Thankful much?

Phil Herring

Alien
Mar 25, 1997
4,918
- - Bainbridge Island
It's a week filled with family, friends, and tryptophan. But the original purpose was to give thanks to those who have helped us.

As sailors, we often need help and more often than not other sailors are happy to provide.

So who helped you get into sailing? Give them a shout-out here... and Happy Thanksgiving!

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Likes: Will Gilmore
May 1, 2011
4,187
Pearson 37 Lusby MD
Plebe Summer in Annapolis, learning to sail on 26ft knockabouts - great break from the normal hassles of life as a new Midshipman! Sail Master in Annapolis when I went there to teach Computer Science - showed me a lot of tricks on the Navy 44s that we took off shore.
 
Oct 26, 2010
1,881
Hunter 40.5 Beaufort, SC
Kappy, Same here. Plebe summer in Annapolis in 1969. Learned to sail on the knockabouts but really got the bug during plebe summer on the "Rage" (dontated to the Academy) for the plebe overnight down the Chesapeake. 18 year old country boy from Indiana on the bow with a long handled net scooping up crabs near the surface for a dinner that night. Never had a crab before let alone been on a sailboat! Didn't sail there other than that but it always made an impression on me.

By the way, my grandson calls me Cappy?
 
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Likes: JamesG161
Jul 29, 2017
169
Catalina 380 Los Angeles
I first sailed at Summer Boy Scout Camp in CT as a young teenager on Pre AMF Sailfish ( not a Sunfish ...these things were surfboards with a sail, rudder and a dagger board ). I had the bug bad. Took me until I was in my late 40's to finally get myself a real sailboat ( an old Catalina 30 ).
 

Mikem

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Dec 20, 2009
820
Hunter 466 Bremerton
I also sailed plebe summer 1969 but had sailed a little before. My kayak was rigged for sail but obviously nothing like the navy 44s.

Years later while stationed at Naval Air Station Jacksonville Fl a fellow pilot invited my wife and I on his Catalina 22. We drifted that hot summer afternoon on the St Johns River for an hour or so and then my buddy broke out some ice cold cokes. As the four of us sat at the dinette for me that was an aha moment. Just had to have my own boat so thanks to my buddy Ken the rest is history.
 
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gdudik

.
Oct 25, 2017
87
Catalina 22 Vancouver, WA
A shoutout to the Portland State University Intercollegiate Sailing team, where I learned to sail on the Willamette River, and eventually ended up being Commodore of. Little did they know how much money they’d end up costing me.
 
May 20, 2016
3,014
Catalina 36 MK1 94 Everett, WA
@Phil Herring my father introduced me to sailing in Jr Hi. But I have so much more than sailing to be thankful to him for. Just wished he lived a bit longer

Les
 
May 1, 2011
4,187
Pearson 37 Lusby MD
By the way, my grandson calls me Cappy?
It's the same nickname my departed father had. Until he passed, I was K2.

My time in Annapolis was a little later than yours - 1974. While I was on exchange with the UK Royal Navy, I spent two weeks each summer on their Nicholson 55 sail training craft. These boats were purpose-built in the early 1970s for what used to be called the Whitbread Round-the-World races. Awesome boats, but too much to even contemplate single handing.
 
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Likes: JamesG161
Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
In the early 70's while living in Iran, I was invited to the Caspian Sea coast with friends. One of my friends had a sailboat, an Albacore Sailing Dinghy. Well, my friend took me out and that was it. I was totally blown away at how the boat can move just on a puff of air. I was hooked from that day forward. Finally took Sailing Lessons when I was stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Ca. Sometime in the 80's.
 
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
It's the same nickname my departed father had. Until he passed, I was K2.

My time in Annapolis was a little later than yours - 1974. While I was on exchange with the UK Royal Navy, I spent two weeks each summer on their Nicholson 55 sail training craft. These boats were purpose-built in the early 1970s for what used to be called the Whitbread Round-the-World races. Awesome boats, but too much to even contemplate single handing.
What a great boat. While originally designed to contend for the Admirals Cup, one did indeed finish 2nd (corrected) in the very First Whitbread race. Tough boat!!
 
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
Used to sail on my friends Laser in 7-9th grade. Then my parents bought in as minority owners in our friends Ericson 29. My parents we not much of sailors, but I learned TONS from Mr Robert Timm. I can still remember the day we pointed that thing toward the empty horizon, and then 8 hours later Isle Royale emerged out of the fog. Magic. Hooked ever since.
 
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Oct 26, 2010
1,881
Hunter 40.5 Beaufort, SC
Kappy, when where you Sailmaster at the Boat School? My son went there from 2003 to 2007 and taught sailing on the Colgate 26's his youngster year and was a Midn Skipper on a 44 from Annapolis to/from Halifax.
 

FDL S2

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Jun 29, 2014
469
S2 7.3 Fond du Lac
We were caretakers for a Lightning growing up, my brothers and I had no idea how to sail and when we used it we became very proficient at putting it on its side. When I was in college I had a roommate named Dave whose family had a balboa 19 and I remember thinking that sailing was pretty cool when you were with someone who knew how to sail. After college my friend Kurt had access through work to a Bayliner Buccaneer and we would take that slow, terrible sailing bathtub out and thrash it and man was that fun! After a few years of sailing that boat, about a month after a family tragedy, Kurt told me about a Coronado MKII that we could get for free. He was my partner in the boat, but I took care of it and used it all the time. I WAS HOOKED! I've had two hobies,a daysailer and my current S2 since then.

So thanks to Dave and Kurt (especially Kurt for getting me into a boat to occupy my time while my mind tried to process some stuff) for getting me into this great sport, activity, lifestyle, and obsession.
 

NYSail

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Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
My parents would send me up in the summers to stay with my uncle on Long Island as a teen..... he would take a month off and we would sail up to Martha’s Vineyard and all in between first on his 1969 cal 2-30 then his 1978 cal 34 III. I ended up buying his 34-III......married a great woman who also loves to sail and the rest is history.
 

dLj

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Mar 23, 2017
3,370
Belliure 41 Sailing back to the Chesapeake
I've loved boats since I can remember. I bought my first boat at about 12 years old. A canoe that needed to be completely rebuilt. I don't actually remember what was the first sailboat I sailed, it was likely either a sunfish or a sailfish. When I was about 15 my brother and I did a camping trip up in Canada on a secluded lake. I found a wooden motor boat half buried in the shore. The Stern was broken out, but I got the boat to float with the balance set up right. I built a mast and rigged it with a tarp for a sail and we sailed that thing all over that lake!

I continued sailing inland lakes until I moved to San Sebastian Spain. There I bought a lovely sailboat with an interesting pedigree. The guy I bought it from, Xavier Medizabal Frutos, became one of my best friends. He taught me ocean sailing. We spent many times sailing together. The Bay of Biscay is a very tough teacher. 9 meter tides, tough weather patterns, hard to enter ports are just some of the ways it is a tough area to sail. Xavi was an excellent sailor and teacher. There have been many others, but he was the most influential of any single person from my sailing history.

dj
 
May 20, 2016
3,014
Catalina 36 MK1 94 Everett, WA
I am very very thankful I met my beautiful Bride of 34yrs while sailing on the Snake River.
 
May 23, 2016
217
O'Day 1984 23 Island Park, NY
Dad started me sailing when I was 3... Sill remember as a teenager sailing away in his friends dinghy without a care in the world... Herd friend ask Dad "will he be able able to get back?" " No problem " was he response, possibly eveneven confident than I was... Just one of many times it seemed like dads the only one who believed in me... Gonna call him tomorrow and thank him before it's too late...
 
Oct 24, 2010
2,405
Hunter 30 Everett, WA
As an adult, I had never sailed but wanted a boat we could overnight on. We bought a McGregor 26D. I had raised the mast and sails in the backyard on the trailer. The friend who was planning to teach us to sail was unable to come because his wife and kids were ill. We put it in the water with the idea that we could always drop the sails and motor back. I learned to sail on my own. I would come to this site and read about something, then go out and try it. Therefore you taught me to sail, and for that I am thankful.

Ken