How did you get interested in sailing?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jun 6, 2006
6,990
currently boatless wishing Harrington Harbor North, MD
I was laying in bed and my ex-wife told me "we bought a boat." turns out is was a Catalina 30'. I was thus thrust into being chief mechanic, captain, navigator, full time helms man (Ok to be honest she would man the helm for 15 minutes or so in an 8 hour period, no autopilot either), and all other roles that don't look like cook or hood ornament.
Thank the good Lord for Chapman's Piloting
 

Kermit

.
Jul 31, 2010
5,678
AquaCat 12.5 17342 Wateree Lake, SC
My mother "made" my brothers and me take sailing lessons when I was 12. (About a million years ago.) Dang I enjoyed sailing that Sunfish. In my bio, you'll see that I have won half the races I've ever entered and I did not finish the other one. I won the regatta at the end of the sailing lessons, beating all the tough-guy sailors who were supposed to win. The next regatta was that very same summer. I got so frustrated trying to round one of the bouys that I just sailed on in. Never really had any desire to race after that.

I took all my girlfriends sailing on the Sunfish all the way through high school. Even when the wind wasn't blowing there was always something to do. Nothing like turtling the boat and making out under the cockpit. (Most girls didn't go sailing with me a second time if there was no wind.) Then I got away from sailing as a young adult. Mama gave the boat away and I never gave it much thought until many years later.

My new wife and I sailed on a Hobie Cat in Nassau on our honeymoon in 2005. I had not sailed in at least 25 years. Sailing came back to me almost like riding a bike. My wife was hooked on sailing the instant we saw a Manna Ray glide under the boat silently. She found an AquaCat for sail in town shortly after we returned from Nassau. After a few years of sailing it, she said, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a boat we could sit in instead of on top of when we sail?" To make a long story short (as if this story isn't long enough already) we bought our 1986 Hunter 23 and have loved it since 2010. Now she's saying, "Can't we find a larger boat that's easier to load onto a trailer and has more room in the cabin?" So, now we're searching for the perfect H26/260.

We both love sailing and have no desire to own a power boat. If anyone knows of an H26/260 that's in great shape, affordable and not too daggum far from South Carolina, please let me know. I *really* want to keep my First Mate happy! Or as Phil says on Duck Dynasty, "Happy, happy, happy."
 
May 21, 2009
360
Hunter 30 Smithfield, VA
My older brother Dan sailed radio control sailboats. I was doing radio controlled power boats. He taught me how to sail it and it seemed like great fun. I was in the Navy and Norfolk had a sailing center. Decided to try sailing a real boat, so I read all the rules etc. and went down and passed their test. Then the instructor said, "Ok, go rig a Laser and we'll see how you do." I said "Uhh, what's a Laser?" He said "You've never sailed a Laser?" I replied "I've never sailed a real boat." He laughed and showed me how to rig it and turned me loose in the marina. I qualified, no problem. Then he said, "Ok, take her out into the bay." I can still see in my mind and feel the feeling of exiting that channel on that Laser and going into Willoughby Bay. What a feeling of freedom!
 

Kermit

.
Jul 31, 2010
5,678
AquaCat 12.5 17342 Wateree Lake, SC
If this were Facebook, I would hit the "like" button on Tom's post.
 
May 25, 2004
958
Hunter 260 Pepin, WI
RC sailing models

Hey Tom,

I'd been sailing many years when I built a model of the Ema C Berry, a grand banks schooner. I put radios in it and sailed it at the San Diego model yacht basin.

I thought it was a bad model because it was so hard to sail. I learned several tricks to get it to tack at all.

Years later I ended up owning a real schooner. It turned out my skills sailing that model translated well to the actual. It was the schooner rig, not the model, that requires a different set of skills to sail it properly.

Here's a link to my thoughts on schooner sailing:
http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=93403

My point? Don't under-estimate the skills that can be learned on a model.
 
May 21, 2009
360
Hunter 30 Smithfield, VA
Hey Tom,

I'd been sailing many years when I built a model of the Ema C Berry, a grand banks schooner. I put radios in it and sailed it at the San Diego model yacht basin.

I thought it was a bad model because it was so hard to sail. I learned several tricks to get it to tack at all.

Years later I ended up owning a real schooner. It turned out my skills sailing that model translated well to the actual. It was the schooner rig, not the model, that requires a different set of skills to sail it properly.

Here's a link to my thoughts on schooner sailing:
http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=93403

My point? Don't under-estimate the skills that can be learned on a model.
Now that's funny. Same with me, my model skills translated nicely to real sailing. I wish I'd known then what I know now about sail trim though.
 
Jan 22, 2008
319
Hunter 29.5 Gloucester, VA
We were in the Air Force and moved back to the VA coast. We wanted a boat but not having a lot of money all the power boats in our price range were someone else's problem. We went to a marina and yacht club open house and took a sailboat ride. We found a good deal on an 81 Hunter 22. We bought books, talked to marina folks and other sailors, joined the base yacht club and taught ourselves to sail. We sailed all over the Chesapeake in that little boat and had such great times.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.