How did you get into boating?

I was small enough to helm the boat a neighbour built for his kids in the late 60s or early 70s (he wasn't) so spent a couple of summers upside down on a local reservoir. Then my younger brothers built a pair of kayaks at school so it was off to the Great Ouse which flowed through the village - not very "great" in our part of the world more a large stream but fun. Not certain what the residents thought as we carried a procession of kayaks over a mile from home to waters edge each day during our holidays though.

No more boating until in the mid 90s when a colleague introduced me to a newcomer to the office who a owned a yacht (actually a Sigma 362). The colleague who was also a keen sailor then proceeded to organise a weekend trip from Brighton to Cowes & back and signed another colleague plus myself & my daughter up as crew. I was seasick for most of that trip but somehow that didn't put me off either the owner or sailing, we managed over 1000nm on our summer cruise this year and we'll celebrate 11 years of marriage next month!
 
State run boarding school

we had 360 boys at Wolverstone, six cadets, seven enterprises, two wayfarers and an infinite number of fibre-glass canoes built at the school

and a well equipped woodwork classroom where there was nearly always a boat being built

all boys from council flats or armed services families

Dylan
 
Jealousy

An ex girlfriend had a couple of friends called Ian & Jo(e) that she went sailing with. By the time I realised they werent competition but a married couple with a Bolero in Pompey harbour it was too late :o - I was hooked
 
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My dad used to take me out in a 7' canvas pram dinghy with a 30 hook longline as a very small child. A succession of small boats including a home-built YW Bass Boat when I was around 10 years old, all used for inshore fishing with long lines, nets and pots. When I was older I built a few small boats myself, raced a couple of dinghies, then a bit of sailing/cruising later on, and have now gone back to fishing and pottering in a Nelson 18. All done in cheapish boats.
 
First memory of sailing was bailing out a mirror dingy on Windermere (sailing round Belle isle to be exact) about 86/87 i was only little. 1990 my dad bought a Bayliner 2556 which we had on Windermere for a year and then spent the next 7 years exploring north wales. Port Dinorwick first then Conwy were our home bases. Boat sold 1998 - gutted.

Sinking mirror dingy returned even more knackered from the scouts and me/friends/dad rebuilt it and sailed on Rudyard. Gave it back to the scouts when school turned to uni/work/girls came on the scene.

2007 bought a Wayfarer rebuilt it sailed it with my Mrs. Little one came along thought that was it again but managed to get a Jag 25 and the three of us are back on Windermere - Gone full circle.
 
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I think the first time I ever went sailing in a real boat was in Portland Harbour, with an uncle, in what I later discovered was a Flying Twenty (a bigger version of a Flying Fifteen) in the early sixties.
A few years later, I spent so much time trying to build boats that would float on the local pond that my parents thought I'd probably drown if I didn't learn how to do it properly. Neither of them knew anything about sailing, so they sent me on a one-week course at Bisham Abbey.
I bought a 12ft clinker dinghy for £10 (not a lot, even in the sixties!), and me and Dad did it up so that I could flog it for enough to buy the wood to build a Graduate.
A few years later, I went back to Bisham as an instructor!
 
It's still a mystery, as there's no history of sailing in our family - Dad was a Leading Air Mechanic on Spitfires ( Seafires ) and Hellcats on aircraft carriers during WWII, but that if anything turned him off anything nautical, particularly Naval Officers !

As soon as I could read I started getting books out of the library, and these always seemed to be about sailing.

My first command was a Campari inflatable dinghy, with Dads' help I fitted leeboards and a small rig, consisting of discarded aileron control rods from a Hawker Hunter jet fighter.

It sailed like a house.

When I was 9 I saved up my rather meagre pocket money and eventually had enough after a boost from my Grandma ( price was £80.00 I think ) to buy a Caricraft 10 gunter rigged dinghy from one of dad's work colleagues.

This dragged Dad into it, and I weaned him off golf.

By this time I was heavily into Swallows And Amazons, and we trailed the Caricraft to the Lake District, exploring Windermere and Conniston, sailing her into the harbour on Wild Cat Island was a highlight.

Within a few years there was a part complete Anderson 22 in the garage, Dad supplied the finance & original building skills, I was a sort of 'sailing master', eventually buying her outright.

I once sold her and bitterly regretted it, after 3 years with a Carter 30 I managed to buy the Anderson back.

I admit it, hooked for life...

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I started aged 8-9 while I was at Kenton College School on Nairobi Dam in Kenya as a way to get out of boarding school at the weekends, 2 up in a standard laser 1. First as a crew holding the main sheet before progressing to helming, learning NOT to capsize in the Bilharzia infected water (it was very brown, with a lot of unidentified floating objects in it, courtesy of the shanty town opposite), before moving on to Niavasha yacht club after a year, this time learning to avoid the Hippopotamus's, in the shallow water and on land at night listening to them munching grass just outside the tent. Family then brought a Fireball which we often took to the Coast (Malidi, Watamu, Kilifi, Mombasa)learning to avoid the coral head’s and Shark’s. Then to the UK where it was team racing in Firefly’s, University team racing in Lark’s. I have since owned a succession of racing dinghies, including a fabulous few years in a laser 4000 and 5000. Now a sailing mad family that owns too many boats (9 including inflatables!) largest is a Westerly Fulmar, smallest is a RS terra!
 
A school friend and I bought a Shearwater Cat although we hadn't sailed before, we joined Leigh-on-Sea yacht club. The first time we went out we saw no other boats sailing and lots of white tops. We launched between two wharfs where there was no wind, put the sails up and paddled to the entrance. The boat heeled violently and we turned down wind, it was instinctive and very lucky. Then we had no idea what to do and five miles later were were off Southend pier heading out into the Thames estuary.

Then we decided to go side to the wind easing the main off and then more into wind to drop it, again a very lucky guess. We sailed back with the jib. We had no lifejackets or proper wet weather gear, we got soaked. When we looked at the forecast later it was a Force 7. We were 16 at the time, completely oblivous to risk, and didn't even know that the sails were called a main and jib until later.
 
In 1974 my wife and I ran an hotel in Jersey, for an American bank, we parted company in 75.
We were approached by the Commodore of the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club, to see if we would like to take on the stewardship, and catering franchise, which we did. We only stayed a year because we we bought our first small business early 1976.
It was a fabulous year. I did a course with the Channel Island sailing School, and some of the members became close friends and indeed those still around, still are.
All the sailing I could want with no expense.
 
My first boat was a 14' clinker river launch with a morris 8 petrol engine shaft drive, I was not allowed further down river than Woolston floating bridge, Dad's byelaws, but was allowed anywhere else on the Itchen, My parents house was in Quayside road,that was 1956.Been playing with boats on and off ever since, some belonged to Her Majesty, a couple of grey funnel lines then 7 years in submarines, then everything else that floated became targets:D.
 
Although we lived in Hertfordshire, my father ordered a sailing yacht from Mitchell's yard in Portmellon (who built "Helen" as in Helen Tew). The War put a stop to that but we messed about in boats by the seaside and on the Broads. When I was about 15 we got a Firefly which I raced for many years inland.

Before and after marriage I also sailed on the Broads but racing dinghies seemed antisocial with a family so I bought a Westerly Cirrus in 1971 and don't seem to have ever had any spare cash ever since.
 
we emegrated to Canada

Back in 1966.. I just loved the ship.. The Maarsdam, Holand America Line, I would stand on the sern rail just looking at the sea..

I had my first sail in a boat somewhere near Montreal. I was terrified and excited all at the same time.. The skipper trimmed us so the water was running along the side deck wit about an inch before it came into the cockpit.. Bad sailing but very ecxiting.. I was hoocked...
 
Talulah said:
I wonder how you got into boating?
Click to expand...
We lived on Hoy on Orkney after my late father came ashore from the Merchant Navy. My first memories are of being on the bridge of warships and drinking coke in the ward room, sailing in a boat across to the mainland and being very, very sick on the St Ola.
 
No history of sailing in our family, but spent all my summer holidays on the beach, which gave me an everlasting connection with the sea.
First introduction to sailing was a one-day sailing course while at university in Amsterdam.
Next I responded to a small ad offering places for paying crew on a trip from Belgium to the Isles of Scilly. That got me and my girlfriend both hooked.
After ten years of crewing and chartering, our favourite boat was put up for sale and although the timing was less than perfect, we decided to buy her. In hindsight, one of our better decisions.
Our kids virtually grew up on boats, and I'm glad to say they are both very keen dinghy and cat racers and sailing instructors.
 
Went up to stay with the future Mrs Giblets' brother and she took me out on his Wayfarer from West Mersea. I was hooked and as we didn't argue decided to get more involved (with the current Mrs G as well :D)
 
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