“I grew up sailing a Rhodes 19 on the East Coast. I now regularly sail out the Berkeley Marina in my Olson 25. I have done a variety of coastal cruising, including Prince Edward Island, Narraganset Bay, Chesapeake Bay and Catalina Island. ”
Aboard since 2013
From Kensington, CA
Chartering the boat from Tom was easy and very enjoyable. The boat is in great condition and easy to sail. There's a lot of new rigging, digital navigational tools, and plenty of room for crew. I took my family out on this boat and everyone had an excellent time. I will definitely be taking this boat out again in the future.
Great experience, was a great day on the bay sailed out to angel island with two others.
Tom is friendly and competent. gives a good introduction and asks the boat be clean and back on time. All reasonable. The boat itself is surprisingly fast and agile. It is slightly beaten up, but that is more tun offset by good rigging and sails. I had a great day on her. When needed, the outboard worked fine. He takes good care of his boat and it has a good inventory of safety gear. Some binoculars would be nice.
The boat was exactly as expected; it was great for sailing in the bay, handled well reefed (as was necessary in the wind). I appreciated Tom's review of the boat and general advice. A most enjoyable experience.
Great boat, in great condition. Great for a nice day sail with friends. Really easy to maneuver and control. Would highly recommend.
Tom Cavers surely loves his boat and to sail it. We agree totally after a day sailing the Olson 25 in San Francisco Bay. The morning was medium breeze and easy seas and we had two kids who had enough wind not to be bored but not too over the top. Then, the afternoon brought more wind and bigger seas and the Olson was great. At 25 foot, it's a agile day sailor with the decent freeboard and hull for beating great up wind. The helm was quite a pleasure with less wind helm then some other boats like the Catalinas.
Boat has an relatively new outboard motor (I guess I should reduce the rating because I don't like outboards, but that seems petty). Getting in and out of the slip was trivial if you have docking phobia. Did it a couple of times due to changing crew and honestly I could have sailed in and out without using the motor (but I didn't). So I've rented boats at different places in the world, and an important distinction to make is this isn't a big sleek Beneteau that smells like new and practically never goes to sea. This is a sailboat that is sailed regularly by the owner in SF Bay and is well matched to the conditions. If you really like to sail versus boating around, I think you should try this boat.