What was your first boating experience?

first boat memory going down the menai straits on basically a rigid raider typeithink it was called a dolphin but with no steering console with an evenrude 50 hp on the back at about 30 knots in a near vertical position trailing mackerel lines past brynsiencyn and strangely catching nothing. launching at the mermaid i think it was called (near newborough and the sea zoo) and getting bnat out and dad going for a pint or two and mer and my mate having bottles of coke and crinkley crisps and catching crabs by the slipway ooh cripes memory given up

we later cast a concrete block on the front of the boat which helped with the vertical attitude but redeuced freeboard somewhat /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

first boat of mine ( with an engine) Mirror dinghy /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Dads 12ft Broom with a very tempramental Mercury 50. My first memories are of learning to ski in the postage stamp sized Southport Marine Lake on Sunday afternoons in the 70's. (assuming dad had enough easy start to get it going).

My first boat was a Bayliner 2651, trailed it all over the UK.
 
Thorpeness Mere - an old hired sailing dinghy (fixed mast, boom and some old grey canvas tied between them in a rough triangle - the rope hanging off the end hardly qualified to be called a mainsheet ..)

Solent sailors may recognise what you see below - this is the infamous 'Thorpeness chop'. Given that the mere is 2 feet deep in places, they're challenging waters indeed for a ten year old.

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ha - snap! Except we used to 'charter' Hiawatha (1977 ish)- a sturdy 2 seat canoe (think that's a green version of one in the foreground)

Moved on from the Mere to an Orkney Strikeliner - then Warrior 165 and now the Bav.
 
Remember going to stay with a family friend on Mersea when I was about 9 years old. Don't think we knew them that well, so not sure why I was staying there except they had a son about my age. Anyway, come saturday his dad says "Let's go for ride in the speed boat". It apears they had a boat which, from memory, was probably a fletcher or some such early seventies type with a white outboard. Anyway, trip was going OK, pootling along slowly until we get to open water when engine breaks. What followed was a bit of nightmare, as we had to paddle boat to somewhere (very tiring) and of course, being a small boy I was by now desparate to go to the loo! It was getting cold and I was bursting, but too embarassed to go over the side as suggested! By his mum! A woman for heavens sake! Oh the shame! Eventually made it back after what seemed like hours.
 
Falmouth harbour on my friends sailing yacht, still remember the first time he cut the engine and the sails took over - Magic! Soon realised it took too long to get any where but that moment is always special.
 
It must have been a clinker built open day boat when I was about 5 hired in salcome harbour, it had an inboard engine and a steering wheel! about 8 of us were on it, my dad was very brave, im sure we went nearly up to the bar entrance, then we ran aground on the way back and had to be towed in , worst bit was that we had time left on the hire but the thing wouldnt go!.

After the holiday my dad and his mate george bought a boat each, I might sound like a real anorak now but my dad bought a boat called a woodwych 17ft with a perkins 6.5hp 2 stoke, it took 2 people to lift it, his mate george bought a 16ft nomad design, im sure there must be some oldtimers out there that will recognise these 2 designs.

When you look back there was no toilet, shower etc, just a single burner cooker and a tilley lamp my dad borrowed from work, he was an original steam engine driver for BR formerly the LNER , those were the days as a kid when you thought life was so simple, we spent years on the canals.

He then bought a clinker built 23ft boat with an 8hp stuart turner petrol inboard, what a move up the ladder that was, as it slept 4 and had a toilet and a sink!. Then 15 or so years with no boat, then a mark 1 princess 33, Histar 42 majorca based, then a corniche, lastly just before his death a princess 388.

I took over the 388 after his untimely departure from this world and sold it to fund my divorce in 2002.

In 2005 I bought a Fairline Corniche, sold in last year.

When I look back I think the best days were as a child when you didnt have a care in the world, the summers were longer and the nights shorter......
 
From Hayling Island to Bembridge in my mates 21ft Avenger in about 10 minutes. Shod with twin 100hp. Mercs these were the biggest available in those days [the mid 60's i think] We started off on the trailer and stopped off in Bembridge for a pint and a nosebag. Unfortunately he had set the outboards too low on the transom and no end of cranking or lack of cranking would start either engine to get us back over. This was due to a hydrostatic lock. We ended up crossing back over on the ferry from Fishguard to get his Jag. and trailer. How mad we were in those days, I even skied 2 of them past Portland Bill on the back of my Corniche Express.
 
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Thorpeness Mere - an old hired sailing dinghy - the rope hanging off the end hardly qualified to be called a mainsheet ..)


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Sameish here. 5 Yrs old in St. Osyth Boating Lake, Essex.
Little pram dingy, gunter rig with a jib, similar to a Mirror or Cadet. My job was to hold the jib and lean out to hold her level. Still see my Dad smiling at seeing 2 stone hanging out for grim death making sod all diff.

My first owned boat after several more Dinghys' owned by Dad was an Olympic Class Tornado Cat. First proper boat, Sailcraft Iroquois Cat. First Mobo 19ft Codmaster with 70Hp Yam.

I still like sailing but her ladyship found it either too frightening or dead boring... /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
Don't remember my first boating experience, but my first boat was an International Moth. Skol II design, it was - the hull was shaped like a mini Merlin Rocket. A bit different to the razor blades on foils they have nowadays.
 
I had a little red fireboat in my bath aged 2ish. It had a yellow funnel, and when you pressed the funnel down, it squirted water out of a fire hose.
 
Are you sure that was a funnel you were pressing?

Likewise, are you sure that was Water? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

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Taken for a trip in/on a motorboat at the Boating Lake, Llandrindod Wells in the mid 50s.
Enjoyed it so much that I ended up working there during Summer Hols - late 50s to mid 60s.
Boats were about 10-12ft long, clinker built, powered by 2hp (I think) Stuart Turner petrol engines.
Used to be a great thrill to spend an hour or so out on the Staff Boat which had an extra 0.5hp, so it could apprehend the overdue customers hiding behind the Island /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif.

First boat owned was an old Seasafe dinghy with a 9.8hp Mercury outboard. This combo was a great introduction to the reality of boating as following a full service the engine seized up on my maiden voyage. This took place in The Bag on an ebb tide and I drifted ashore with no one else about to give me a tow.. This put me about 2 mls from home by water but approx. 8 by foot and car /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Happy Days
 
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