Can you remember the first sail you ever had and what in

Taking sail at its loosest definition, a canoe on Lake Orta in Italy. It belonged to some people we met on the campsite. I was about 10. That gave me the taste for floaty things. My first sail as a genuine WAFI was in a Bosun dinghy on Aldenham Reservoir.
 
Another vote for a Heron, on the Serpentine in Hyde Park, then just walking distance from my bed-sit in the early 1970s. It was a proper "Come in number 6, your time is up!" hour-by-hour hire. Or it might have been preceded, same era, by learning to sail in Putney near where my girlfriend lived, on unpromisingly-named Turtle dinghies.

Mike.
 
mjcoon said:
Another vote for a Heron, on the Serpentine in Hyde Park, then just walking distance from my bed-sit in the early 1970s. It was a proper "Come in number 6, your time is up!" hour-by-hour hire. Or it might have been preceded, same era, by learning to sail in Putney near where my girlfriend lived, on unpromisingly-named Turtle dinghies.

Mike.
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Old joke ... Dinghy rental ....

Come in No 9 .... times up ....

You don't have 9 boats ...

Oh Sh** ... No 6 ... are you in trouble ??
 
Refueler said:
Old joke ... Dinghy rental ....

Come in No 9 .... times up ....

You don't have 9 boats ...

Oh Sh** ... No 6 ... are you in trouble ??
Click to expand...

In support, I just looked up the wikipedia page for Herons (Heron (dinghy) - Wikipedia). The photo comes from S Australia and is printed mirror-image, confusing the numbers. Pity not upside-down, but close...

Mike.
 
Aged about 7 in 1948 on the Broads. It was hot even in April and we had a large family party. There would have been a Yare and Bure one-design called White Myth, half-decked with a gunter rig. Such memory I have is confused with many later occasions sailing the same boats. We slept on a 'Ring of Light' motor boat and I remember the excitement of waking to the lapping of wavelets against the side.
 
mjcoon said:
In support, I just looked up the wikipedia page for Herons (Heron (dinghy) - Wikipedia). The photo comes from S Australia and is printed mirror-image, confusing the numbers. Pity not upside-down, but close...

Mike.
Click to expand...
A local friend was given a Heron recently, came on a treiler with a Seagull in good nick. Curiously, never fitted for sailing, no c/board casing, rudder or rig. With nothing to do now, he is tidying it up and will fit a rig.
 
My Dad bought a Skipper 14 in the late 60s to teach us to sail when I was 6 or 7. We used to sail mainly from North Fambridge on the Crouch, launching from the slipway just by the Ferry Boat Inn. If the weather was nice, after sailing we'd sit in the garden of the Ferry Boat Inn; my dad would have a pint or two, my brother and I a glass of pop and some crisps. Our Labrador would usually come along to help. I remember him offering a chap launching a speedboat down the slipway a go with the lovely muddy stick he'd just found. The man sportingly tried to take it and throw it, but Punch wasn't having any of it, and pulled him off the slipway. Not popular.

The other place we used to sail it from was West Mersea on the Blackwater, which always seemed rather more exciting than the confines of the River Crouch.

The Skipper was a bit of a tub really, but a good family boat for learning to sail. Plenty of room for my Dad, brother and I, and seemingly impossible to capsize. It's Gunter rig wasn't very good going upwind, but off the wind it would go pretty well. I have lots of happy memories of that boat.
 
Its funny reading these ..... I have boats here of various style and size ... but I have always wanted a proper sailing dinghy that I can hop in ... paddle out of channel and then just lazily sail ...

There's a guy who has similar to a Wayfarer who does exactly that some weekends on the river ... I watch him usually with another person in the boat ... quietly slipping along ... no hard in sheets ... just ghosting along ... LOVELY.
 
Fibre cell dinghy, sporting a scaffold pole for a mast, cut up ground sheet sail and a stair rail for a boom. You probably guess my father was in the building game.
Spent every second of my holiday in it just called in for food and sleep.
As I remember it was a lakeside camping club on the isle of wight if anyone knows of the place be nice to put a name to it.
 
DownWest said:
A local friend was given a Heron recently, came on a treiler with a Seagull in good nick. Curiously, never fitted for sailing, no c/board casing, rudder or rig. With nothing to do now, he is tidying it up and will fit a rig.
Click to expand...
Back in '55 / '56 my mates dad built his Heron and kept it at Burway Rowing Club on the Thames between Staines and Chertsey.
A pair of 8 year olds, we spent just about every day of school holidays out on the river sailing, rowing and capsizing, no lifejackets or anything safety related, of course I told my often over cautious parents where I was...
 
tillergirl said:
A Gremlin. On the Trent in Nottingham; dodging British Waterways motor barges! The 'mast' broke one day doing that.
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Gremlin, that was it! Same type of boat as for my first sail age 2.
Ours was carried around most of Europe on the roof of a Riley RM then on top of a (fabulous) Mark IX Jaguar.
Eventually replaced by a Mirror dinghy, huge by comparison.
 
Early 60's, Cadet dinghy, schools sailing camp on Chasewater in the Midlands. Totally hooked, used to go back to the camp evenings and weekends to help out and get a sail. Progressed to teaching other kids to sail at adventure camp in Wales and CCPR centre on Windermere whenever possible. First cruiser was chartered from the Navy in Gosport with skipper Davey Jones (honestly). Took until I was 29 before I could buy our first Vivacity 20 cruising boat.
 
Probably aged around 10. First ever sail was on an Balaton (i think it was 24) on Lake Windermere in the early 60's. It wasa test sail by my father who subsequntly purcheased her. Gave us several years of holiday enjoyment learning the ropes together until he finally sold her and went to sea and the big wide world.
 
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