The Perfect First Boat Costs Next To Nothing By Len Bose

By Len Bose

I received a sales call this week from a prospect who was not sure if he wanted to purchase a power or sailboat. He just wanted to get on the water and start yachting.

I asked, “Do you know how to sail?”

"No."

“Have you owned a power boat before?”

"No, I just want to get on the water!"

All right then, I have just the boat for you! It's called the School of Sailing & Seamanship at the Orange Coast College sea base at 1801 W. Coast Hwy Newport Beach” I then brought up the school web page and started to tell my future prospect to sign up for beginning sailing.

As I glanced through the web page I noticed that the sailing base has a lot more to offer than when I learned how to sail there some 30 years ago. I then informed my prospect of all the different powerboat classes that are available along with the weekend trips to Catalina and the Channel Islands.

The school offers everything from first aid and CPR classes to sailing to Hawaii. I found myself eyeing the marine electrical systems class imagining how much money I can save on my boat if I understood my AC and DC systems better.

When I heard my prospect over the phone asking, “Are you still there?”

I told him that the school will place him on the proper course in deciding just what your needs and desires are.

"Once you have accomplished that I will find the proper yacht for you,” I said.

My prospect asked if the classes are expensive? No, a beginning sailing class works out to be about $7 an hour. Now that's value.

"Well, thank you, Len," he said. "That’s good advice. Looks like I can sign up online. Perfect!"

"Just don't forget me," I said.

OK, time for Len's Lessons.

Lesson #543: When you bring a boat down to Ensenada, make sure you tell your credit card company you are headed out of the country. After I placed a month’s slip rent at Cruise Port Marina, my card company turned off my card.

Lesson #544: Make sure your credit card works before you get to window #2 at the port captain's office. This caused me about a two-hour delay.

Lesson #545: I also noticed the owner of a sport fishing vessel from Long Beach, who had been in line longer than me, trying to purchase nine fishing licenses. He should have called Joan Irvine Travel at (949) 548-3481. Joan will save you a ton of time from everything from a Mexican fishing license to your temporary import permit and port entry papers and don’t you dare forget about your LLC maritime letter of permission. I would have saved about three hours if I had called Joan first.

Next week I will report on Balboa Yacht Clubs Sunkist and CHOC regatta/series this weekend. Get your boat out and help The Children’s Hospital of Orange County bysigning up for this regatta! I will also be competing in BCYC Double Handed series this Saturday and I will be sailing around the bay checking in with all my friends.

Website of the week is the Stern Scoop. Look through this page for your yachtsmen holidays gift ideas. Then go shop on ebay like I do.

Sea ya.

Len Bose is the owner of Len Bose Yacht Sales.

SHORT TACKS: Getting A Charge Out Of Electric Boats

By Len Bose

Hello, everyone my name is Len Bose, and I have been a yacht broker in Newport Beach for 22 years. I’ve been sailing for more than 35 years, and I should be around for another three-plus decades before I give up the tiller.

I asked Tom Johnson and Bill Lobdell if I can take a trick at the helm on reporting the harbor news in the Daily Voice. I only had to buy them lunch and tell them a couple of yarns before they casted me from the dock. As I sailed away I heard Bill yell over the water, "Convince our readers to go yachting!" No problem, I thought to myself, I can do that!

So as I sailed away from the dock and before I reached M mark I looked under my boom and noticed 12 ladies having a bachelorette party on a 21-foot electric Duffy boat. Now that brings back good times! I can write books of all the fun I’ve have had in bay launches.

From my college days of going from Woody’s to Snug Harbor and then going for a midnight swim down the water slides at Lido Isle Yacht Club, the Bay Club and the Dunes singing and laughing the whole way around the bay. To a couple of years later, I got lucky, no pun intended, the night my wife accepted my proposal to marriage just under the Lido bridge next to Z mark in a electric Duffy.

Now these days, I take sunset cruises with my wife and friends. We also spend time on the water taking my 10-year-old son out on scavenger hunts with his friends or dressing up as pirates and terrorizing the harbor. So are you asking yourself, how can I get in on some of this fun?

It’s simple, call Lee at Duffy Boats Rentals at (949) 645-6812 or you could spend hours just going through its web page gathering your ideas for your cruise. There is something for everyone cruising the bay and like Lee told me, “There is no wrong day to go out on a Duffy.”

I just booked a boat for my wife and I to take a sunset cruise this weekend for three hours. I requested a pu-pu platter from one of the local restaurants, and I plan on stopping by Rolfs wine store and grabbing a couple good bottles of wine. Just at sunset, I plan on switching the iPod to some of Dean Martin's greatest hits and heading straight for z mark just next to the Lido Bridge. That’s amore, baby!

Len's Lessons 345 through 353: While cruising the harbor in an electric boat stay to the right of everyone. But remember not to get close to the docks, those overhanging anchors from the big boats will sneak up on you and grab you. Never go under bridges, stay out of the mooring, never go against the grain of traffic, know where the lifejackets are on the boat, pay close attention to your check-out person on the dock and take your pirate's eye patch off while driving because you never know when the next bachelorette party will cruising by.

On my next tack I am headed down to Ensenada to deliver a 40-racing sailboat I just sold to an Australian fellow. I promised him I would get the boat on the yacht path transport ship where the boat will be loaded up to be taken to its new home in Thailand.

Sea ya.

Len Bose