When did you start sailing?

1963 aged 10. All I wanted was an open boat with an outboard to get onto the sea at Bognor. Mum insisted I learn to sail, so fixed up lessons on the "lagoon" (a small lake) at Pagham. As the 12' clinker Lugger went across the lake for the first time, I was hooked on sailing - the surging, silent, progress took my breath away.
 
In 1965 my parents bought a second hand 'Gremlin' plywood pram dinghy about 7'6 long with a very basic Gunter rig. We launched it from the beach at Amroth (S Wales) and managed to swamp it immediately in the very light surf.

I was about seven years old which means I've been sailing on and off for fifty years. (Where did all that time go?)

My parents paid 2/6 a week for me to sail at Upton Warren Sailing Centre near Droitwich and I used to cycle 12 miles there and back with my brother from age 12. I sailed plywood GP14's reaching back and forth across the gravel pit.

Intro to yachting is a whole new chapter.
 
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Aged 28 when living in NZ. Always wanted to sail but never knew how to get into it - none of my family sailed and we didn't know anyone else who did either. I wish someone had suggested dinghy sailing when I was a kid, I didn't even know it existed - never read or heard of Ransome. In NZ everything seemed a lot more accessible and affordable (4 dollars to 1 pound when I was there). Did an intro course in Wellington (where it was blowing 30 knots plus on our first day out) and then crewed a couple of harbour racing seasons. I was fairly hopeless but hooked.

Nicola
 
john_morris_uk said:
In 1965 my parents bought a second hand 'Gremlin' plywood pram dinghy about 7'6 long with a very basic Gunter rig. .
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Snap. Also in a Gremlin dinghy around about the same time - though I was too young to really remember other than from photos. Dont think it was used in the UK. We took on car roof, with caravan behind, to France, Sweden etc. Learning to sail in warm water definitely the best way.
 
Aged about 5 or 6 in a dinghy of some sort. Dad bought Hurley Felicity when I was about 7 and then I got Mirror when I was 9. Uncle and Dad bought Iroquois when I was about 11. Then dinghies at school sailing club and university. RYA young skippers in late 80's / early 90's (free sailing!!) bought own yacht in mid thirties, but of chartering between boats, back into ownership earlier this year.
 
tobermoryphil said:
Aged 68- anyone beat that?
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Wow, no but ............

First stepped in to a dingy, a Pico, aged 45 whilst on a Nielson Beach Plus holiday. Nearly gave it up but took out a Laser and after the initial shock when powered it up I loved it. A couple of holiday later I bought my own battered old Laser and sailed it for a few years.

First stepped in to (on to?) a Yacht aged 50 when I did a comp crew course on an Elan 40 and again loved it. It was a bit different from the average comp crew as we sailed from Swanick to Poole then to Weymouth and back to the Solent. Of the other crew one was a couple and he was a YM and she had all the quals but didn't do exam and they were just on a jolly. The other was mile building and had DS. I reckon that experience rather than the standard 5 days in the Solent got me hooked as we sailed as opposed to spending time hanging around while everyone had a go.
 
With parents I think it would be counted in months (I was born in October)....

Solo 6 an Embassy Dinghy Any one remember those? if a Newfoundland dog as crew...

For my daughter born in May she can count in weeks...
 
I first experienced the water when I was about 5 and we had a little rowing-boat that went on top of the car and we took to Cornwall. I don't think I have photos of my first sailing, which was the Broads in about 1947 but this was a year or two later. We slept in a Ring of Light cruiser and sailed dinghies and half-deckers. My twin is on the right while I'm doing all the work:

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1982, I was 23 and did an extra year at university in Amsterdam. Sailing was much more accessible there than it was in my native Belgium. Although the course itself was not an instant success, it whetted my appetite enough to look for an opportunity to crew on a yacht, which got me hooked for ever.
 
Guess I was about 10 (1960) when the school went for a week to the county watersports centre at Chasewater for a week. By the end of the first day I was totally hooked on sailing. I suspect the sheer enthusiasm of the centre staff had a lot to do with it. When the week ended I used to cycle to the centre every weekend and hang around hoping they'd give me some small job for which the reward would be a go in one of the boats. That progressed to being allowed to help teach the subsequent students. That went on for a year or so until we moved away. After that I would get summer jobs teaching sailing wherever I could. No qualifications or anything, where could you do that nowadays? Teaching, blagging, chartering kept me sailing, on and off, until I could finally afford a dinghy when I was about 23 (Contender). A couple of years later, now married, we bought our first cruiser (Vivacity 20) and we've carried on from there.
Our two boys (now adults) started sailing at 6 weeks and 3 months respectively.
 
Aged 14 on a church summer camp - sailing halfdeckers on the Norfolk Broads. I was sent to the church camp as a punishment for being truant from school. What ace punishment! Most memorable moment: crashed into a gin-palace with the bow-sprit wedged into their hull. Whoops. Followed by dinghy sailing through teens and uni. First experience of bigger boats through corporate regattas in my twenties. Now getting ready to liveaboard!
 
Maxcampbell,I was also born in '53.Messing about in Cork Harbour in the 50's in a 12' clinker built job,and from the age of about 10 sailing on the Severn ,an 8 metre.In those days the Wye and the Iff where also in Cork.All sold to the Clyde in the 60's.
 
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