2016: The year our Albin never left the dock.

[Mariner]

Well, aside from one small outing to participate in the blessing of the fleet (less than a mile from the marina) and another to the haul-out yard for bottom paint, Nordvika hasn't been used at all this year. Between my wife and I having a second child, and my father (75) experiencing health problems, there just wasn't a good time to get out.

Partially it's because we bought another, smaller boat that is easier to hop in and go for a short ride with the kids. We certainly got out on the water plenty, but it wasn't aboard the Albin.

So, I'm wondering if the smart thing to do is sell it now while it's still in relatively good condition, or see it through for a couple more years when the kids are older and I feel better about the stairs/ladders, etc... I'm not sure I see my father doing much more boating on his own. He is in good health, but has developed a couple issues that make handling a larger boat difficult (vision and mobility related).

We did charter a 54' boat for a weekend to try it out. It was nice. The kids had room to spread out and play with their toys and everyone had a cabin and a real bed. But there are some significant challenges to cruising in that size boat, not the least of which is the financial investment.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get out for some fall fishing and winter crabbing, but I'm not super confident it will happen.

[DesertAlbin736]

As it so happens, we stopped in Gig Harbor on our way back from Bellingham in August and bought a new Gig Harbor Nisqually dinghy from Gig Harbor Boat Works. What a neat little town! At your age you're a long way from retirement, and having the time that retirement affords is crucial to being able to take your boat out for more than a weekend or a short vacation cruise.

We of course went the small boat route with our Albin 25, which we can trailer all over the country and use it as a camper while on the road, which we have in the past two and a half years we've owned it. When we're not on the water it sits on the trailer costing $50 a month for a rented storage lot on land. But the key to that is having the time to be traveling for months at a time. Hard to do that if you're still working. But gosh, Gig Harbor is smack in the middle of some of the best cruising grounds on the West Coast. Now if I were you I'd take that nice big express trawler and base it somewhere nearer to the San Juans, like Anacortes or Bellingham, or even as far North as Blaine and use it as a vacation home. We just got off a 45 day cruise stopping at 16 different islands and went as far North as Princess Louisa Inlet. Trust me, I've cruised all over the country including New England, Chesapeake Bay, San Diego, Catalina Island, and Monterey, and nothing IMO beats Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.

One idea to consider might be putting your boat in charter service in either Anacortes or Bellingham. That way you treat it like a time share, you get to pick weeks where you want to use it, the rest of the time it's rented out and making money.

For example, here's a list of San Juan Sailing's power boat charter fleet up in Bellingham.

http://sanjuansailing.com/charter-detai ... p?id=Power

[Mariner]

As it so happens, we stopped in Gig Harbor on our way back from Bellingham in August and bought a new Gig Harbor Nisqually dinghy from Gig Harbor Boat Works. What a neat little town! At your age you're a long way from retirement, and having the time that retirement affords is crucial to being able to take your boat out for more than a weekend or a short vacation cruise.

We of course went the small boat route with our Albin 25, which we can trailer all over the country and use it as a camper while on the road, which we have in the past two and a half years we've owned it. When we're not on the water it sits on the trailer costing $50 a month for a rented storage lot on land. But the key to that is having the time to be traveling for months at a time. Hard to do that if you're still working. But gosh, Gig Harbor is smack in the middle of some of the best cruising grounds on the West Coast. Now if I were you I'd take that nice big express trawler and base it somewhere nearer to the San Juans, like Anacortes or Bellingham, or even as far North as Blaine and use it as a vacation home. We just got off a 45 day cruise stopping at 16 different islands and went as far North as Princess Louisa Inlet. Trust me, I've cruised all over the country including New England, Chesapeake Bay, San Diego, Catalina Island, and Monterey, and nothing IMO beats Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.

One idea to consider might be putting your boat in charter service in either Anacortes or Bellingham. That way you treat it like a time share, you get to pick weeks where you want to use it, the rest of the time it's rented out and making money.

For example, here's a list of San Juan Sailing's power boat charter fleet up in Bellingham.

http://sanjuansailing.com/charter-detai ... p?id=Power

Yes, it's excellent cruising grounds. Of course, I've been exploring them for 30 years now, so all the stuff that is reasonably accessible I've been to a hundred times. I'm very excited to share that with my kids...but it's a lot of overhead and work right now (one is three years and the other is nine months). We did get up to Sucia Island on the charter boat over Labor Day weekend, which was a very special experience to be able to share with my son, since I remember going there when I was a kid.

The thought process behind chartering the boat was to investigate three things:

1. The process of driving to/from Anacortes for summer moorage and/or chartering.
2. The pros/cons of a larger boat
3. The pros/cons of placing a boat in charter.

The last one there was interesting. The boat we chartered had a lot of wear and tear, as have all boats I've ever seen that had seen charter service. I don't think I would want to place any boat I owned into charter service. We also talked to a couple in the marina who were on their boat, which they have in charter service, and they were less than satisfied with their decision. The previous charter had done extensive damage to the boat, and they had not experienced the bookings they were hoping for, meaning the damages and wear and tear far exceeded the income from having the boat in charter.

[DesertAlbin736]

Our first experience in the San Juans was in 2011 when we went in with two other couples chartering a 2001 Jeanneau 40 sailboat from San Juan Sailing in Bellingham. That same boat is still in their fleet to this day. SJS seemed like a good outfit and their boats were well cared for, and they also have a fleet of tugs, trawlers, & motor yachts, all of which are placed in charter service by their individual owners.

We've been to Sucia three times now, first to Echo Bay with the Jeanneau and Fossil Bay twice with our A25. Our cruise mates this time was one of the couples that went in with us on the charter, only this time they brought their own O'Day 25 sailboat up from Flagstaff, AZ