Spinsheet

Because you want fiberglass or carbon fiber boats, and fast sails. You travel on airplanes. You want your food packaged in a safe and sanitary manner. You like avocados from Chile and lobster from Maine. Your cheap 70" TV came from China and is mostly polymers and plastic. You appreciate 21st century healthcare and healthcare devices are made up of tons of unique polymers. Oil and gas is never going away., but oil is going to $200 a barrel, so enjoy $1500 electric bills and $16 a gallon gas. Diesel cost will triple your grocery bill. I guess we could get a horse a carriage to ship groc

+1 I was in the same situation. The boat has EVERYTHING I wanted, but it has a furling main. I have found that it very easy to use and reef short handed. For cruising it's not much slower. As an example - for race handicapping they gave the boat +13 seconds per mile to account for the furling main. That's 2.5 hours on a 700 mile route. A friend said to think of it more as a jib than a main when trimming and that helped a lot.

+1 I have a Harken #2 Furler. It works great on the code zero. The back wrap on the A2 was a total nightmare. We spent an entire afternoon in the grass getting it off the furler and the head of the sail is now a little out of shape. We may have done something wrong. Is there a different trick to furling larger luff kites?

Who is going to correct out to first in fleet?

+1 Better off 10 minutes from the start than 1100 miles out for sure.

Yes +1 - Rookie mistake number 1 = tacking in the channel, rookie mistake number 2 = tacking at the west end. Catalina general rule of thumb. Tack close to the front side of the island & north of Parson's landing to take advantage of the a converging breeze and the lift. Stay at least two miles off the backside of the island or you'll have to deal with kelp, a diverging breeze and a header.

Looks like hurricane damage in the slip. The bolts for a tide slide tear up a boat pretty quickly in a big blow.

J/120

Most of the models show it staying well south of the rhumb line

+1 I did the same thing. I used a local title company, had a survey completed and did a shakedown sail. Saved $18k by avoiding the broker(s)

The list look thorough and well thought out. Did you inspect the rudder post and bearings? That was the biggest issue during the last Transpac, 4 boats retired and one sank. When your register the PLB on the US Beacon Registry be sure to notate your boat's information as well. I've never used a PLB. Can recreational boats see a PLB position? Are they notified when it is set off? An MOB1 broadcasts on AIS, allowing nearby boats to quickly respond. A guy brought a pack of Shamwows on my last transocean. They are now on my must have list. Glow in the dark tape ($11 on Amazon

I don't know what kind of boat you have, so this might not be an option. However, a friend recently replaced his hank-on staysail. He deleted the baby stay and went with a wire luff staysail and a Harkin staysail roller furler ($575 US) That configuration makes life so much easier and we use the stay sail much more often.

I appreciate your feedback. I walked the docks for a couple of hours looking at different ideas last weekend. I am still on the fence, but slowly coming to your conclusion. I planned on buying a 11'-12' RIB with a 15-20 hp outboard and custom davits ($11k+) By going to a roll up dinghy and smaller outboard I can save $6.5k+ and eliminate a lot of hobby horsing / improve performance.

I am going to measure the deck this weekend. My concern was that the cabin top goes so far forward. I saw a boat last weekend that had raised forward chocks on a small stainless stand that was removable by pulling two pins. I liked that setup because the dinghy was level and secure and the forward hatch could still be opened in an emergency situation.