Aynone here have a sail boat or know much about them?

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I assume I'd need a 25 hp outboard or so on it?

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you can put a 25HP if the bracket is big enough but you certainly wouldn't need to. Most people use <10HP or so. You only need an outboard to get out from the marina to the open water and raise sail. I got by just fine on my 22' daysailer, and it displaced 3500#, with a 6.5HP. With $10k you could get a good sized boat ready to sail that might even have an inboard.

check out websites like this

I say go down to SYC or NOYC like PaBon said, learn from the old salts there/take actual lessons. Then get a starter boat based on what you decide you want from your learning stage.

After a quick search, I'd be all over this if I were you

Ha, money pit.

Take paBon's advice and go sail some more. NOYC has guys who are always willing to take you out to sail.

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Ha, money pit.

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Uncle always says
B.O.A.T. = Break Out Another Thousand

You can get a hell of a boat these days for 10 grand. That's the beauty of fiberglass sailboats. There's no such thing as a fiberglass worm. They last forever.

Check out Sailing Texas. They seem to be the best resource IMHO. They aren't confined to Texas. Got TONS of pics of the boats that have been listed there so you can see a lot of examples of the boats you're looking for.

I sail weekly on a 22' Catalina, 22' Chrysler, Spirit 6.5 and have sailed a lot of others in that range. Mostly boats from the seventies and eighties because that's when they were making them. You don't need a new boat unless you just want one. They're cheap compared to motorboats because half the cost of it isn't motor.

I use a 6 horse Yamaha sail drive outboard on my Catalina. And I've slept 5 on it more than once. Took it up to Lake Ouachita with the wife and three daughters for 5 nights like that one time sailing around anchoring on different islands every night.

As for condition of the boats, SOME of them have known problems with blisters and delamination but those are few and far between. If a blister is small I wouldn't even bother being concerned with it. In damn near all cases that's just cosmetic. If you don't know much about them, I'd recommend you find someone that does to go through the boat with you before you buy and check out everything first. Inspect all rigging. If it's a swing keel then check the pin and cable. See if the electronics are working and most importantly inspect the sails. If they're old and bagged out and soft, you're going to need to replace them and that's where it gets expensive. Luckily you really don't have to do that very often. Compared to a powerboat they're completely economical. You aren't using much fuel. Motors are small so repairs aren't as expensive. And most of the problems you find on them can be fixed with epoxy and fiberglass and elbow grease.

Been sailing for over thirty years now and I'm more addicted to it than ever. If I don't sail every week I get withdrawals.

You could do that in the lake however if the weather turns it could get bad quickly.

Growing up we used to sail to mandeville, bayou lacombe, madisonville, Slidell. Sometimes spend the night and come back in am.

We also spent many Easters and long spring weekends out of Gulfport/pass Christian and stayed out on horn and cat island. Those trips were usually on borrowed much bigger boats of 40-50 ft.

Lake pontchartrain is a great lake to sail on with good sailing almost year round. Summer is considered the bad time of year, but it's actually pretty good after 5 pm with the breeze along the shoreline. There is just nothing far out in the lake.

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We also spent many Easters and long spring weekends out of Gulfport/pass Christian and stayed out on horn and cat island.

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when you do something like this, you just call ahead and rent a slip for the night?

obviously the rates are different everywhere, but whats a typical price to rent a slip, like where I would kkep the boat permanently? in addition do you just get a utility bill like it was a house?

No, we took a friends boat and then went out there and anchored on the bay side of the islands. watched the weather close and it's usually pretty calm. If weather was bad we didn't go.

I loved staying on the boats overnight.

Yeah there's something about sleeping on a sailboat. It's hard to do it wrong.