How did you get into boating?

Father built the prototype Fleetwind in '48. I went with him out of Gravesend aged 3 in '50. Allowed out on my own aged 6. Then he got a Cadet for us young uns as they raced them at the local club. I used to sail in the evenings after primary school, but needed help to get it out after. The family boats got bigger as Father made his hobby into a business. So crewed all the time in races on the east coast and Falmouth. Built my own little boat aged 10 and 1/2. So, been at it all my life.
 
Fell off my motorbike when I was 16 years old. Famaly thought I needed a safer hobby. My cousen sailed at Tamworth Saling Club and invited me along. On my first visit I was introduced to someone who had just bought an Enterprise sailing dinghy but didn't have a regular crew. We sailed together for a couple of years winning a few pots along the way. Perhaps my most pleasurable sailing years. Then I started buying boats of my own!
1981 Graduate ... 1984 Laser .... 2002 Gem Micro .... 2004 Hunter Ranger .... 2009 Moody S31
 
My father decided to buy a boat on the thames back in the late 50s.The choice was between a slipper launch with wicker chairs etc or a 15 foot lug rigged dayboat with a 4 foot iron bowsprit.......For some reason we moved to the sea and the "Dora" was converted to a bermudian sloop.This was the era of yacht clubs with vast fleets of racing dinghies.Unfortunatly our boat was totally unsuited,only later did I discover all the nubile girls who "raced".By then I was coastal cruising,dreaming of heroic singlehanded voyages,fueled by the writtings of Chichester et al......."sigh"
 
I was fascinated by the sea from an early age went throygh the sea scouts, Naval section CCF, RNR to the RN. First sailed at the Moray Sea School but really got the bug at Dartmouth where I sailed RNSA 14s, Fireflys, Montague and 3 in 1 whalers and 32 ft cutters. Time in submarines keept me out of sailing but after leaving the RN sailed in dinghies for many years and did my time on assorted committees. Eventually bought a Seawych and gradually progressed up to a Moddy 36 which I sailed to Portugal. In the bad years sailing almost kept me sane.
 
In '76-'79 our family was in Hong Kong and my Dad joined his base's dinghy sailing club and bought an Enterprise. I was 10; my younger brother & I quickly graduated to racing the club's Otter dinghies, winning our share of the club trophies. When the family returned to Hong Kong in '84-'87 I was at uni in UK but went there for holidays; I windsurfed and raced Lasers and occasionally Bosuns.

In my early 20s I did a couple of Greek flotilla holidays with Sunsail, had a great time, but left it at that.

In my late 20s I moved to Helsinki, Finland, and admired all the yachts from a distance. A couple of times I got to go out in friends' H-Boats. But the change finally came ten years later from my wife: on a holiday at Lake Garda I persuaded her to go out for a couple of hours with me in a rented Dyas keelboat dinghy; it started with a pleasantly gentle wind which slowly increased until we were both hiking out as far as we could, and she had a whale of a time; in the bar in the evening she told me I could buy an H-Boat. :)

After four years cruising the southern Finnish coast in our H-Boat she wanted to upgrade to something more comfortable where we could take our friends along, so we bought Puffin, our Maxi 999. We're now nearing the end of our third sailing season with Puffin, having taken many friends sailing with us (and also my mother, who sailed with me back in the '70s in Hong Kong).
 
In early teens I bought a marblehead model yacht (8' rig, 48" loa) to race in Poole Park. Did that for a few years then gave it up in favour of cycling (don't ask why). 20 years later my brother bought a small cruiser (Vivacity 650 "LOT1") but couldn't afford the upkeep, so I took a share which ended up as 100%. Now sail a Cobra 750. Never did dinghies.

It was a shock to discover the tacking angles on real boats, the model marbleheads were deepfin, high aspect ratio slim bodied hulls like scaled down americas cup yachts that would easily sail at 20 degrees to wind!
 
Read all the Arthur Ransome books at an early age. In the mid sixties my dad was a youth worker and the family would go with him to the International Youth Camp at East Mersea, Mersea Island for a month in the school holidays. One of the activities on offer was sailing and I jumped at the chance. We sailed off the beach at high tide. I can still remember my first time in a dinghy, a Mayfly if memory serves, probably cold moulded ply and a bit scary! I can't have been too frightened as I then went on to sail there for several summers in what we called Walker boats and Yachting World Seniors? Both wooden clinker built and all borrowed from the Activity Centre at Bradwell. There didn't seem to be any formal organisation, some kids could sail and they took the helm and the rest of us all piled in. You could find yourself in a boat with people from several other countries, it was a good education in more ways than one!
Since then I have had boats on and off, dinghies and cruisers. I gave up dinghies last year as I am not nimble enough to duck under the boom - stiff knees. I retired yesterday and hope to spend more time on my Westerly Centaur - still on the Blackwater just a few miles from where I learnt to sail.
Anyone else go to the camp on Mersea?
Bob
 
I think i was about 20 when someone asked me helping her with varnishing a BM 16m2. In the Netherlands we have lots of water.

Later i bought a smaller one, because i had not the funds for a bigger boat.
First sailing was more or less like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTYIkeiqB7M

Lately my wife and me hired a 31 footer in summer, and that put us back into flame.

Taco
 
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