Episode 56 of The Sailing Podcast is with Wendy Hinman, author of Tightwads on the Loose. Wendy and her husband, Garth, bought a 31’ yacht, which fit their budget better than Garth’s large frame. While visiting 19 countries and sailing over 34,000 miles, they learned life aboard is about living simply and adventurously.

I spoke to Wendy after a glowing recommendation from Tom, who was reading Wendy’s book and could see she had great stories and advice to share about cruising on a budget and following a dream.

In this episode we hear about:

How much they spent on their yacht

How they financed their travels with renting our their house

How they dealt with problems such as an electrical meltdown

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Wendy Hinman, author of Tightwads on the Loose

I contacted Wendy Hinman after a listener Tom wrote to me saying:

I have been reading Wendy Hinman’s great book, “Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-Year Pacific Odyssey” and I think she’d be a great guest on your show. Wendy seems like she has all the elements that you like to highlight in your podcasts: a great adventure story, lots of detailed advice on how to cruise, and many entertaining stories. She’s back from her 7-year trip with her husband, and now they’re building their new dream boat to go out again, so I’m sure there’s some interesting stories there that haven’t been told yet. I sure would like to hear more about them and their plans. Can you try to see if you can get her on your podcast? You have a wonderful knack of drawing out such great stories!

Well thanks Tom, for the great suggestion and you were 100% correct and Wendy did have some great stories to share.

Their yacht, Velella, is a Tom Wylie designed 31-foot cutter-rigged light-displacement cruiser. Wendy and Garth had raced yachts for 12 years. When it came to choosing a cruising yacht they found Velella, a cold-molded wooden 31-footer met their cruising needs as well as their budget, despite the fact that Garth couldn’t stand or sit properly inside within its small confines.

The high topsides provide shelter from waves as opposed to the low profile yachts they were used to racing on. The yacht is cold molded and this type of construction provides strength and great insulation. The frames are constructed of wood with a layer of fibreglass sheathing to protect the timber and insure the hull is watertight.

Previous guests, Ian and Michelle of SV Raku also had a cold molded yacht, which they built themselves. It is a popular construction method and one to consider if building your own yacht.

You can find more information about Wendy Hinman at her website, the facebook page, and there is plenty of great cruising information at the blog from their journey. Check out the following pages:

Wendy Hinman’s website – www.wendyhinman.com

Wendy Hinman’s facebook page – www.facebook.com/wendy.hinman.7

Velella’s Adventures in Waterworld blog – http://yachtvelella.blogspot.com

Here is another interview with Wendy, recorded at the 2012 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. I viewed this interview prior to talking to Wendy and it covers much of the story and I believe there is another follow up interview with ‘Digital Reporter’ on YouTube as well

During this interview Wendy and I spoke about catching up down the track to discuss some further cruising topics as Wendy has been presenting information in articles and at boat shows. This will be a great follow up to the email survey I carried out with listeners of the podcast. If you have any comments please enter them into the comments section below.

Thanks for listening to the podcast and I hope you have a great day and thank you for joining us on our journey

Thanks for listening to David and Carina Anderson of ‘The Sailing Podcast’.

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