First time's the charm

  • Thread starter SailboatOwners.com
  • Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Fred

Oday 30 first boat

Learned on a pearson 30 so felt ready to start with a 30 footer of my own. Turned out to be the right devision.
 
B

Bill

First Boat

I decided at 40 it was time to try sailing. Didn't know anyone who owned a boat and had never been on a sailboat. Bought a 23' American and took my first sailboat ride on my boat with the help of a How to Sail book. Since then went up to a Catalina 30, then a Hunter 37, and now a Hunter 420. Moved from Missouri to Florida for sailing year round. Little did I know that it would be too hot and stormy to cruise in the summer. Bill
 
D

Dan

Snarks RULE!

Another Snark! I was 12 years old and living in Biloxi, Mississippi. What a great time...got on the Back Bay and sailed frequently. Even loaded the little 11-footer with camping equipment, sailing across the bay to a favourite camping spot and spent the night there. What a great adventure and a great way to learn to sail. Boat #2 was a 26' sloop. Boat #3 was a Hunter 36. I guess for #4 I should go to 46'!
 
A

alex jomarron

1st boat

My first boat was and is my O'Day 28. I chose that size because it fit my needs to cruise Lake Michigan. It also wasn't so large to cost me a lot to buy, maintain, moor, etc. Coming from a motorcycle background, I knew I'd quickly outgrow something smaller. I figured it would take longer to sell a boat than a bike. This choice has workded out well for me. I probably couldn't sail a dinghy very well, but I like the margin of error my 28 offered me early on.
 
B

Bruce

Size does matter

The smaller boats allow you to get comfortable with the delicat nuance of wind, waves and vessel. This allows for better sailing in the years follow.
 
P

Pat Hayes

First One

I learned on an 18'Windjammer, 8 years old for my first "solo" sail. My first boat was a Force 5, followed by a Lightening, and now a Widgeon, and a Sunfish.
 
B

Brent

26mkII

Never sailed before and just bought my first boat this year, a 1970 26mkII. The cost/size/# of things that can be done with the boat made my wife and I really want this size boat, and this one specifically. We're still learning but message boards like this, a good sailing book, and just doing it seem to work just fine for learning, and loving it!
 
R

Rich Lamond

First Boat

I remember sitting in the parking lot of Round Valley Reservoir reading the instructions on how to put on the mast on my new O'Day 14. Then came a Helsen 20, which, on the day of delivery the rudder pulled out of the transom (screwed into the fiberglass). I got them back though, as I traded it in on a new 1978 Hunter 27. As I pulled it into the slip, there was a snapping noise and a thud, as the cable for the swing keel snapped and the keel buried itself in the mud. "She's all yours!". Sold the 27 some years later and bought a new 1989 H30, which I sailed for a number of years. In Sept. 2000, I bought a new H410, which I still sail today.
 
M

Meriby

Castine Class -- Classic and Classy

The Castine Class was designed specifically with new, young sailors in mind, and built at the local boatyard, Eaton's. Mace and Alonzo built the entire first fleet for the Castine Yacht Club. She was 18'3" and had a 6' beam, nice, deep centerboard and a big, open cockpit. Terrific for day tripping, and the overnights with 4-6 kids per boat, with all our overnight gear, cook kits for island camping, etc., were a hoot! Such fun, those boats, virtually un-capsizable and lovely to put out into Penobscot Bay.
 
D

Dick

start small

I think the boat you learn on should be small enough to be fairly responsive to wind and balance changes but not so tender that you spend more time in the water than on top of it. The problem with learning on a 30'+ is that it takes awhile for it to respond and a new sailor tends to overcompensate. The basic skill set is the same on a 17' or a 45' boat but the reaction time and systems on the boat vary considerable. Step up to the larger size as your skill and confidence level increases. When you can handle a 17' in 15-20 kts of wind and feel very comfortable then go up to a 30' or an intermediate step.
 
B

bill hunt

first time

I learned to sail on a sailfish, then to daysailor, 22' keel boat to 48' ketch. I think the smaller the better to learn on. Overcome fear of capsizing right off and go from there.
 
J

Joseph Mastal

The first choice is a compromise

I learned to sail on Long Island Sound through the New York Sailing School. They used 21' sonars for novices and had a number of other boats up to 40'. For me, it is a three hour drive to get to any salt water. It made more sense finding somehting to use on upstate lakes to stay "in practice", or so I tell my wife. I found a Watkins 17, with an 8 h.p Johnson that is as old as the boat ( 28) and the trailer that came with it for $1200. The boat is smaller than planned for, but for practice has turned into a better investment than I would have thought. It's tender enough to challenger skills in moderate wind, especially since the main has no reef points. It's fast enough to challenge the 21' Flying Scots and old enough to demand maintenance attention to just about everything: a good teaching device on all fronts. I can get out on the water after work and still be home by 9 PM or cut the grass on week-ends and be on the water anyway. I would prefer a real cabin with a head for week-end cruising but that isn't going to make me a better sailor and I found a restaurant with inexpensive dockage for on-the-water needs. My goal is a 40 something foot catamaran so I have other skills yet to learn. Like the weather, local conditions ( and situations), limit the possibilities and choices.
 
E

Eric Schleif

Start small

Ilearned to sail on Blue Jay and Lightning class sailboats in Wednesday night races at the local yacht club that my parents belonged to.
 
K

Ken Cobb

ODay Daysailer

Learned on a Sunfish, first owned a Daysailor. I think the Daysailor was a good entry level family boat. It held a lot of people and provisions, and provided lively sailing performance without too much risk. We never capsized it.
 
D

Dave J

Home-made in shop class

My first sail boat was the Popular Mechanics "Sailing Surfboard" project. About 12 feet long and about 3 feet wide as I remember. Built it in Jr High School woodshop class. learning to sail was also learning to not get knocked down. Had to de-rig the boat and paddle it to shore to re-rig it whenever I got dumped. Was far too light a guy in those days to flip it back up as we do a sunfish. (grin) I honestly believe that one should learn to sail on something like a sunfish or lazer before moving on to the bigger boats. IMHO, one gets a far better "feel" for the wind and water that way.
 
J

Jerry Stroupe

First sail boat O'Day

I learned how to sail for the first time in late 2001, I learned how to sailed with a friend on a 26 Tazer. Then after my children set off his fire extinguisher below in his cabin,In mid 2003 Me and the boys noticed our invations to go sailing with Bill were getting a lot less. I found a 1975 O'Day 25 in pices,the boys and I cleaned her up painted the bottom compound the hull and put her back together. This has been the most fun sailing with my wife and childern than I can ever say. I am all ready planning for the next size up. 32 Hunter
 
M

Mike Whalen

AquaFinn

I bought this boat from a guy who lived in a cove on a local lake. Called him on first day with a breeze. Went to his home he rigged the boat. He was probably 6'3" and 260 I was 5'10" and aobut 200. We both got on the boat (very simialr to Sufish but bigger "cockpit") He sailed it into the wind coming out of the cove a couple of hundred yards then said, "got the idea" Yeah. "Good you sail it back." That was ten years ago. Bought a 12 foot dingy four years later and then in 2000 got an O'Day 25. Still have all three. My retirement goal is to form an armada with my three ships, tave over a small friendly island nation, claim it is beset by terrorists and get Bush to send me a couple of billion to fight them. All of which I'll squander. Later, mike
 
N

Norman L. de Vall

My first was pruchased sunk

My first boat was sight unseen, sunken somewhere at the end of two mooring lines. Under the waters of Wilmington Harbor back bay there was said to be a 12' Woodpussy, a moulded plywood daysailer with centerboad. Her mast, rudder and tiller were ashore. The price to pull on the lines was $75 prepaid. I was 13, my boat partner, 12 and in 1954 that was a hugh amount of money, but that was the deal. Once paid, we began pulling hoping that her mooring lines would not part. Slowly the green slimed bulwark rose to the surface, and months later we were saiing.
 
M

Mike Nimmer

O'day 22

Bought my 1974 O'day 22 when I turned 18, I had first sailed on this boat when I was 10 so buying it when I had the chance was an easy decission. I have since gone up in size to an Irwin 27. I sold the O'day to a friend of mine, it was his first boat also.
 
B

Bill George

Boat Size

Took lessons on a Shark. Although I was looking for a smaller sailboat ended up with a 26' MACGregor and am learning on it. Could not pass up the great deal. Got it for $2000 under list. Probably would have gone under 20' if I had not found the Mac.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top Bottom