Ask Wednesday: Jennifer & Matt Neumann on the boating life

Have you ever thought you might like to own a boat? Today, we're pleased to offer you some information to help you decide.
    Jennifer & Matt Neumann have sailed and power-boated out of Coyote Point Yacht Club, San Mateo, California for a number of years. They have graciously taken half an hour out of their active outdoor life (and from their own blogging) to talk with Moristotle.

    Be forewarned: we think you will be more inclined than not to try some sailing after reading the following interview. [Our questions are in italics.]

"Sailing" doesn't have to mean your boat is a sailboat, right?
    A lot of people use the term to mean boating in general. We usually use boating for boating in general or power boating, and save sailing for sailing.

How did you get interested in sailing?
     [Matt] I boated with my family as a kid and was in the Sea Scouts in high school. My family rented a houseboat for a week in the California Delta a few summers and my dad had a power boat at Coyote Point for a few years. I have some great crash stories, with both the house boat and the Sea Scout ship. After I graduated from college, my older brother Mark had a Catalina 22, which he soon replaced with a Ranger 26, Microbrew, and we sailed together a lot.
     [Jennifer] I sailed a few times in my early 20s, including a lesson on a dinghy off Okracoke [in the Outer Banks of North Carolina] with a good friend from high school. We capsized the boat and my friend was desperately treading water when the instructor and I realized we could touch the bottom. We both started yelling "Stand up, stand up!" We went back in after that.

What boats have you owned?
    [Matt] I bought my first boat, "Pizote," a Santana 30/30 GP, in partnership with Mark in 2000.

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In 2005, the year after we got married, Mark decided to buy a larger boat a friend was selling. We decided we didn't want to keep Pizote and briefly had a Lido 14. That was way too much work to sail (too much tacking in lake sailing, plus you have to hunch over to stay under the boom during tacks). It was a lot of fun though. We took my niece and nephew out on the lake and I said "let's fall off." I eased out the main and Jennifer eased out the jib to fall off the wind—as nephew William cried out, "But I don't want to fall off!!!" He thought I meant literally fall off the boat.
    [Jennifer] We did have a good crash in that boat at the same lake the first time we sailed there. We knew nothing about sailing a small centerboard boat and we pulled up the centerboard as we approached the dock and launch ramp, so it wouldn't hit the shallower bottom at the launch ramp. We didn't realize what a huge effect the centerboard has on the boat's tracking straight and we immediately started crabbing sideways and we crashed into and Asian couple in a plastic rental canoe. I have never seen a canoe move so fast afterwards! They had that canoe back at the dock and they were laying rubber in the parking lot on their way out of the park before we even recovered enough to ask if they were okay. The man barely waited for the poor woman to get out of the canoe before he ran up the dock to his car.
    After about six months we were over the little-boat experience and bought a Catalina 320, which we named "Pineapple Girl."

After Matt sailed to Hawaii in 2008 we entered into a partnership arrangement on a J-42, which we sailed to Hawaii in 2010. After the Hawaii race our partners kept the boat and we bought the Performance Trawler 35, "Pineapple Girl II," which we have now, our first powerboat.

What has been your most memorable sailing experience so far?
    [Jennifer] I think we already covered that but anyways...We have lots of fun stories. Matt has sailed to Hawaii two and a half times (you can imagine the half is a story) and I have been once, so there are some tales with that and other races. Matt's race down the coast in the Coastal Cup on "Stray Cat Blues" in 2001 was quite a ride.
    [Matt] Yeah, I like to talk about surfing down the waves in the howling wind off point Conception. I woke up to the shuddering sound of the boat moving fast through the water and realized I was the only person below. I stood in the companionway steps and watched as Carrie held the tiller and surfed down wave after wave. As the boat surfed down, the five people in the cockpit would hunker down and they were all screaming, "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," eyes big as saucers, sure they were going to crash. Then at the bottom as they rode up the back of the next wave they'd all sit up again and yell in exhilaration and then at the top they'd start hunkering down and screaming "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" again until they got to the bottom. This only lasted an hour.

Would you ever do anything like travel the Great Loop [circumnavigating eastern North America]?
    We would love to do the Great Loop. Maybe when we retire. Now we are busy exploring the California Delta every weekend.

Can "deck hands" get a job on a boat competing in a race?
    Probably not competing in a real race, but many clubs (at least in our area) have casual events where someone inexperienced has a chance to "catch a ride" and learn about sailing.

Owning a boat isn't all positive, right? What are some the downsides?
    We think it is the best use of our time but if you have competing priorities and can't spend a lot of time enjoying your boat, the maintenance and expense might not seem worth it. Most boats never leave the dock so we realize we are in the minority. The boat is constantly exposed to the weather and requires a lot of maintenance, but for us it is a labor of love which we greatly enjoy. When we miss a weekend at the boat we are always anxious to get back to it.

What advice would you offer a person who thinks he might be interested in sailing?
    See if there are any clubs in your area with casual racing or events where you can gain experience. If not, buy an entry-level boat and go for it. You might just get hooked. If not, you can always sell it.

What question (or questions) would you like to answer that we didn't ask?
    Two questions:

What does boating mean to you?
    For us, having the boat is a major part of our life. It is what we do. If we are actually at our home on a weekend our neighbors are pretty much shocked to see us. If we did not have the boat we'd be completely bored. I am not sure what people without boats even do on the weekends and in their spare time. Beside watch pro football, of course. But other than that...Aren't they incredibly bored playing golf, gardening, driving their kids to soccer or whatever?

Why a power boat this time?
    The San Francisco Bay is a challenging place to sail. Most of the year it is howlingly windy and you have to bundle up like an eskimo to go sailing. The only time of year it is nice and you can go out in shorts and not bundled up is actually in the winter when it is less windy. We found ourselves motoring a lot to get from place to place and only actually sailing if we were racing or the motor died (we had some fuel issues in the J 42). After the Hawaii race in 2010, we were pretty much over racing so we decided to go for a power boat. We absolutely love the space and we love cruising. We won our clubs cruising award on Pineapple Girl I and II. Now that we have the boat in the delta, I cannot imagine being up there in a sailboat. We are in a covered slip, which you cannot do in a sailboat—the sun can be too hot with no cover. We have so much space in the powerboat and so much storage. When we anchor out we can hang out in the sun on the back deck or go up in the shade on the flybridge. It is just so much more livable for us on a powerboat. We really love the lay out of the boat and it was so well maintained when we bought it. We would not trade it for anything.