JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Curiously enough, I've just re-read "Sea Scouts at Dunkirk". Ripping stuff.
Can you remember the first sail you ever had and what in
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Stemar
Well-Known Member
My first sail on a "proper" yacht was a Comp Crew course. We had a budget for a holiday, but the kids got chicken pox or something and we couldn't go, so Milady said, "You've always wanted to do sailing, why don't you use the money for a course?" Expensive mistake...
PetiteFleur
Well-Known Member
I must have been about yrs old, a schoolfriends father had an International 14 at the local sailing club and 4 of us cycled one Saturday morning and went sailing. It was gusty - we sailed across the lake, promptly capsized, righted the boat, sailed back and capsized again - this happened about 4 times so gave up, soaking wet, no lifejackets or safety boat and I was hooked. Joined the sailing club as a crew member(very cheap at the time) and sailed every Sunday as crew. Soon after I built a Percy Blandford canoe at school and promptly added a sail, leeboards and rudder which was difficult tacking on the canal!
Abestea
Well-Known Member
For my 30th birthday I booked three weekends of RYA level 2 dinghy training at Strathclyde Country Park. Fun learning in a wayfarer and a laser. Girlfriend at the time wasn't confident of my ability so didn't sail again till I joined the Uni Sailing club.
The first sail I did at the club was a September weekend trip in a Sun fast 36 from Largs to Tarbert Loch Fyne via Rothesay!
I loved every minute of it and wanted one. Learned lots in the dinghies and got better. Was able to do some races in the bigger boats but knew I wanted to cruise.
Got a Sigma 33 nearly 14 years ago and have loved every minute!
The first sail I did at the club was a September weekend trip in a Sun fast 36 from Largs to Tarbert Loch Fyne via Rothesay!
I loved every minute of it and wanted one. Learned lots in the dinghies and got better. Was able to do some races in the bigger boats but knew I wanted to cruise.
Got a Sigma 33 nearly 14 years ago and have loved every minute!
dombuckley
Well-Known Member
Pirate's still going strong: she came third in the Acle Regatta last year.
The river class cruiser 'Pirate', owned by my Grandfather and regularly sailed by my parents in their youth, latterly with me as crew.
I was allegedly conceived on this boat. She is well over 100 years old now.
- W
The
My own first sail was courtesy of the sea cadets, at the age of 13. The policy was that you had to pass your pulling (rowing ) proficiency before going on to sailing, then progressing to motorboats, which was my original goal. But at the end of a week rowing a heavy Admiralty Sailing Craft (16' half-sized Admiralty rowing / sailing cutter) up and down the Thames at Paxmead, our instructor got us to step the sailing rig. Steering her as a rowing boat, the tiller had just been a simple tool to change direction; but with the sails up, even this cranky heavy old boat suddenly felt alive. I was completely hooked, and the rest is history.
NealB
Well-Known Member
They were mentioned in a book I read when I was about 10 (maybe, 'Lifeboat into yacht'?). They became my absolute dream boat for many years, though I've still yet to sail one!
Closest I got, was Dad's 32 foot Naval Cutter, built in 1939 by John Brown on the Clyde.
She was converted in the late 50's by her first private owner (a woodwork teacher at West Mersea), who named her, 'The Jan'.
She was a fantastic family boat: good performance, easily handled bermudan sloop rig, and a huge interior (by 1960's standards: made a Centaur seem very crammed). We had many East Coast based holidays and weekends on 'The Jan'. I think Zeebrugge was most my furthest port of call.
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NealB
Well-Known Member
I can't really remember my first sailing trip, though it would have been 1961 (I was six).
Dad had just bought, secondhand, 'Minx', a Hurley Felicity 20 foot plywood triple keeler (big sister to the Silhouette).
I remember going to see her in Lewis Marine's showroom at Wanstead (east London), but, sadly, just can't recall our first sail.
Dad kept her for about 5 years, before upgrading to his aforementioned converted Naval Cutter.
Dad had just bought, secondhand, 'Minx', a Hurley Felicity 20 foot plywood triple keeler (big sister to the Silhouette).
I remember going to see her in Lewis Marine's showroom at Wanstead (east London), but, sadly, just can't recall our first sail.
Dad kept her for about 5 years, before upgrading to his aforementioned converted Naval Cutter.
Sticky Fingers
Well-Known Member
Woo. As an ex-International 14 sailor, I salute you, that's some baptism
Brilliant. What a great boat they were / are.alan_d
Well-Known Member
Ah, but after 10 years of messing about with dinghies and a 15-year sabbatical when the kids were small, my introduction to cruising was a villa-flotilla holiday in the Ionian. From there I went on to an Ionian flotilla, flotilla in the BVIs, bareboat two or three times in the Caribbean and later the Whitsundays. Did Day Skipper and Coastal Skipper on the Clyde with Sunsail and when I retired 13-odd years ago I bought my current Konsort.
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
What a lot of wonderful tales!
Amazing how so many survived, despite lack of running hot water, standing headroom, and wi-fi.
My own boating started in extremely widely spaced fits and starts. Mine wasn't a boating family, despite my grandfather having spent almost all his working life in the Royal Navy, and my father having been a merchant seaman. My mother would very rarely speak of my father, who died when I was very young, but did once say that I had always been interested in water, and whenever he took us out in a hired rowing boat (Serpentine? Thames?) I would always try to clamber out of the boat into the water, and would be allowed to dangle over the side of the boat held by my reins.
I remember cycling out of London to Erith(?) or Gravesend, aged about 10 or 11, and standing watching with huge envy and longing as people rigged their dinghies and set out out on the river.
At 13 I joined the Sea Cadets and, joy of joys, we would often go down to Portsmouth for the weekend, where I got experience and my 'skipper's ticket' pulling (rowing) 27ft Montague Whalers and 32 ft Cutters from the Royal Clarence Yard. On one occasion we actually went sailing in a Whaler, taking part in the Southsea Regatta, but the sailing side of it was being handled by more experienced boys and officers, and I didn't really know what was going on, except to hear they were unable to dip the lug (whatever that meant), and we came last in our class.
My first 'cruising' was about 5 days around the Solent under engine in the Sea Cadets' Motor Fishing Vessel (MFV 1060, I remember for some strange reason) getting as far as Yarmouth (wow!) in varied mix of calm and sunny interspersed with strong winds and rain. I did enjoy that.
My real start on 'sailing', though, was one fine day at the Royal Clarence Yard, when an older cadet asked if I'd like to come out in a sailing dinghy. I jumped at the chance, and off we went in a Bosun, tearing round Portsmouth Harbour, the Victory etc., at what seemed great speed. I was instantly hooked, and must have had such a huge grin on my face. I've spent much of my life (and income!) trying to recreate that moment!
After perhaps a handful more times out in a Bosun or (my favourite) a RNSA, that was it, as we moved home to Essex and apparent lack of Sea Cadet troops. I did get to go out one afternoon aged about 14, along with a couple of other lads, with a school woodwork teacher who had built a dinghy in the workshop. We sailed for a couple of hours from somewhere very muddy on the Crouch (just upstream from Burnham?).
Failing a Board of Trade eye test put paid to my intended career as radio officer in the merchant navy, and it wasn't until I was I was about 30 when I eventually got to go sailing again. This time it was intensive. A friend had, with a lot of help from others, built a 38 foot ferrocement sailing boat with the intention of sailing round the world. Until he got round to that, we spent several years sailing hither and thither around the East Coast, across to Holland and down to Brest, etc.
That inspired me to do my shorebased Yachtmaster (London School of Navigation night class, Morse and all), an RYA dinghy ticket (a lake somewhere in N London), and Coastal Skipper course (Solent, mid-winter).
I was approaching 40 when I finally got my own boat, a Firefly dinghy, followed a couple of years later by 16'3" GRP centreboard cruiser (camping style). Except for gaps of a few years when money was particularly tight, I've had boats ever since.
I'm just so grateful for the Sea Cadets' officers, friends and others who put themselves out and enabled me to have so many great adventures, either at the time or since.
Amazing how so many survived, despite lack of running hot water, standing headroom, and wi-fi.
My own boating started in extremely widely spaced fits and starts. Mine wasn't a boating family, despite my grandfather having spent almost all his working life in the Royal Navy, and my father having been a merchant seaman. My mother would very rarely speak of my father, who died when I was very young, but did once say that I had always been interested in water, and whenever he took us out in a hired rowing boat (Serpentine? Thames?) I would always try to clamber out of the boat into the water, and would be allowed to dangle over the side of the boat held by my reins.
I remember cycling out of London to Erith(?) or Gravesend, aged about 10 or 11, and standing watching with huge envy and longing as people rigged their dinghies and set out out on the river.
At 13 I joined the Sea Cadets and, joy of joys, we would often go down to Portsmouth for the weekend, where I got experience and my 'skipper's ticket' pulling (rowing) 27ft Montague Whalers and 32 ft Cutters from the Royal Clarence Yard. On one occasion we actually went sailing in a Whaler, taking part in the Southsea Regatta, but the sailing side of it was being handled by more experienced boys and officers, and I didn't really know what was going on, except to hear they were unable to dip the lug (whatever that meant), and we came last in our class.
My first 'cruising' was about 5 days around the Solent under engine in the Sea Cadets' Motor Fishing Vessel (MFV 1060, I remember for some strange reason) getting as far as Yarmouth (wow!) in varied mix of calm and sunny interspersed with strong winds and rain. I did enjoy that.
My real start on 'sailing', though, was one fine day at the Royal Clarence Yard, when an older cadet asked if I'd like to come out in a sailing dinghy. I jumped at the chance, and off we went in a Bosun, tearing round Portsmouth Harbour, the Victory etc., at what seemed great speed. I was instantly hooked, and must have had such a huge grin on my face. I've spent much of my life (and income!) trying to recreate that moment!
After perhaps a handful more times out in a Bosun or (my favourite) a RNSA, that was it, as we moved home to Essex and apparent lack of Sea Cadet troops. I did get to go out one afternoon aged about 14, along with a couple of other lads, with a school woodwork teacher who had built a dinghy in the workshop. We sailed for a couple of hours from somewhere very muddy on the Crouch (just upstream from Burnham?).
Failing a Board of Trade eye test put paid to my intended career as radio officer in the merchant navy, and it wasn't until I was I was about 30 when I eventually got to go sailing again. This time it was intensive. A friend had, with a lot of help from others, built a 38 foot ferrocement sailing boat with the intention of sailing round the world. Until he got round to that, we spent several years sailing hither and thither around the East Coast, across to Holland and down to Brest, etc.
That inspired me to do my shorebased Yachtmaster (London School of Navigation night class, Morse and all), an RYA dinghy ticket (a lake somewhere in N London), and Coastal Skipper course (Solent, mid-winter).
I was approaching 40 when I finally got my own boat, a Firefly dinghy, followed a couple of years later by 16'3" GRP centreboard cruiser (camping style). Except for gaps of a few years when money was particularly tight, I've had boats ever since.
I'm just so grateful for the Sea Cadets' officers, friends and others who put themselves out and enabled me to have so many great adventures, either at the time or since.
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st599
Well-Known Member
Topper at a scout camp in February in Northumberland. There were 6 on board, no one had a clue how to sail, we ended up swimming in 2 degrees.
NealB
Well-Known Member
Another great story, well told: thank you!!
I'd venture a guess that the 'very muddy' place, 'just upstream from Burnham', could well have been Creeksea and Creeksea SC.
NealB
Well-Known Member
shirazchaz
New Member
I bought the book again a couple of months ago! Half way through it......since I can't do anything with my boat even tough it's at work :-(
st599
Well-Known Member
Nope, I've seen more on one at my sailing club.
dunedin
Well-Known Member
It’s certainly not a record. The Tupperware Topper is virtually indestructible, so it is a common fun escapade to see how many people (generally high spirited kids!) can climb onto a Topper before the thing sinks/capsizes and throws everybody off into the drink.
How high you can shimmy up the mast before it capsizes is the advanced version.
Best in water warmer than 2C however.
Robert Wilson
Well-Known Member
Edith, an ex-fishing boat with a much cut-down mast/sail area (needed a good b;ow to shift it!)
Edith belonged to Les Ferris of St. Mawes fame. He gave sailing lessons (and in stringing-together EVERY swear-word!).
Thus, my first time in a sailing boat was round St. Mawes harbour at the age of about nine or ten.
Edith belonged to Les Ferris of St. Mawes fame. He gave sailing lessons (and in stringing-together EVERY swear-word!).
Thus, my first time in a sailing boat was round St. Mawes harbour at the age of about nine or ten.
NealB
Well-Known Member
Thanks dundedin, for the continuing education that is (sometimes) the ybw forums: I've obviously led a far too sheltered life!
(Shock, horror!! Think man!!! ....... Have I ever sailed a Topper myself? Hmmmmm.......Possibly not.)
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
Could well have been.
DownWest
Well-Known Member
Reminds me of our rowing coach at school. He was around 70 and crusty with a sharp tongue, but actually very nice, when you got to know him. Drove a Riley 1.5 saloon and kept another as a spare.
In cold weather (I remember, as bow, looking for the bigger ice floes on the Thames..) he wore this wonderfull ankle length heavy fur coat. One year, at the Heads of The River races, the rough water sunk the eight he was coxing. No way he was going to loose the coat, so he swam ashore in it.