Another one of my hobbies/life style elements is sailing, I’ve been doing it since before I could walk. Throughout the decades I’ve been involved in it in various forms…from being landlocked at times, to 6000 miles in 4 years between 2004 and 2008, most of it off shore and half of it solo.
When my first born gets off the payroll, and the second one evacuates to college we will have more time to ourselves and there WILL be more cruising.
Just like there’s a bunch of brewing forums there are, of course, a pot load of sailing/cruising forums. Contrary to popular belief sailing is not necessarily a rich man’s sport, in fact most serious cruisers do so on a very limited budget. Kinda like you don’t need a Top Tier system to brew, a pot and a turkey frier and a plastic bucket go a long way…it’s all in the skill. Anywho, I was telling my friends on the sailing forum about my newfound brewing obsess…eh hobby and of course the topic turned to brewing on board… Someone posted this link. It’s to another cruising forum, and it makes and interesting read for the brewer, so I thought I’d share…
If I wasn’t so blasted landlocked…I would love to sail! I think I must have some latent Viking strain in me somewhere…to quote Wodehouse, “I yearn for the tang of salt breezes”.
Brewing at sea would definitely be interesting, but it sounds a bit difficult!!!
I judged a beer at the NHC in Baltimore that had a detailed note attached about aging on a sailboat for 6 months to mimic the original trip of an IPA.
I don’t know about brewing at sea, but attenuating at sea and drinking at sea sound pretty good.
Load a pitch lined oak barrel with beer, throw in an extra handful of whole hops for good measure, and then sail a long way
…say from England to India via the Cape of Good Hope.
Well, that’s the whole point. It appears there’s a boat load ;D of people out there doing it. I certainly will make an effort in a few years, and will, of course report on it here…
And there will beed to be a brew club…“Neptunes Brewers”…“Sail and ale” … hmmmmmm
I was being facetious. I learned to sail in a Sunfish on Lake Eloise in Winter Haven, FL in 1966. I was 11 years old. Put many a mile under sail since.
That makes us contemporaries. A multihuller eh? Project right now is a Dragon Fly 25 folding tri…the story is too long… 7 gallons of epoxy in to it so far… some pics of the amas here:
Yeah - I like to go fast. My dad worked for NASA during Apollo and we were stationed in Bermuda for two years. We built a Comet and sailed in races in St. George’s Harbour every Sunday.
My girlfriend had a Hobie 16. We sure had some good times in that boat! It made sailing the Comet seem pretty tame. Haven’t spent much time sailing monohulls since then. You get old waiting to get where you’re going. But, I love sailing and won’t turn down an opportunity to catch a ride in a monohull - beats the heck outa pullin’ yourself around in a kayak!
The only “sailing” I ever did was in a Hobie cat down in the islands. Have to say it was a lot of fun, but it seems like the sailing equivilent of a motorcycle. Light, fast, and agile, but nowhere to hide the bodies.
Punatic used to sail across the wake to get around the balls behind his Ski Nautique pushed by a 351 Cleveland V8 inboard. That was on the Butler Chain of lakes back in Florida. Here in Hawaii the water is too bumpy for that kind of foolishness. Punatics knees cannot handle the punishment anymore.