Who taught you to sail?

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Robert Alderink

Got the sailing bug from a friend

Years ago a friend taught me how to sail on a daggerboard, Super Porpoise. Since then I've had the sailing bug. Just recently, I purchased a used, 14 ft. Capri and "Saling for Dummies." I also checked out all the sailing books and video I could from the library. I hope to do a lot more sailing this summer than last!
 
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Jenny Poniske

The wind

When I was the tender age of 3, my family moved from Boulder, Co, to Long Island, and my father - a man who always had his priorities in order - bought a 19' Cape Cod Knock About before we even found a place to live. We sailed every weekend during the summer, and many weeknight evenings, too. No motor, ever. Dad allowed us (my two brothers and I )to 'solo' as soon as we had the strength to raise the main on our own. Great South Bay was our pond and we had the run of it. Dad moved up to bigger boats, but that wonderful, heavy, un-capsizable wooden sloop was a fixture in our lives. Every spring we recaulked and painted her hull. One year, we replaced a 10' section of keel that had started to rot and steamed in new oak ribs. Launching her was always a race from the ramp to the slip, one person paddling like mad and another bailing, before she settled to the bottom to swell the seams and become reasonably watertight in about a week. Dad (a retired Naval officer) taught us the rudiments of navigation and nautical etiquette, but 'Noname' and the wind taught us to sail.
 
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Fred Hensley

Wrong Way with good ending

First sailboat was a 470 at age 50. Bad choice that taught me well. Got wet real often. Read lots and lots of books. Never took a lesson. Have had C-22 for 15 years now. Have added every control known to man. Get out into Charlotte harbour two or three times weekly. Enjoy trying to keep up with the big boys.
 
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Bob Kowalewski

Boston's Community Boating

I just learned to sail 3 years ago..... I'll be 53 this year... at the adult program at Community Boating on the Charles River in Boston. It's a great way to learn and you're supporting the kids summer program (kids can join for $1 for the summer to learn to sail) at the same time. Most of the programs depend on volunteers and as soon as you learn to sail you find yourself lending a hand to teach others. After the first year there, I went out and bought a Hunter 170 that I use on week-ends and vacations, but it's great to be able to just head down to the Charles after work during the week and sail for an hour or two. They also have an excellent racing program if you want to learn the rules and art of racing.
 
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Greg

Annapolis Sailing School

Bought a 15' daysailer years ago and learned the basics on my own at a nearby lake. But when my wife got tired of getting wet from the spray or knockdowns, we bought a M26s...only if I agreed to attend a Sailing School. Annapolis Sailing School is highly recommened...learned a lot and had a great time.
 
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Neal Lindeman

Luger sailboard

We started on a sailboard which we put on top of the car. It was not "forgiving" and we soon learned what "turned turtle" means = upside down with the mast stuck in the mud. It gave us years of great fun and eventually used it as a moored swim float as we moved up to a Johnson X class, first a wood and then a glass. We still miss the hum-m-m thqat the woody gave we it was up and running. We eventually took classes, but the instructor just got in the way and we sent him below for naps as we sailed as we pleased. We now sail a S-2 27 and are learning new stuff every day.
 
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EJ Tews

Sailing, as a young first mate

My Uncle had a 28 ft wooden Ketch, he would take us out on Raritan bay and I would have a blast, trying to raise the sails and ride on the bow sprite. He later moved up to a 32 wooden Schooner and as I was older helped him out a lot in the off season. When I was 10 I bought a board boat and sailed in nto the ground untill my father and I bought a 1961 SeaFarer 22. We had the Seafarer until I moved to Texas in 1985. EJ Tews Jennifer
 
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pablo accorsi

learning

I learn from a friend, also paid class to obtain license, I still learning with a lot of practice in diferent situations, Wind- Waves etc
 
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Les Cummings

Chesapeake Bay Skipjack "Oregon"

Born and raised on Tilghman's Island, Maryland I learned to sail aboard my grandfather's (Captain Lindale Murphy) Skipjack the "Oregon" in the late '40s and early '50s. My grandfather (on my Mother's side) had several brothers who where Skipjack Captains dredging for oysters in the Choptank River and Chesapeake Bay. His nephew (my second cousin) Wadie Murphy is well known in the area for his Skipjack the "Rebecca Ruark"... My father, Captain John Cummings, was not a sailor but made a living aboard power boats catching oysters and fish in the winter, and crabs and fish in the summer. A great way to spend one's childhood. As President of the Lake Thunderbird Educational Foundation in Norman Oklahoma, I have been priviledged to help develop the Lake Thunderbird BoatHouse recognized in the June edition of Cruising World, Sailing World and the U.S. Power Squadron's Ensign. The BoatHouse provides educational and recreational programs taught by a consortium of non-profits interested in boating safety, sailing, boating and other water related activities. Catalina Yachts and Frank Butler are recognized on our donor plaque in the BoatHouse. Happy Sailing Les Cummings
 
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Jack

ASA Sailing Lessons

I Learned to Sail on San Diego Bay at Harber Island Yacht Club (a boat Rental Club) .For those not familiar with the American Sailing Association Certification Program it is Structured in steps that allows you to progress in a logical learning order. The Classes I Completed where, Basic Keelboat Sailing, Basic Coastal Cruising and Bareboat Chartering. It may not be for every one but I found it a good way to learn and a great confidence builder. I am also an avid reader of sailing books. Last Dec. I bought a 1979 Catalina 22 Fin Keel. I sail 1 or 2 times a week I am still very much in the learning stage. I have a powerboat, 17 foot Inboard and the sailing has been a great help in boat handling and seamanship. This is my 3rd year of sailing. Being a Pilot (27 years) also has been a big help, I find there are a great many similarities between Sailing and Flying. Good Sailing to all, Jack
 
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Ricky Carroll

A good friend and accomplished racer

Over fifteen years ago, while living in New Orleans, my wife and I met a nice couple one evening at a Beninhana Restaurant (we were seated together). We immediately became very good friends with these people, with whom we shared many interests. We began talking and I learned the husband, Hans, was an avid scuba diver and racing sailor. I didn't know how to sail, but I did a LOT of diving, so by the next weekend we were in Destin, FL on a dive trip. The weekend after that, I was a "rail bird" on Hans' old Ranger 37 in a club race. This was my introduction to sailing. By the end of the season, I was a pretty good "basic" sailor and had worked almost every position on the boat. After 5 seasons, I was not only a seasoned sailor, but a pretty good "boat handyman", navigator and mechanic. We won a lot of silver on that old boat and it was a hell of lot of fun. I moved away and quit sailing for a while, but I often think of those days on that wonderful old boat. I am now back to sailing (in a charter club) after a ten year hiatus, but I owe my love of the craft and my sailing skills to my old friend Hans back in New Orleans.
 
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victoria

people

why do people be mean to others i think it is so mean. i somtimes get picked on but i'm to scared to tell cuse there is so manny of them . and cuse i would not have any friends left.
 
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Ward Yearling

on land

Bought a boat then a book a friend took us for a ride in his 23 spent the last two seasons learing and still have a lot to learn, Ward & Carol Yearling
 
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Michael

1st learning stage:U don't know what U don't know

In 1982 I went to Guam with the Navy Sea Bees (NMCB40) and I met a Bee who was rotating back to the states, he had a windsurfer he was selling, so I bought it from him for a nominal fee and taught myself to windsurf. In the marina, met a couple who were retired and cruising the pacific. I thought that was really neat and someday I would do it myself. After reading Latitude 38 and dreaming for many years I finally got into a financial position to do something about it. My wife and I went to a Club Nautique open house here on the San Francisco Bay to find out about sailing lessons. We met a guy who had a boat in charter there and it sounded like a pretty good deal. I thought that if I was really going to learn how to sail around the world, I would have to have a boat. So we bought a Hunter 340 put it in the charter fleet and started taking classes. She is now our training platform. I got through the Basic Keel Boat and Basic Cruising, and will try to get through as many classes as I can to prepare myself for my ultamate goal of blue water cruising. I went out with another friend who bought a Catalina 34 at about the same time a year ago that we bought our boat. He said he didn't need to take a sailing class because he has had people go out on the boat with him who knew how to sail and he has learned from them. After hearing some of his stories about some of the things that has happened to him and his boat while he has been teaching himself, and after sailing with him recently, I feel like I'm quite a bit more advanced in my sailing skills than he is, even though I am a relative newbie. It may sound like I'm blowing my horn here but that weekend of sailing with him made it very clear how much I have learned from the classes i've took and the instructors I've had. I am very glad to have learned from qualified, experienced instructors with great boats to learn on, who teach the theory and back it up with practical application. We have been having a lot of fun sailing our boat and learning as we go, but when we bought that boat a year ago, we were definitely in the first stage of learning; we didn't know, what we didn't know! I Highly recommend taking classes from a professional training/chartering outfit like Club Nautique. Happy Sailing! Michael S/V Patience
 
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Geof Tillotson

Sail or Swim - 1969

Twice in my life I fell for the same clever ruse from my father. Once in a rowboat in Menemsha and the second time on a neighbors Sunfish on a local fresh water pond. Dad asked me to go see if the rudder was all the way down when the fully rigged sunfish was tied to the dock. I jumped on and as I crawled to the back of the boat I didn't realize he let me drift off the dock. After a few minutes of terror (on my part), and some pretty inconclusive paddling, my arms were really short then when I was about 10, he calmly told me how to hold the mainsheet and the tiller, like I had seen him do, and to put the long thing into the hole in the middle of the boat (the centerboard). Once I got the centerboard in and figured out what to do I ended up spending most of the rest of the day sailing around. Though I think I jibed more than I do now, what did I care about the condition of the equipment? Dad and friends sat around the backyard having a grand old time watching me figure out how to sail to windward to get back to the dock. Once I figured that out I've been in love with it since. Anyway, I got him back, I nagged him for a Sunfish relentlessly and the next year when we started to go to a summer house on the cape he would rent one for the month. I think I'm the only kid who sailed to sailing school most days instead of taking my bike - with the predominant wind it was one long reach down the beach and a great set of tacks coming back. Since then, I've raced in sailing school, raced on a team at my high school and blue water sailed with a close family friend. Geof BTW - I spent most of the day rowing around Menemsha pond the day he set me adrift in a rowboat. He let me go with an offshore breeze, but a making tide so I was never in any real danger, or so he told me. glt
 
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John Hansen

A neighbor, an Aqua cat and Clear Lake

When I was seven or eight my family started going to Clear Lake California every year. My dad bought a ski boat and we would invite neighbors and friends to go camping and water skiing each year. One of our neighbors who sailed bought an aquacat and brought it to the lake. In the afternoon Clear Lake becomes a great sailing lake and the neighbor taught me how to sail the cat. Later he bought two El Toros and I learned to sail them. Another friend had a 21 ft Victory day sailor on the SF Bay and I would sail with him any time I could. After growing up around ski boats all the time I always wanted to own a sailboat sometime. This past October I found a Cat 27 and I still learn everytime out on her. I learned the basics over 28 years ago but each boat is just a little different.
 
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Ed Schenck

Poor poker player.

Where I worked in New York a friend had a cottage on a lake in Connecticut. Semi-annually we would go there to either put in the dock or take it out. But it was really to play poker. There was a limit set for losses and I was always the first to go out. Out at the dock was a Force Five, a Laser-like boat. I couldn't wait to get thrown out of the game, that sailboat was way more fun! So after years of powerboats I discovered sailing in 1973.
 
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Steve

A Small Island

We started late in life. My wife and I were stationed in Singapore, a small Asian island nation about 1 dg above the equator. We wandered into a small beach club one day, and on a lark, decided to take Laser 14 lessons. Singapore is one of the busiest ports in the world and sailing among 200-400 container ships has its joys and dangers, but we learned a lot. Four boats and 15 years later, we have a 34 Catalina on the Chesapeake.
 
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Bernie and Michael

all hands on deck

Wanted to learn how to sail so we bought a 22 foot Hunter.Had a professional sailing instructor for approximately 4-5 hours before our first sail and learned alot...Much is also gained through trial and error and of course common sense.
 
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Jeff Wingo

Great Sailing Camps

1969; 11 years old; Camp Fry's Leap on Sebago Lake in Maine sailing FJ's 1970-71: Camp Seagull in NC; Sunfish & Lightnings 1972-1974: Camp Thunderbird; Sunfish and some Lightning-like sloops Today: Hunter 170; teaching my kids and wife
 
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