One morning I was scanning the internet for boats that I knew I can't afford, just to amuze myself, I guess, when I found an ad for this inexpensive 25' sloop. I set the meeting up and there she was. it was the love from the first sight... Somewhat blind, as love so often is. Nevertheles, we closed the deal and I was a proud owner of my first sailing vessel. It was cold January morning, she was covered in snow, resting on the cradle in Ashbridges Bay in Toronto. I started to work on her right away. I wasn't quite sure what I was getting her (or myself) ready for yet. Never straying away from the Lake Ontario in her life she was up for a salty surprise...

Hughes Northstar 500

I knew very little about boats when I got her, still she was a good place to start. Naturally I would know better now what to look for in my next boat.

Hughes Northstar 500 25' was designed as a lake racer and a weekend cruiser. Perfectly sufficient for a weekend outing or day sail which is what most boats moored in clubs and marinas in the city do. She is easy to manouver and quick to get ready to go out. Her flat deck provides ample space to tend to the sails but that comes at the cost of very uncomfortable 4.5' headroom in the cabin which gets even less over the bunks.

Northstar 500 wasn't ment for longer excursions. Seating inside requires some creativity and your back works hard everytime you try to move around. Outside of the cabin, in the cokpit you won't find any lockers, neither she has a place at the bow for an anchor set. More work for your back carying it from wherever you decide to store it.

For a small size, only 25', she has a deep fin keel with 5' draft and was designed to be a very beamy vessel, some 9' wide displacing 3500 lbs. Her average sailing speed is about 4.5-5 knots and tops at 6 kn. Genoa, jib and main are hanked on and her seven winches would make it easy to carry a shute if you have one.

This particular vessel is however unlikely choice for an extended cruise. Her water tank and galley was removed by previous owner. He also removed existing inboard engine and replaced it with an outboard. Stove and some lockers were removed to make extra bunks. No electronics, never mind: no electric wiring was in place when I got her. However, like so many other cruisers who actualy left their home ports instead of only talking about it, I chose to go cruising with the boat I had on hand. Having very limited budged I equipped this boat with bare essentials. Camping stove with 1 pound propane bottles serves as my galley. Portable 2.5 and 4 gallon water containers allow me to store almost 20 gallons of fresh water. I use it strictly for drinking. I wash myself and my dishes in a salt water. I designed and wired sufficient 12V system with an extra battery and an array of small solar panels on my bimini that give me maybe 15W of output. It's just enough to power my depthfinder, VHF, car CD stereo and LED lights (cabin, anchor and running). Can't praise LED enough here for their small draw - they are extremely kind to your batteries. Wish I had purchased handheld VHF radio since my main unit is in the cabin, not in the cokpit, rendering it almost useles. I also wished I carried spare electric bilge pump since the one I had I found broken when was testing my float switch in the Bahamas. Glad I replaced my manual bilge pump, but still...

As you can see my equippement is very basic. In fact I have no refridgeration onboard. I attempted to implement some cool storage with an electric 12V cooler, but it's performance versus impact on the batteries wasn't what I have expected.

As far as navigation goes I have a good compas, old paper charts and I carry handheld GPS. The boat is not equipped with radar or self-steering.

I carry basic safety gear like life jackets, flare gun etc. I also tied up a safety line on the starboard toerail to hook myself in if the weather deteriorates and I have to leave the relative safety of the cokpit, or when sailing at night.