Your Boating History!

I sat in the Captain's Chair and drunk in the wardroom of a Type 14 frigate, HMS Exmouth, in 1965 aged three. Since then it has been downhill all the way and I now sail a Gib'Sea 96.
 
We bought our first boat, a Frolic 18 about 8 years ago. An unusual choice only made in small number in the 1980's but we bought it because it was for sale locally and anything similar I could find at the time was some distance away. We learned to sail on her, and had some good times, and some scary times. It is probably fair to say it was not the best of sailing boats. That's the boat that is still my avatar.

We sold it last year because we were not getting enough use to justify the cost and work needed to keep it.

Instead we joined a boat share group and now have an interest in and sail a Leisure 17. Though smaller it is a far more rewarding and sea worthy little solid boat.

We briefly also had an interest in a Sunray 21. That was not a very rewarding boat to sail and always felt slow and soulless.

I sail more now as there are all the other boat share members to go sailing with on the L17.

The key to understanding why I am happy sailing small boats is our daughter never took to sailing so initial dreams of moving up to a larger cruising boat never happened and we only ever day sail. And for that the L17 is an enjoyable little boat. Many would say a dinghy would suit that better, but I am of the opinion sailing should not mean wearing a wet suit and expecting to capsize.
 
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May as well join in

Learnt to sail at primary school in a Heron, then again after I gave up motor racing as too expensive:
National 12
Enterprise
Several 505's - qualified for the Europeans a couple of times, also crewed regularly on a Ron Holland Swan 39 - beautiful boat but a pig downwind
Hunter Formula 28 - syndicate of four 505 sailors
Beneteau First Class Europe - same syndicate, yes, we kept the boat under the rig. On it's day a blindingly quick boat offwind but needed a rugby team on the rail in a blow, guy we eventually sold it to broke the mast within 3 weeks of ownership...
Half Tonner - did loads of JOG, RORC and other races, it still turns up at Cowes week every year
Dehler 36db - 'Pugmahone', owner told me it was Gaelic for "Kiss my a-rse", mostly double and single handed with some Cowes week and Solent regatta stuff
J44 - raced fully crewed and double handed RORC inc 2 handed Fastnet (retired) cruised solo a few times
Dehler 35CWS - lovely little boat, mostly solo racing
Lightwave 395 - current boat, top speed off Portland 2 handed was 18.4 knots, originally bought 14 years ago for solo and 2 handed racing, now mostly cruising and Brittany based. I love it but may change, possibly back to Dehler 35, as I'm getting older and only sail two up
 
Sandy said:
I sat in the Captain's Chair and drunk in the wardroom of a Type 14 frigate, HMS Exmouth, in 1965 aged three. Since then it has been downhill all the way and I now sail a Gib'Sea 96.
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Why were you drunk in the wardroom at the age of three? You are even more drunk now?
 
Lightwave395 said:
May as well join in

Lightwave 395 - current boat, top speed off Portland 2 handed was 18.4 knots, originally bought 14 years ago for solo and 2 handed racing, now mostly cruising and Brittany based. I love it but may change, possibly back to Dehler 35, as I'm getting older and only sail two up
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18.4 knots in a Lightwave 395 must have been exhilarating and terrifying. We hit 16 knots (also 2 handed), also in a Lightwave (and they have done 21 knots) - but ours is a floating caravan and yours was designed to sail like that - completely new noises develop, mostly the rigging humming, when you are doing those speeds - none of which you have heard before.

She must be a handful for 2 - but remember age is 'just a number' - it only becomes meaningful when you actually change the yacht.

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
18.4 knots in a Lightwave 395 must have been exhilarating and terrifying. We hit 16 knots (also 2 handed), also in a Lightwave (and they have done 21 knots) - but ours is a floating caravan and yours was designed to sail like that - completely new noises develop, mostly the rigging humming, when you are doing those speeds - none of which you have heard before.

She must be a handful for 2 - but remember age is 'just a number' - it only becomes meaningful when you actually change the yacht.

Jonathan
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18.4 knots was certainly a mixture of exhilaration, terror, acknowledgement that there was no way to slow down after passing 14 knots and determination to keep the boat under the rig at all costs... we had pondered putting the small kite (a chicken shute my crew called it) an hour or so earlier but thought better of it and were going downwind with a poled out No 2 headsail and one reef in a TWS of 30+ knots (I wasn't looking at TWS, too busy). I've more recently migrated slightly towards the floating caravan spectrum with curtains, upgraded fridge, heating and headsail furling but I still see no need to go slowly just because we're cruising !
 
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Lightwave395 said:
18.4 knots was certainly a mixture of exhilaration, terror, acknowledgement that there was no way to slow down after passing 14 knots and determination to keep the rig under the boat at all costs... we had pondered putting the small kite (a chicken shute my crew called it) an hour or so earlier but thought better of it and were going downwind with a poled out No 2 headsail and one reef in a TWS of 30+ knots (I wasn't looking at TWS, too busy). I've more recently migrated slightly towards the floating caravan spectrum with curtains, upgraded fridge, heating and headsail furling but I still see no need to go slowly just because we're cruising !
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Sheesh you ARE keen ! :)
 
Lightwave395 said:
18.4 knots was certainly a mixture of exhilaration, terror, acknowledgement that there was no way to slow down after passing 14 knots and determination to keep the boat under the rig at all costs... we had pondered putting the small kite (a chicken shute my crew called it) an hour or so earlier but thought better of it and were going downwind with a poled out No 2 headsail and one reef in a TWS of 30+ knots (I wasn't looking at TWS, too busy). I've more recently migrated slightly towards the floating caravan spectrum with curtains, upgraded fridge, heating and headsail furling but I still see no need to go slowly just because we're cruising !
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So....you are not quite a geriatric yet :)

Our headsail is furling and at 45m^2 - I'm very, very pleased. The idea of a hanked on headsail when 2 up - I'll stick to the floating caravan, with the hot showers, upgraded fridge (and big deep freeze (you have to keep the tuna and crayfish somewhere).

People keep mentioned heaters, there are whole threads devoted to them - most odd.

Jonathan
 
Never sailed ....on a whim ( 1978) bought a sunken 1936 H S Rouse 33 overall teak sloop .....never looked back Gibsea 96 ....Oyster 39 .......Linsen SE 40 .....
Happy days
 
Circa 45 years the early days were spent sailing other people’s boats and I would have been rich if it remained that way but alas I had to have my own in the end so with an 18 month old child and one in the oven plus small dog we bought our first a Hurley 20. Needless to say although fun to sail and quite forgiving it was never going to be enough and was sold after 2 years and replaced with a Wharram Pahi 31 catamaran. This was much more suitable for our sailing and accommodation needs, but 7 years on I was hankering for something different so sold it and bought a Halcyon 27. That was a pleasure to sail and was a good solid boat but immediately, with two growing youngsters, it was obviously too small for our needs. 2 seasons and sold replaced with a Prout Quest 31 catamaran, now we were getting the space for the family that we needed and it felt like the boat that we would have forever, but on passage towards the Caribbean she was lost which was devastating. A short ownership holiday ensued while confidence was restored, helped by the fact that we had a hobie 14 to play on. Kids are grown by this point so not such a consideration so bought a Hunter Horizon 273, nice accommodation for a small boat and sailed very nicely but after 5 years the house admiral wanted something more stable and spacious so sold it and bought a Prout Quest 33cs which we’ve had now for 7 years and will probably be the last as with the earlier Prout she suits all our needs.
So during own ownership years 92 to present we’ve had 7 sailing vessels and also during that spell and along with the yachts we had a couple of runaround mobo’s, one a Bennet cat for 30 years (from early 80’s) and another little fizz boat for a couple of years.
 
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I'm 53 now, first got into sailing about 10 years ago when I was working as a SCUBA instructor in Thailand, there were political troubles, airports were closed, there wasn't much to do & I ended up sailing from Thailand to Maldives (10 days) as crew. When I got back to UK in 2010 needing somewhere to live I bought my first boat, a 1989 Jeanneau Sundream 28. Since then I've been a bit of a boat tart & have owned & lived full time on:

1972 Albin Vega 27
1978 Dufour 29
1978 Hartley RORC ferro boat, kept in Greece
2011 Colvic Watson 34 (my current liveaboard)
1969 Bowman 26 (my current project)
 
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