Welcome to the forum!

Wow - where to start?

I think it would help if you expanded on a few points to help people with their answers:

1) Is it a sail boat or a power boat you are interested in?
2) Is it just for the big proposal or are you taking this up as a hobby?
3) Whereabouts do you live?

As for your questions:

1) Depends on the above answers!
2) You can hire yachts (although you will need proof of competency / qualifications) and you can hire a boat with a skipper to sail it for you / instruct you.
3) Depends on type of sailing - if you want to potter around a lake you should be able to pick it up quite quickly after a couple of lessons - if you want to sail over the horizon it will take a little longer!
4) Avoid the south coast - lots of boats - but even there if you head out in the evening mid week you'll be pretty much alone - its not like the M25 out there! Although given your lack of experience being completely alone may not be the best idea?

5) Nope!

6) A good lesson - a good instructor will help you gain confidence in the boat and the safety equipment. Other than that - swimming lessons??

Hope this helps as a starter

Steve

Welcome! If you just want it to propose on, charter a yacht for a weekend!

1. The smaller the better

2. See facetious comment above, Google yacht charter. Not something I'm at all familiar with I’m afraid, but you can charter with a skipper to point you in the right direction...

4. The more northerly the better...

5. No. It may amuse you as much as it amused me, to find out that one requires no qualifications to sail a (leisure) boat in UK waters...

6. Depends on too many variables, i.e. her...

you will find this forum a mine for useful information and banter in equal measure...

Mike

For a beginner I think the best way forward is to join a club and ask around if someone will take you out once or twice.

Its impossible to recommend a type of boat from the information you give. Are you thinking of a dinghy you can tow behind the car or a large ocean going yacht or more likely something in between the two? For most people the cost is the deciding factor.

The worst thing you could do at this stage is to buy a boat. Inevitably it would be unsuitable and likely hard to sell on again.

Another way forward is to book a week on a charter boat with an instructor/skipper. Just Google on RYA Sailing Schools.

PS You won’t need a flag to indicate you are a beginner, it will be obvious.
Good luck, you could be on the slippery slope to becoming a yachtie

Nathan

Welcome to the asylum, Ronald. Likely you will get a load of advice. Some may even help, but your request might get better response if you fill in your user profile with some information, especially location details as a lot will depend on where you are. It may bring advice from someone who lives locally to you.

Don't apologise for wanting to learn. We all started from a zero base and some of us have forgotten some of what has been picked up, so we all can learn something, especially about the sea.

Down to your specifics.

1. The kind of boat best suited depends on many factors, most of them down to your own situation and personality. Assuming sailing is what you aspire to, do you see yourself spending extended periods cruising, or would a day-boat do? Do you want to race?
There are many yachts in the 22 foot range which are fine for a couple of nights but for a couple could become cramped after a week or so. On the other hand something over 30 foot might be a tad too much for a complete novice. If you live near the East coast and/or near a river estuary the choice of hull could be important as ditch crawling might dictate a bilge or retractable keel.
What options are there for parking the boat near you? Marinas can be prohibitively expensive and moorings are in short supply in many coastal locations. You might want to look at a trailerable boat that you can take home, but you need space at home and the launch/recovery can eat into a weekend's sailing time.

2. I don't think even the most generous owner would hand over his/her pride to a novice. Chartering would be very difficult without proof of competence. That leaves the cheapest and best introduction: brass-neck it at a sailing club and let folk know you are willing to crew to get on the learning curve. That way you will get experience of sailing and a variety of different boat types.

3. You can pick up an awful lot from experience, but at some point you will run into a knowledge wall at which point you should think about signing up for an RYA course. Not only will it introduce you to navigation etc but it will also give a qualification for chartering.

4. Most coastal areas of the UK are as you describe - November to April.
Seriously, there are bolt-holes where you can experience total isolation if you want it, but don't get upset if another yottie wants to share the experience!

5. No.

6. I don't know your missus, so can't help here, other than to say if she or anyone else is in the lease nervous, don't force the issue. Don't go out if there is any chance of drama. Choose the calmest, sunniest day, even if there's no wind and you don't go anywhere. Lifejackets can give a sense of security, but not as much as a partner who knows his/her limitations and remains within them.

Best of luck and good sailing!

Jim

If your intended is scared of water, then going out alone with you, a total beginner, in a boat for the first time may not be the stress-free romantic occasion you need.

I suggest you find a gorgeous-looking boat, a competent and discreet skipper, a lovely quiet location (which your skipper ought to be able to recommend) and a gorgeous, calm evening. Let the skipper do the sailing, and you concentrate on her!

If all that works, then you can think about taking up sailing as a hobby.

Good luck

As for the proposing, hire a nice 30+ft boat and skipper. Get him to smuggle on board the champagne and flowers etc and on your signal he can set anchor and disappear and lock himself in the heads for an hour or two. Good luck

Jonathon

Wow, so many responses – thank you so much for responding so quickly! How can I thank you all for your wonderful advice!?

Let me firstly answer the questions posed by Steve:

Is it a sail boat or a power boat you are interested in?

I am really not sure on this one – as I said in my original post, I really haven’t the faintest idea what would be the best for me. Again, sorry to sound stupid but can I ask what the difference between a sail boat and a power boat is. All I know is that I want to be on a boat with Joan in the ocean somewhere and to be able to watch the sun go down with no-one else around.

Is it just for the big proposal or are you taking this up as a hobby?

Really this is just for the proposal though I guess if I enjoyed it enough then maybe it could become a hobby – This would unfortunately mean that I wouldn’t have as much time for my gardening though.

Whereabouts do you live?

I live in the small town of Caterham in Surrey – Can I just say how nice it is of you to show interest in my life.

I am quite glad to hear that people think it would be a bad idea to buy a boat right now. We haven’t an awful lot of money between us and ideally I would like to save our money for the wedding instead of spending it all on a boat I may never use again.

I am also glad to hear that I don’t need to buy or construct any sort of “Learner’s flag” as I previously thought I might – this would have just meant extra effort on my part.

I definitely do not want to “potter around a lake” as Jonny said – I think you may have missed my point about the sun going down and the horizon etc. Not being able to see the sun go down would make for a very inferior realisation of my dream.

I am a little overwhelmed and also a tad confused by some of the responses above. It seems that some people think I should take some sort of lessons while others think I may not need to. Can anyone clarify for me what would be best?

As for Joan being scared of the water – some people seem to think that I should hire a “skipper” to sail the boat for me. While I do like the idea that I wouldn’t have to sail the boat myself, I do not like the idea that a man (or woman) that I don’t know would be onboard with us when I ask for Joan’s hand in marriage. I wouldn’t want anything to be able to spoil our evening together.

Thanks again

Ronald Summers

Hi Ronald,

If you want to take her out on a boat by yourself it will be a long undertaking. You will need some training etc before you will feel competent to take a boat out on your own.

I think a skipper is your best bet who can make themselves scarce. Do you have to be sailing in the middle of the sea? Could you go on a boat moored up in a harbour and watch the sun setting without going sailing? Sure someone would let you do that.

You could on mine but if at the wrong point on the tide will have to trudge through lots of mud to get there (not that romantic!) Sure you can work something out!

Arthur

Overall I think you would be better off popping down the road to Gatwick and going to a carefully chosen location looking West over the ocean (Capetown for example) where the sunset is guaranteed and seclusion realistic. Alternatives are of course Wales and Cornwall but the journey time is about the same!

Rich

Ronald,

given your additional replies, I reckon for this occasion charter is deffinetly the best bet. how about this for a plan:

Google something like "yacht charter Skippered + location of your choice" e.g. Cornwall, spain etc.

I found this http://www.swanyachtcharter.co.uk/sun_odyssey.html very quickly as an example, £1500 for the weekend inc skipper.

tell them what you're planning, and that you want to sail to a quiet anchorage where the skipper can go ashore for a couple of hours. this means you will drop anchor in a bay of some descripton, and the skip will leave by inflatable dingy for x time.

you do the kneeling bit, spend the rest of the weekend having a blast sailing, get hooked, do you competent crew course, build on your experience by going out with various friends, eventually decide to invest in your own boat and cruise of into the sunset...

I'm glad I'm not the only romantic chap left on the planet!

in the short term I think you would find this to be the cheapest and most enjoyable thing to do. Boat ownership is a huge commitment that will drain your cash, time and energy in vast quantities(comparable to the kneeling thing?!)

at the end of the charter all you have lost is the £1500, you have no commitment to show any other interest ever again, as opposed to going and buying a boat...

Mike

Bear in mind that if you want the sun to go down behind the sea horizon, then you will either need to be on the West coast, or quite a long way out on the other coasts - possibly too far to anchor, and certainly too far to expect the skipper to row away in an inflatable!

Tom

Gavin

Sorry I have taken so long to reply but everything is now entirely ruined - I am completely distraught.

I had just posted my own reply and chose to go and take a shower while I waited for more responses. I stupidly left the thread open on the screen and when Joan came back from work earlier than usual it was the first thing she saw.

Not only has the surprise been ruined but she now knows I was going to propose. We’ve just had a little argument where amongst many other things she said that there was no way I would have got her on “one of those boats” and that for me to even think of proposing to her on a boat means that it’s unlikely we are ready for marriage.

Joan is out at the moment so I thought I should post this quickly to prevent anyone wasting their time trying to help me out.

Thank you all for your very informative replies, you were more helpful than I could have ever imagined. I doubt I’ll be back on this forum anytime soon.

Thanks again

Ronald Summers