# Hello from Okie land



## Soonerschooner (Aug 1, 2008)

Hi so just a little info about myself here. I am currently living in the lovely and yet landlocked state of OK. So you might wonder what is a landlubber from OK doing on a sailing forum. Well I used to be in the Navy about 3 years ago, during which I spent 5 years living in Hawaii. During my stay in HI I began sailing and eventually become obsessed with it to the point where I was sailing about 4-5 days a week. 1-2 days of racing then 2-3 days of practicing racing and usually spent sunday cruising. My experience is with a J-24, some type of 32 ft racing/cruiser (maybe a Cal ?, looks like one but lower profile than the others I have seen) and some experience with a custom 50 ft ketch. I didnt own any of them but I did crew on the first 2 usually 4 days a week. A friend owned the J-24 and it was usually me and him on it and occasionally another friend. Me and him crewed on the 32 ft boat usually 1 day a week for a race and occasionally practiced on it. We werent really into serious competition, just doing it for fun really and entering local regattas and the weekly harbor race. On most sundays we both helped a guy take out his ketch for a day cruise. 

I consider myself a very capable day sailor but have ZERO experience with offshore sailing. I learned some good Nav skills in the Navy, like DR plotting, using Nav maps and confirming/correcting calcs with GPS coords. I got good mechanical skills and excellent electrical skills. 

The reason I am just getting into this forum is because I recently took a vacation out to Cali and all that sailing desire I had successfully repressed came roaring out as soon as I saw the ocean for the first time in 3 years. I thought I was done with it but I realize now I will never be "done" with it. It may seem crazy but I am looking now at a 2 year plan to relocate to HI. I will not have a problem with the missus as she has emphatically stated her desire to live in HI ever since we left. The only 3 problems I see are that I really love to hunt, all of my family lives in OK and I really love my current job. I cannot reasonably see getting a job that pays as well with as much time off as I currently have. I can see sacrificing my hunting to engage in sailing and the much much better fishing HI offers. I will miss my family and this will be quit a shock when I reveal my plans to them. 

Before you decide that I am the impetuous type, I can assure you that I approach things carefully, so this is not a spur of the moment decision that I will regret. I am going to take a year to get prepared by finishing up my electrical engineering degree and downsizing my personal belongings, then I plan on taking another year searching for a job and a boat. I am not sure if i will get a larger live aboard or start of with a smaller day sailer and just get a house. My goal is to first sail between the islands on weekend trips and work up to sailing to the west coast and back (the easy part lol) to HI. 

I tend to approach things from a technical standpoint and my reading of sail design and performance books reflects this. I have read several books on the interaction between wind and sail but very little on offshore sailing itself. So like I said, I know all about sail sizes and trimming for various wind conditions IN THEORY, and a good deal of it in practice but none of it out of sight of land much less in any type of severe weather. So if I get to needling you about technical details while missing the big picture please feel free to smack me upside the head and reset my heading. lol. 

Hopefully in 2 years time I can post some pics of my first trip in my new boat! Till then I will be poking my head in from time to time and boning up on my knowledge. I decided to register here because of some VERY informative posts I have read from some apparently very knowledgeable sailors.


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## Cruisingdad (Jul 21, 2006)

Welcome aboard!

- CD


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## camaraderie (May 22, 2002)

OKIE... You should do a search on Hawaii here as there are several threads about the difficulty of getting slips and boats there. You probably have some connections having lived there but apparently the situation is pretty tough lately. Nothing wrong with your plan though...lots of nice places to visit and get your feet wet before passagemaking. Just take your time and work your way up to it in discrete steps until you feel comfortable with your skills in a bigger boat an a bigger pond! Welcome!


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## Soonerschooner (Aug 1, 2008)

camaraderie said:


> OKIE... You should do a search on Hawaii here as there are several threads about the difficulty of getting slips and boats there. You probably have some connections having lived there but apparently the situation is pretty tough lately.


Thanks, That is some new news to me. Last I was there I know some marinas were hard to get a slip in but others had plenty of space open. I wasnt actively searching for a boat but I saw plenty for sale. Most were word of mouth kind of sales and my contacts there can help me with that end. I will ask them to do some checking on the slip availability, though they havent mentioned anything about it. If boat availability is that bad I will buy on mainland and jump in feet first and sail it to HI. That should make a fairly easy first trip a real challenge. lol.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Welcome to Sailnet.


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## djodenda (Mar 4, 2006)

Sooner:

I used to sail out of the Tulsa area. The Windycrest sailing club is a great organization, with inexpensive facilities and great racing, including J24s

See link below

Home

Welcome!

David


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