Work I'm on loan to a different department and in the middle of a mind-numbing project. We're on zone two of six of the layout, and all the details we're filling in are similar but slightly different so there's nothing new to make it interesting but it takes almost as long as if it was all from scratch. I talked with my manager a bit about it and he said it was so I would be exposed to more of the company's stuff, so I agreed and mentioned a couple areas that I would like to get some experience in, and he said that was a good idea too, but we'll see what happens. He's not going to let me off of this project while it's still understaffed and late. Fun My bought as a Christmas gift an "intro to sailing" class for us. I talk about sailing like an excited 5th grade nerd whenever it gets into my head, but I have only sailed 8ft Sunfish at a boy scout camp for a week as a teenager, and hardly ever through a friend since then. The lesson was on a 30ft Catalina, which was twice as big as the biggest I had ever been on, and we both had fun. The downside is I've had a recurring daydream ever since about building a nice 12ft sailboat for myself. I know a couple people who have built kayaks or canoes and it would be cheaper than buying a new one [but more than used, not including time, and tools]. That's going to stay a daydream for now. We live in an apartment and I have no space for a workshop [yet].
Back home we have a sailing club that actually owns the boats, it’s kind of a co-op I guess. They own the 1 and 2 person boats which they give lessons on and some people own the bigger ones that they’ll ask people to help with sometimes. Everybody volunteers some days to be there taking care of the place and operating the rescue boat in case anything goes wrong. It’s a pretty cool place and probably the most inexpensive way to get into sailing without any major purchases that need storing. Might be worth looking into if there’s anything like that around you !
There are, but both clubs I know about are fairly exclusive and out of my price range.
I'm super-jealous. By the way, daydreaming about building a boat is pretty cheap. It's the "building" part where things get dumb. I had a friend who was basically gifted a Cadillac runabout and it became the only thing he did and the only thing he spent money on for four years.My bought as a Christmas gift an "intro to sailing" class for us.
Yeah, daydream for now. And try to find a friend with one. My ideal sailboat is probably big and wide enough that more than two adults can fit in it, but light enough that a couple people can carry it. If it can fit on a roof rack even better. I'd like to be able to bring a cooler and fishing gear, so the little racing designs aren't it. The most inexpensive to build that is still a boat and not a garbage raft with a bedsheet are these things: http://opengoose.com/ Most build reports I found cost between "a few hundred" and 2k. And they look like a plywood box but they're supposed to sail well. At the cheap end people use tyvek for sails: At the other end of the spectrum are boats like this: which took a retiree a year to build and an undisclosed amount of money. But it's a beautiful little boat to drool over. 
