About us
Serving the Big Bend (Tallahassee) Area of Northern Florida
About us
At Rick's Small Sailboats LLC, we believe that Sailing can be an exciting affordable sport when enjoyed on small trailerable sailboats. If you buy a new or used sailboat from us, included in the price is a 8 hour sailing lesson. The goal of the lesson is to give you a sailing knowledge base that will enable you to figure out everything not covered in the lesson by reading books on sailing, watching u-tube videos, and gaining more experience every time you take your boat out. In addition you can call Rick with any questions you are having trouble finding answers to on your own. Customers who don't want the sailing lesson will be given a discounted price on the boat they buy. Experienced sailors may still want to take a lesson, which can be tailored to their level of sailing experience. Rick can teach a wide variety of advanced subjects such as Coastal Navigation, Aerodynamic & Hydrodynamic boat design factors, Heavy weather tactics ie. What to do if caught in a squall with rapidly increasing wind including danger of a lee shore.
Next I want to tell you a little about how I came to start Rick’s Small Sailboats LLC.
My parents who both knew how to sail, put me in a sailing program for kids. I was a natural. Learning to sail was effortless for me. My parents never owned a sailboat but I got to sail at summer camp and never forgot how to sail. After graduating from High School I came to Florida in the fall of 1977, and after a while I got a job at the Thunderbird Hotel Windsurfer and Hobie Cat Sailboat Rental (no longer in business) on the ocean in Sunny Isles (The North end of Miami Beach). I learned to windsurf there and got a lot of experience sailing the Hobie 16 (most popular Beach catamaran of all time). I worked there sailing and windsurfing every day for several years. Then I landed a job at the Jack Leverenz Sailing School (no longer in business) which had two locations. Punta Gorda, Florida and St. Clare Shores on Lake St. Clare in Michigan. I taught sailing at the Punta Gorda location in the winter and the Lake St. Clare location in the summer for several years. Then I started attending Edison Community College in Ft. Myers, Florida at age 30. Then I moved back to the East Coast of Florida where I attended and graduated from Nova Southeastern College of Pharmacy in 1993. Then I worked as a pharmacist which was not as much fun as teaching sailing but paid a lot more. I bareboat chartered (renting a boat without a captain) a week at a time now and then.
I went from Key West to Dry Tortugas and back, from Florida to Bimini (Bahamas) and back several times, to the British Virgin Islands 3 times which helped me maintain my sailing skills. In March 2009 My wife and I bought Palm Beach Compounding Pharmacy in Jupiter, Florida, and worked hard and grew the business. We sold it in December 2021. I was done with pharmacy but I really enjoyed operating a small business and wanted to return to marine industry.
My wife and I moved to Tallahassee from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida in June 2022. At first I thought about buying a Marina or Sailing School. Then the interest rates went up. We had enough money to start a business from scratch without needing to borrow money. I noticed that there was not even one business in existance selling small sailboats anywhere near Tallahassee. I have sailed on both large and small sailboats and I prefer the small sailboats which are more affordable, exciting, lively and responsive to sail than large sailboats. So we started Rick’s Small Sailboats LLC. Our ideal customer is someone who wants to get out on the water, has thought about sailing but is not sure how to get into the sport of sailing. We want to find them before they conclude it is just easier to buy a power boat
Myths Around Sailing
I would like to dispel some misconceptions & preconceived ideas people may have about sailing, which might keep people from getting into the sport of sailing.
Myth
Sailing is often thought to be an expensive sport that only rich folks can enjoy.
The truth is, small trailerable sail boats are less expensive to own and use than most small trailerable power boats. This is because small power boats use much more gas than small sailboats. Small sailboats used on lakes often have no motor, and use a canoe paddle to get back to shore, if the wind dies. Small sail boats that are used in the ocean or Gulf of Mexico should have a 2 to 9 horse power (depending on the size of the sailboat) out board motor, if they have offshore wind (or no wind), or tidal current pushing the opposite direction they are trying to go. Sailboats use wind power almost all the time they are on the water and so don’t use much gas.
Myth
Sailboats are slow.
The latest thing in sailing are hydrofoil sailboats. Just google: America's cup hydrofoil sailboats, hydrofoil sailboats, hydrofoil kite boarding, hydrofoil windsurfing etc. and you will see videos of all kinds of hydrofoiling sailing craft from the large and expensive America’s cup boats to the small 1 person hydrofoiling Moth, F-101, iQ Foil Olympic windsurfer one design class, Kite boards. These boats frequently sail at several times the speed of the wind. Even faster than hydrofoil boats are Ice boats. Google Ice boating or ice sailing speed record, (which is 107 miles per hour), for some more exciting videos. They sail on Ice routinely at highway speeds like 60 miles an hour. Of course you have to live in a cold climate where lakes freeze over. Then there are Land sailing boats that sail in the desert South West and large parking lots. Google land sailing and land sailing speed record, which is 126 miles per hour! Yes the above mentioned sailboats are very fast, but I have to admit that most sailboats are slower than most power boats. Most sailboats have a gentle motion and they are very quiet. Power boats often have a rather uncomfortable ride and are frequently very noisy. Also single hull aka mono hull sailboats heel (lean over to one side), especially when sailing up wind. This heeling creates a sensation of speed, that is, you feel like you are going faster than you really are when heeled over.
Myth
Sailing is too complicated.
I prefer to say: Operating a sailboat requires some easily learned skills that are not needed to operate a motorboat. Sure, sailing is not as simple as motoring, but you get a greater since of accomplishment & satisfaction when you get from point A to point B using just the wind in your sails to propel you to where you want to go. Remember that we provide a full 8 hour day sailing lesson included in the price of every new or used boat we sell. After that lesson you will have a solid knowledge base to build on, so can learn anything not covered in the 8 hour lesson through watching U-Tube Videos, reading sailing books and magazines, and through experience. Sailing is just like any skill, the more you do it the better you get at it.