definitely post your shopping adventures here. It's almost as much fun reading about someone else boat shopping as it is to be boat shopping yourself

From what I have been reading the C-30s are THE best, old, affordable, well designed, roomiest, nicest handling, sailboat you can find.

Oh well, next time.

Man, I want that boat that Wayne crewsd on down @ SSYC! Name eludes me at the moment. Beautiful, like a 36' giant Sushi bucket.

'Octo-bucket'? 'X' for short??

I believe that was a Mumm 36. There's two of them that race out of SSYC - one is Mrs. Jones and I forget the other one's name.

Cool looking boats.. fast.. expensive..

I sailed a C30 the season before last. The room was great and it was just an all around comfy boat. For local sailing it would be ideal, but I plan on doing some longer trips. There were a couple factors that put me off. For one, mid-boom sheeting. I don't like it at all. Second, the hull liner. The interior of the boat, top and bottom has a liner separating the interior from the hull. All your wires and other things are sandwiched in between. Also, the beam is too wide for a 30 footer (over 11 feet) and it gets hammered around in chop. Lastly, I'm a sucker for the classic designs. I love the way a full-keel and keel hung rudder handle in the water. The ride is much more stable and the tiller is so much easier to manage when it gets nasty.

Anyway.. just one man's opinion, but that's what turned me off from the C30s. Great boats though.. just not for me.