Thanks, folks for all your advice and suggestions about getting my wife to enjoy sailing. Part of the "backstory" was when she was 16, she went out on the lake with some hotshot Hobie sailor (no, it wasn't me) who insisted on flying the hull despite her protests. Naturally, he dumped the boat and threw her into the rigging, which cut her leg up. She still has a small scar on her leg, but the mental one left in her head was a good bit bigger.
No yelling is good... I've already got that one covered pretty well. But the "no duties" idea is a new thought that makes a lot of sense. Of course, she'll protest, but explaining that it's an option for her to completely relax & let me do all the grunt work is valid. I made sure that all the boats have electric windlasses, and have already found an "intro to scuba" 1-hr class for my son to attend. She's refused the idea of hiring a captain, even for a half day, and doesn't want to go larger than a 32... which, as I'll be mostly singlehanding, has about all the sail area I can handle by myself. I'd thought about a catamaran, but having never sailed one, am pretty apprehensive about that. I'd also like to stay with a monohull, if only to keep things similar to what we might eventually buy. (See, Honey, we could get one just like this!) Many years ago we went aboard an Island Packet 32, one of the first new ones they built. She liked that boat a lot, but at that time, the 159K price tag might as well been 159M... (still is, really) But those Bene's seem like they'd be pretty impressive as well, much like the IP was. The only advice I'm going to NOT take is "forget her and go with someone else." I'm not saying that's necessarily bad advice, or incorrect, just that it won't work for me right now! I'll keep folks posted about how things go... might even make a good magazine article. Thanks again BG _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
