What was the first boat you bought with your own cash?

The first boat I bought with my own hard earnt was a Snapdragon 21 named Delta2. We kept her for three years in Conwy and the sold her to a gentleman from the Isle of Man. We towed her back and forth at the start and end of each season to Burton upon Trent with a 2.3 Diesel Sierra. I think that we may well have been towing well over the cars weight limit at the time and she did struggle going up some of the steeper hills.
 
How do you buy a boat with someone elses cash rather than your own ??

My first was a Westerly 25 which i kept 25 years, sailed round the Uk and to Ireland twice. Only sold her because SWMBO inisted on a toilet door !
 
I bought my first boat in 1975, a John Baker Lark which we raced at Stokes Bay and trailed to events around the country. Terrific fun, a delight to race and fairly competitive. Only gave up dinghy sailing when the body objected too much and we graduated to a cruising yacht. Those were the days.
 
A Mirror Marauder 14 (basically a racing type dinghy).
Never sailed before in my life, in my family and social circle it was just something you never even considered doing, but something I always wanted to do. So I read a book on how to sail and launched her off Shell Island in Wales. I was young and stupid (well not that young, 24, but convinced of my invincibility) and after about ten minutes I realised I was going in the opposite direction I wanted to go in and wondered why the damned tiller didn't work (it was only later I discovered the need for the centre board to be down when tacking to windward!)
I managed to get ashore and towed the dinghy back to my house. Then decided to take a dinghy course at a local lake and I was hooked.
 
It was half my cash. I spent the summer of 1969 after my O levels picking strawberries at Tiptree to get to £50, which my father doubled, and I bought a Mumbles YC OD, a nice 18ft gunter rigged centreboard dayboat, called ‘Kay’, which I kept at West Mersea.
I have often wondered what became of her.

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A fireball called "Vessel Virgin" which I raced (badly) from Dell Quay in about 1975. Followed by another Fireball called "Honour Back" which had been owned by Ozzy Stewart. Cannot remember cost of each. Both names came with the boats. "Honour Back" was a fast boat which I took to the Nationals a couple of times.
 
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In 1966, when I was 11, I 'bought' the Heron, 'Howzat'.

She was in a forlorn state, with peeling decks and totally rotten bottom, but dead cheap, so I managed to buy her out of my accumulated life savings, which had just been bolstered by some very welcome birthday cash inflows.

She was a lovely little boat, once Dad and I had replaced the 2 bottom panels. I recall getting them to fit the tight curve at each bow, was a real challenge (requiring much steam from the kettle).

She was great fun, and taught me so much, based at Hullbridge.

My first 'big boat' was a Manta 16 trailer sailer, in 1985.

For some, undoubtedly witty and/or logical reason (now forgotten), we named her 'Lazy Prawn'.

She gave us two satisfying seasons, again mainly based on the Crouch, but with a few adventures further afield (thanks to the trailer and the Company XR3).

Most exciting, was sailing back from Newtown Creek to Chichester Harbour (where we'd left the trailer), with a worryingly green, early morning sky, hinting at bigger things to come. That was (correction coming up) August 1986. The tail end of Hurricane Charley gave us a few very anxious moments, but, realistically, probably didn't exceed a good, solid force 6.

We're currently on our 11th boat (excluding 'Howzat'). Won't bore you with the whole list.
 
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Bought a new Copland Foxcub 18 in 1976 courtesy of a legacy from a distant relative. Kept it on a mooring on Belfast lough opposite my flat. Was able to go sailing within 10 minutes of returning from work. First cruise was from Belfast to Tobermory via the Crinan canal.
 
I have been around boats all my life, but the first ownership came when with our neighbours Clive and Michelle we blued a fiver down and a pound a month at Pride and Clark's Brixton emporium for a 16 foot unpainted plywood open dinghy with hardwood trim. We used to send the little brown book with a pound note tucked in it back every month, the book returned with the payment stamped in.

£17 quid for a brand new boat! IIRC, the paint and varnish cost about the same.

I found an almost new Seagull 40 plus non runner really cheap, cleaned the points and got it going. A pair of oars were donated by a friend and after painting we spent a couple of summers investigating the Thames, Kennet and Avon Canal, The Oxford Canal and the Cherwell. We used a large adjustable spanner as a lock windlass.

We sold that and made a good profit and bought another plywood boat, an 18 foot 2 berth cruiser with an Evinrude 20 on the back. Swopped the engine for a 6HP EvInrude and went far further on the canal systems now we could stay aboard. We had a fondue party on board in Stratford basin - four adults, two large dogs and a guitar, in the rain, the cockpit covered by a tarpaulin held up by the boathook and a borrowed broom!

Happy days......................................
 
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