True story

Some of that sounds awfully familiar John,

I too used to cycle a good distance twice a week to go sailing in the evenings..... ah memories!

What a lovely thread this has turned out to be.... following nicely in the footsteps of the 'picture of your boat' thread...
 
Me too

Getting the No54 bus to Hogganfield Loch on a wednesday evening straight after school to sail Enterprises and latterly Kestrels with Glasgow Schools Sailing Club.

Got to know the girls too!!!!
Donald
 
My first one was on a Lark dinghy in a cold and wet force 5, wearing jeans and a parker, while my school mate yelled meaningless instructions.

After 10 minutes of that, I felt I knew enough to take a topper out on my own while on holiday. Luckily, the wind was lighter that day...
 
It was a nice Aya side by side......which I later inherited...

Of course he knew the next time he used it - barrels would have been dirty.....

He never did mention it.... neighbours probably told him anyway...I let it off in the back garden!

That was before the car driving escapade though....

Donald
 
Car driving!! Hmm I had a cousin in Edinburgh whose father was an avid church goer, when my cousin was 12 he used to get the cortina when his dad was in church and drive it sitting on a large cushion so he could see over the dashboard and wearing his dad's trilby to look older. Was only caught when his dad left church early and saw his son expertly reparking the car.
 
I first lost my heart when I was cruising up the Orwell in an Ocean liner when I spotted this lovely sailing boat with 2 young men in it drinking beer.
Love, the
Queen
 
Was a bit older than that - 15 - managed to work out the gear shift for the Renault 4 push-me-pull-me until found out. Car keys were thereafter well hidden.

Vroom vroom

Donald
 
I have described my first time out on a yacht, but my first time sailing a dinghy single handed was quite memorable too.

Having enjoyed crewing in dinghies for a few months I decided to buy an Enterprise. Having taken ownership of a nice old wooden Ent I was desperate to sail it so on the first possible weekend I headed down to the river. I knew it was probably too windy but launched anyway.

Within about two minutes I had capsized. Having only experienced capsizes whilst crewing I was happy to discover that I was able to right the dinghy on my own and began bailing out many gallons of water.

After 5 minutes of hard work with the bucket the dinghy was reasonably dry. The next capsize followed within a few minutes. I did not have the energy to bail out quickly and tried to sail whilst waterlogged.

An Enterprise fulll of water is highly unstable and I went on to complete a total of 8 capsizes! I was now getting pretty frustrated and wondering how this horrible episode was going to end.

Feeling completely knackered as I jumped off the centreboard and into the swamped hull for the 8th time I was delighted to see a motor cruiser pull alongside.

After a bit of gentle bailing I was under tow and heading back to our pontoon and slipway. One highly amused lady on the motor cruiser remarked that I looked like a drowned rat, took a photo of me and then enquired whether the dinghy would sink.

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I first went to sea aged 9, in a boat my father borrowed from a friend. I have no idea what sort of boat it was, general dinghy sort of shape, but made from expanded polystyerne, and it had a few things missing.
So my father, my freind and I set of in an off shore breeze on an ebbing tide, coming to the mouth of the cove, my father decided to turn around and go back. The boat didn't want to know without its centre board. So the sail was tied to the mast with a bit of string and we got the oars out, but there were no rollocks! Scene two: landing on a small beach, getting rescued by a man in an inflatable (who did have rollocks), and watching My father and his friend (who had gotten badly cut-up crossing the moor to the beach on foot) paddling the plastic beast back to the beach. My day was rounded off nicely by meeting my teacher (Mr Grinnel) fishing on the rocks nearby.
I wasn't discouraged and latter had a weeks course at the Emsworth sailing school (on Wayfarers), a couple of holidays at Drake's Island adventure centre (on Wayfarers) then at school, I used to go to South Cerney and learnt some more (on Wayfarers).
 
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