Your first boat and memories??

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The first boat I owned was a Mirror dinghy ( no. 51529 where is she now???), I bought the kit in 1976 from Bell woodworking and built it in the garage of a house I was then renting in Langley near Slough during my early days in the RAF.

I raced it weekly at a Mirror only club at IPC Yacht club Iver...not the high sea but a pokey little Gravel pit......I had many happy days with that dinghy and learnt many skills......What a long way I have come since those early days........what's your first experiance???

Paul.
 
A 14 foot clinker sailing boat with the keel box taken out and a little cabin put on. A 1948 Seagull 102+, a gallon of petrol and a pint of oil for under 50p. Knew every inch of Portsmouth Harbour long before the motorway and marinas.

Mad about fishing and at 14 would take her out every Sunday from 8am to 8pm (after the paper round, 64 papers, Sunday being the only day I didn't have to get back for the evening round). On a good day would take her out to Ryde and back to fish on the Mother Bank.

During the week in the summer, canoes and whaler sailing/pulling with the Sea Scouts. Does anyone sail whalers anymore?
 
My first boat (well really it was my dads as he found it! but I used it most of the time) was a punt, well that’s what fishermen call them in Ireland. Punts near where I live now, are silly draft flat things with a big stick to prod on the bottom to move it along, while your darling sits aft looking serene.

Anyway back to the boat, she was salvaged while he was out trawling. She had flotation tanks and was probably a lifeboat for a bigger ship. He reported the find but no one claimed her. So he took the tanks out. She was quite long and heavy compared to the ones used by the potting boats. I spent all of my time sculling her around the harbour; me and my dog. Sometimes I would just lay out in the sun and drift and then scull back. I was probably only 8 or 9, can’t remember for sure.
Happy days.
 
I wonder how many of us started in a Mirror....mind you in those days the choice was so small....GP14, Enterprise, Heron..etc, I guess the mirror was so cheap and led many to a life on the ocean-wave.

Paul.
 
Our first boat was also a Mirror dinghy (no. 20628), acquired by my parents in 1967 I think, when I was 5. To me it seemed enormous at the time - we taught ourselves to sail on it by trial and error. I remember initially we stepped the mast in the forward position and didnt use the jib.
We used to go on family outings (4 of us) pottering along the coast, usually towing a fishing line as well - I remember catching a barracuda once - 5 lbs of gnashing teeth jumping around in a Mirror was interesting.....
We later had a Topper, but that Mirror was the basis for me becoming a web-footed water rat, and I never looked back /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
14th birthday - New Graduate built by Parker Bros Boston 1950's - 85.00 and still have the original reciept, half funded by a newspaper round, matched by father. Parkers were just moving from carpentry & coffins to boat building! Used to watch the two brothers painstakingly laying up wooden 505's by stapling diagonal veneers to the framework, each layer at right angles to the previous. And they're still boat building.
 
I built a canoe with a plywood hull and canvas deck from a Percy Blandford (PBK) kit when I was 12 and the magazine to buy was 'Small Boat'. I towed it on a trailer made from old pram wheels behind my bike and used it on the Great Ouse at St Neots. This was the one and only time I have bought a brand new boat and it was even bought at London Boatshow where I wrote the cheque from my first real bank account. Nowadays of course the equivalent would be to buy a Bav 36!

Prior to that a friend and I used to paddle an old bungalow bath on a nearby stream using beach spades as paddles. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
When I was a kid in Maidenhead living near the river I 'rebuilt' lots of canoes and paddled them up and down the Thames - anything to get on the water - even made a sail and lee-boards for one....
Later when married with kids my wife brought me a Mirror Dinghy kit that I put together in the garage - can't remember the sail number but quite early. Raced it unsuccessfully at the BBC sailing club, took it on holiday with the kids to Cornwall.

I think we all had a lot of fun out of our little dinghies and teaching ourselves to sail and Mirror Dinghies probably did more starting people sailing than any other type.

Messing about in boats is still the best thing in the world for me.

Michael
 
My first boat was a homemade grp concoction, weighed a ton and had a tiny bit of sail, but she cost less than 100 Rand and with her I learned to sail and explore Durban harbour in 1976 - 1977. Uncapsizable, and even a skinny seventeen year old like I was then could keep her upright and beat back home if a 'buster' came through. Happy days indeed.
 
Yet another...

...Mirror. (53693, IIRC)

Built over the winter of 1990/91, with my late father in law. As a professional woodworker, he did all the skillful work whilst I did the mucky stuff (sanding, resin, paint, varnish).

The Mirror travelled with us around the country on weekend breaks and holidays, strapped on top of my old Rover, with kids' bikes strapped on the back of the car and our trailer tent swaying behind.

Happy days...
 
My first boat was a little rubber dinghy, given to me when I was 9 and called Swan!

A year later dad bought a little gunter rigged dinghy and taught me to sail and row; he was a hard task master but the skills and knowledge went in and stayed in!

My first ‘proper’ boat was an old wooden enterprise, great fun and fondly remembered.

My first ‘big’ boat was a Tradewind 33 in which I cruised extensively; including a two year live-aboard phase when we did an extended Atlantic circuit. Many happy memories!


/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Mine was a secondhand attempt by a homebuilder to create a sleeker Mirror, which I used to trundle down to a slipway at Barnes, on the Thames.

The main result of the narrower bow was hitting a small standing wave at Chiswick and gracefully submerging under full sail. On another occasion I was trying to get out of the way of tug towing lighters when the tiller snapped.

I think the last time I used it was at about 3 in the morning when I was 17 and not very sober. I actually remember telling one of my mates to "Row straighter so we don't look suspicious" as the river police shone torches at us and followed us on foot for a hundred yards as they'd just come off duty.
 
Would love to tell you about my first boat but the forum police dont like the 'E' word /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Would love to tell you about my first boat but the forum police dont like the 'E' word /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Enterprise?
 
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