Oh kinda forgot this thread changed...
My absolute first sailing happened at BSA summer camp, Camp Hiawatha in the UP of Michigan. I wanted to pick off a bunch of merit badges, and that one seemed cool. I went over to the sailing dock after my swimmer qualification test, and asked about the merit badge. The counselor handed me the sailing merit badge book, and said come back tomorrow. The next day I was out on a sunfish. For training we played follow the leader, mimicking the leaders sail trim for starting out, and then playing with it to see what happens. Hooked. Passed the written and OTW test the next day. I sailed every day that camp, and sailing was the only merit badge I got at camp!
That might have been the end of it, but within the year two great things happened.
A new kid moved into town and he had a Laser! He used to race were they used to live. There was no dinghy racing in Houghton, so most every day we would dolly the boat down to the water and take turns. Great fun, and learned a lot about trim, wind, and reading the water.
This was in the 70's sailboat craze, and my parents bought into a friends Ericson 29. While small by contemporary standards, the thing seemed like an ocean liner to me. We had several great years on that boat. While my parents were casual sailors, Mr Timm was a keen mariner and I learned the majority of my boatcraft from him on Portage Lake and the connected Lake Superior. I can still remember setting off for Isle Royale, 60MN miles away and over the horizon. When it first came into sight out of the fog is a memory I'll never forget.