Hard starting?

[Jim]

On the water forever......

I've been on the water since just about day one. My grandfather was club Commodore, I sailed and played on his boat the Shenandoah (45) and grew up on my parents beloved John Alden Sara. It's all I've ever known as a way to spend spare time. It's what we did as kids, and I guess it stuck, because it is all that I still do. Shenandoah is long gone, Sara was sold to folks on Long Island, but I still sail. I wish I had kept Sara. I had a love affair with a John Alden 37 (Notorious nee Nighthawk) for a while, but now I enjoy a Columbia 24 and a Hunter 27 classic Cherubini plastic. LOL.....I remember mama laughing about those new plastic (FG) boats in the early sixties. I race three days a week now, and love spending time just messing with the boats, and sharing what I have learned. I am a Past Commodore too now...life has it's passages. Still sailing.....and enjoying the passtime with my children and grandchildren. All of us who are reading this thread are very lucky, aren't we? Amen, Fair winds, be well and enjoy! Peace Jim

 

[MorseJH]

A sunfish and the boy scouts

My boy scout troup had summer camp right on Berlin resevoir. Someone gave us 2 sunfish to add to our rowboat with too big a motor and canoes and etc. I spent most of my time going back and forth on an inland channel very happy. Then they told me I had to flip one over. WHAT!? I cried. You aren't supposed to do that. They replied I needed to know how to flip it back if I ever did. Making it flip was harder than flipping it back for me. At the end of the camp, a storm blew in, and winds were high (someone said gale force, but I do not believe that today). I sailed that sunfish out in the main resevoir, sometimes water pouring in the cockpit, having a blast (and not even thinking of putting the sheet in the kleet - hands only!).It took more than 20 years before I bought a sailboat, I wasn't exactly born to settle down. The rest is future.

 

[Mark Wieber]

Got me out of the house

My family has always owned some sort of row boat, or outboard, for camping. My Dad and I experimented with a sailing rig on our Folboat and had some fun. When I was about 12 my Dad bought me a AMF "Flight 12" (Mini Fish by Montgomery Wards). He used to drop me off Saturday morning at Lafayette, or San Pablo, reservoir where I would sail all day. In the evening he would join me for a while and then take me back home for dinner. In my 20's I had the good fortune to crew on a couple of Cal 29's and a Columbia 26. All with interesting skippers having wildly different personalities. Now my wife and I have a C36 that lives on the bay. I often think about whether parents today could even think about letting their teenage son sail solo all day. I not only owe my Dad for sparking my desire to sail, but also for trusting me to spend time alone on the local lakes.

 

[Alex]

I couldn't afford a canoe

I grew up around all kinds of boats except sail. When I got out of the Army as a 22 yr old I wanted my own small boat & thought a canoe would be nice but was put off by the price. A friend told me of a forgotten sailboat (a Moth class)in a barn that I could get for $50. I bought it & spent a summer fixing it up. I finally put it in the water & with a "Golden Book" on sailing & was on my way. That was in 1966 & I havn't stopped since.

 

[David11038]

clears my mind

When I was a teenager, I used to sail with a friend on the Elk River in Maryland on a Sunfish, always enjoyed it, but his parents ended up getting rid of it after a couple of summers. Then 25 years later, my brother, who races M class scows took me out on another sunfish. I noticed while my hand was on the tiller that I was not thinking/worrying about anything outside of being in the boat on the water! What a wonderful feeling! That hooked me. It took a few years, but I finally joined a local university sailing club and recently bought myself a Hunter 170, hope to hook the kids and wife.Sailing is a great way to block out the day to day fuss of the world.

 

[Thom Hoffman]

Easier on the back

I use to get my escape to nature by hauling 40# of gear up a mountain for a few days; my body sought an easier way to find the same sensations. A canoe camping trip got me further interested in boating, and when the whitecaps kicked up on the lake, I knew I wanted more boat beneath me, and not as much paddeling! A few outings with friends on sailboats was enough to get me hooked; better late than not at all.

 

[cmcsailor]

blame it on the kids

My son and daughter got me started.Eight years ago they pleaded with me to buy a boat that we could go down the river close to home on, a raft or something. I visited the local flea market and saw an old sea snark, which I later described was like sailing in a 7-11 beer cooler(styrofoam) My daughter soon tired of the novelty but my son was great at it. Once when we were on the potomac he and his 8 yearl old buddy sailed clean out of site. I asked a power boater to look for him and tell him to sail back soon the little sail was in sight and he expertly sailed up to the boat launch.  He later persued other interests as teen agers often do. As for me I moved on from the little sea snark to bigger boats and even crewed on a boat to Nova Scotia. I am still learning and loving every minute of it and look forward to sailing my 37 footer this summer for the first time. 25 21 22 now 37 I think that will keep me for a while and hopefully I can get out in the ocean hmmmmm....why not Nova Scotia?  My son wil soon be 20 (past the teen age years) He steered the tanzer 22 with a smile as he kept her heeled over to the rails in 20 mile per hour winds last summer. I hope he will get back into sailing after he gets past the teen age car and girls feeding frenzy

 

[ex-admin]

Final results

Final results for the Quick Quiz ending April 24, 2005:How did you become interested in sailing?32% Sailed with friends, got hooked24% Sailboats always looked cool24% I don’t know and still can’t figure it out20% Come from a family that sailed

 

[rbcwarbucks]

Forced as a sullen teenager

When I was 15 through 18 my father had a Gulf coast 21. My mother hated sailing. Dad would make me to go along to keep him compnay. I hated the boat heeling, the work that everything required! And, above all, it just seemed so UNCOOL! (Being cool was everything.) I did not sail from my 18th year until my 44th year. On a whim in 2000, I decided to rent a sailboat at my local lake. I loved it. It was like coming home. Five boats later, I regularly sail a Catalina 22 and an O'Day 25 with my wife. (She always wanted to but had never sailed until she met me.) A bad day sailing is better than a good day doing anything else.......

 

[rbcwarbucks]

Forced as a sullen teenager

When I was 15 through 18 my father had a Gulf coast 21. My mother hated sailing. Dad would make me to go along to keep him compnay. I hated the boat heeling, the work that everything required! And, above all, it just seemed so UNCOOL! (Being cool was everything.) I did not sail from my 18th year until my 44th year. On a whim in 2000, I decided to rent a sailboat at my local lake. I loved it. It was like coming home. Five boats later, I regularly sail a Catalina 22 and an O'Day 25 with my wife. (She always wanted to but had never sailed until she met me.) My 16 yo daughter is a sailing instructor at the local Y. And my 14 y.o. son volunteers at he Y until he is old enough to work there as an instructor. My Dad did good work, huh? A bad day sailing is better than a good day doing anything else.......

 

[William (Liberty Belle)]

How I got hooked

I had always dreamed of owning a sailboat...one of those small day sailors with the colorful sails and when I was in high school had looked into buying one but the money always seemed so great that I never did. 2 years ago I came home from a deployment (I am in the Air Force) there was a sailboat for sale in the on base auto lot. It was a Macgregor 25 and it became my first sailboat. I learned to set it up in my driveway and bought one of those how-to-sail books. The next night myself and a friend were out on a small lake learning to sail it. my third time out I was single handing it and learning with every inch of water I crossed. I logged over 200 hours that summer with over a hundred of it single handed. Needless to say I was hooked. That fall I bought a larger sailboat and my wife and I dream of the day we can take off for places unknown. I used to race motocross and I find sailing a much more thrilling adventure. It is always rewarding to fight the wind for every bit of speed she has and there is nothing more relaxing than a cruising along watching the sunset as you listen to the sound of the water pass under the boat.

 

[nick8481]

Hobie Cat

I was camping at a long Island,ny park and the park ranger said to me that he needed some one to go sailing with him because it was very windy and needed second person to hike out on his hobie cat.I'vee been sailing hobie's ever since and moved up to my 290 in 2001 and still love it,I still miss my hobie 18 but my wife and I got older and just the comforts of a big sailboat are great. nick

 

[Henry Barousse]

Vietnam

I had always had a romantic interest in sailing, but had never had the opportunity to experience it. Of all places, my opportunity came in Vietnam in 1969 at a USO facility on an inland lake with a fleet of Sunfish. With the Sunfish, I grasped the basic fundamentals, and made a promise to myself to get a sailboat when I returned home. I have been enjoying sailing ever since.

 

[EcoHokie]

Dear (never old) Dad

My dad was into everything when we were growing up. He had limited skill and great curiousity -- about everything. A complete dabbler. Sailing in VA lakes occasionally and even capsizing the Sunfish (foam cup with a mast) in the ocean surf. Then I got caught up in the conservation movement and sailing was the perfect mix of outdoor life, conservation, physicals and technical operation, love for the water, etc.Thanks for yet another blessing, Dad.

 

[rlgarrett]

Gift Horse

My friend came over with a Snark sailboat he had won at K-Mart. He did not want it and gave it to my wife and me as we were the only ones he could think of that might like it. That was in 1968. We have never looked back. The Snark was the hardest boat to sail I have ever sailed. It was so light, it blew before the wind with minimal control. It was unfinished styrofoam, like a cheap ice chest.

 

[Sailinbruce]

long time coming

In 1967 my brother rode my bike off the end of the porch and I was going to beat the tar out of him, except he closed the kitchen door and my hand went through the glass. 8 Stiches later and being told DON'T go swimming for three weeks, put a damper on summer. I was walking on the beach when a young lady took pity and a 14 year old boy, and took me out in her Sunfish for an hour. I was hooked! That was the only time I wason a sailboat until 1990. In the summer of 1990 a radio station in Baltimore had a breakfast cruise around the Inner Harbor and take a chance on a Sunfish. I had my free breakfast, and went to work. Later that day I found out I won one of the Miller Draft Sunfish they were giving away. I named the boat Free Breakfast and still have her. Since then I have had a Catalina 22 and a Venture 21.