My WEST WIGHT POTTER
Sailing fulfils the urge to explore what's over the horizon. We are all decended from tens of thousands of years of nomadic people. It's not surprising that we like to travel.
I sail on Tomales Bay because it is beautiful and unspoiled by development, and because very few other people sail there. Also, it has lots of little pocket beaches where you can swim in sheltered coves and play in the sand. You can camp overnight on some of the beaches. Many can only be reached by boat. You see lots of wildlife such as harbor seals, bat rays, jellyfish, white and brown pelicans, and other migratory birds.
I needed a sailboat that is stable and safe for small children. It had to be flat bottomed and have a very shallow draft with the centerboard up so we can sail up onto beaches. It had to have a little cabin where my children can take shelter from the wind and spray. It had to be able to stand up to Tomales Bay's strong summer winds and chop. It also had to be small enough for me to sail solo and light enough for me pull from its parking spot at the Inverness Yacht Club to the boat hoist. (All boats at the I.Y.C. are stored on land and lifted into the water using a hoist.)
International Marine's West Wight Potter P-15 fits all these criteria, and it is inexpensive and widely available too. It is fifteen feet long and weighs about 600 pounds. The West Wight Potter was designed to sail in the waters around the Isle of Wight, in the English Channel. Like Tomales Bay, the English Channel has powerful winds, chop, and lots of shallow water at low tide.
International Marine has made thousands of these boats. Mine was made in 1980 and I purchased it used. (If you want to buy a used one the Potter Yachters of Northern California maintain a web site of Potters for sale.) Its cabin has two 6- 1/2 foot berths, so two people can sleep overnight in the cabin with a little room to spare. Up to four can do overnights if we camp on the beach. You need to get a camping permit from the Point Reyes National Seashore for beach camping.
Most West Wight Potters come with small outboard motors and mine did too but I have never used it. A canoe paddle is all I need on Tomales Bay.
(On the economics of sailing):
It was J.P. Morgan who said "If you have to ask how much (yachting) costs, you can't afford it," There's certainly no upper limit on what you can spend. I grew up sailing and every adult male in my extended family (in-laws included) has a boat. I love boats! It's kind of hard for me to say this but: a lot of people who have boats probably shouldn't. A lot of people who have big boats probably should have small boats. Most boats hardly ever get used.
Take a walk down by San Francisco Bay's waterfront any nice morning. There are billions of dollars worth of impressive yachts sitting at the slips, and the Bay is completely empty. "Well", you think, "all their owners are busy working. I'll come back on the weekend." So, you return on a nice summer weekend and this time maybe 3% of the boats are out on the Bay and 97% sitting at their slips. Walk around the backs and sides of the marina buildings and you see hundreds of derelict boats moldering on land.
What went wrong? When a person decides to buy a boat he has a fantasy about how the boat will transform his life. On evenings and weekends he will go to the boat to sail, polish the woodwork, and just relax. It will become the focal point of his family life. He will take all his friends sailing. He will take his kids and their friends sailing. Some day he will take time off from work and go on an extended cruise...
Of course the boat doesn't transform his life at all. He is still the same person as before, except that now he has another posession. He is just as busy as before, and doesn't have time to visit the boat that often. His wife isn't as interested in sailing as he planned for her to be. His children have soccer games, homework, parties to attend, summer camp, travel opportunities. His friends really would like to go sailing but they are too busy with work and family obligations. Sometimes the weather is bad, and when the weather is good there are competing diversions: golf, hiking, baseball games, etc.
Added to this is that a lot of boat buyers have limited experience skippering a boat. They meant to gain more experience as owners, but backing out of a slip under power, docking, and sailing in heavy weather are intimidating; especially when sailing alone or short-handed.
The upshot of all this is that the boat sits at the dock, rarely used, deteriorating over time, and running up big bills for the slip space.
A slip on San Francisco Bay costs several hundred dollars a month. Cass Marina in Sausalito has a fleet of sailboats for rent, including some very nice Santana 22's. You can rent one on these any time you want for $100 - 200/day. A Santana 22 costs tens of thousands of dollars new, but even if somebody gave me one for free I would still be better off renting from Cass Marina. Unless I sailed every other weekend all year around, the slip fees would exceed the rental rates.
The economics of sailing are even worse in cold places like New England where it is common to haul boats out of the water for up to eight months each year.
What all this means:
Since I keep my boat at the Inverness Yacht Club instead of a slip at a commercial marina, it costs me far less to maintain. My annual expenses for sailing are way under a thousand dollars. That's including the yacht club membership, yard fees, and an occasional new piece of equiment for the boat. Not many sailors on San Francisco Bay can say that!