Zero Experience - Where do I start?

I would phone a few of the hundreds of sailing schools with yachts, see what they can offer in terms of introductory courses.
Personally I would advocate doing a short course first, without your family, as it might be less pressure. Equally when I have sailed cruisers, knowing that my wife was competent to steer the thing, understand the sails and sort out rudimentary navigation was very important.
You may find the reality is not what you thought. You may love it. Best to make sure before spending lots of money or time. Some people only find out its not for them after they've downsized the house to buy the boat.
Ask lots of questions, read lots of books.
Talk to people. I did Yachtmaster theory at evening class as a starting point, having sailed dinghies as a child. Good way to meet people with similar ideas.
There are many facets to sailing, you may find your interests better served on the ybw.com forums.
Lots of people do buy largish boats without a dinghy sailing background and get on fine.
You don't need to be a competent dinghy racer to be competent at getting a yacht from port to port across oceans, there are whole different, but complementary, sets of skills.
The whole big-boat thing is expensive, money spent on learning is usually good value in the end.

Or you could move to the south coast, join a club, buy drinks for yacht owners and hope they invite you to the next foray to France in return for a bit of help with maintenance. That can work too!

Originally posted by Raidersan My dream has always been to one day get a biggish sailing boat and escape for an extended period of time to travel the world.

Then what you desire has nothing to do with the sport of sailboat racing, which is the subject of this forum. The well intentioned suggestions you start with dinghy sailing are highly appropriate if you wanted to race but it seems you do not. Yes there are direct training routes into yacht cruising, as opposed to dinghy sailing and there are numerous sailing schools providing such courses. Start off looking for a school providing  the RYA "competent crew" course and take it from there. Top tip, do it somewhere scenic, which the Solent alas is not.

You should find out if you actually like cruising before investing so much emotion in the idea. It can be cold, wet, uncomfortable, sea-sick making and sometimes boring. The ability to get on with other people at very close quarters for long periods is a necessity. It can be idyllic but is by no means always so.


Edited by blueboy - 21 May 11 at 6:26am

I have to agree with Nessa (winging it), it is a good way to get a feel of sailing. However, if you decide you enjoyed the experience, then progress through the dinghy training, before seriously hitting the keelboat/offshore training. With dinghy experience you will learn more about the 'feel' of the boat. This will make you a safer sailor (And before other forum members have a go at me, I do realise that some very good sailors went straight into offshore keelboats, but far more went there through dinghies!).

Before you go for the flotilla holiday, I would suggest that you visit your local sailing club. You will often find someone who wil take you out for a taster, I sail at Broxbourne SC, if that is near where you live, I am sure a taster session could be arranged.

Jon

Essentailly you seem to be wanting to learn to sail a keelboat pretty quickly, and you're hoping that your family will enjoy the sport as much as you hope to.  You could potentially spend a lot of money learning to do something you might, or your family might, find you don't enjoy.  To become a capable yachtsman, who can undertake ocean voyages in safety, you need a lot of training, including navigation, understanding all the technology, seamanship, crewing etc, plus of course you need the knowledge that will enable you to choose a suitable seaworth boat. 

A massive investment that could be wasted if you ultimately find it's not for you.

My suggestion would be to get a taste of what's to come by taking the family on a flotilla holiday, where you charter a boat and have a skipper aboard to teach you the basics and make sure you're safe.  You can often combine this with getting your first qualification under your belt, plus you ALL find out if it's for you.

 While you're waiting check out the RYA's Essentail Navogation and Seamanship Skills course, which can now be done online!

http://www.rya.org.uk/coursestraining/courses/navigation/Pages/Basicnav.aspx

good luck and stay safe - RYA training is the best in the world, so make sure you get some!

Blimey fella... we need to think about this one.