My cousin owns a house on Webster. You wouldn't believe how much the lake has grown in the past couple years. Real Estate is booming like no other.
I started out on a sunfish at the tender age of 9. Maybe 10.
My grandmother grew up sailing on Maxinkukee and was one of the early junior fleet champions. Well Uncle Charlie was, but she crewed. Anyhow when I was 9/10 she turned me loose on a used sunfish and told me to teach myself.
She sent me out in white caps and I turtled about 50 times that day, I've been hooked ever since. I just bought my beater H16 in August. Right out of college before I'd even started paying my debts.
Last edited by Tri_X_Troll; 04/06/0809:27 PM.
Ryan - H16
I prefer to go sailing because baseball, football, tennis, and golf only require 1 ball!
My grandmother grew up sailing on Maxinkukee and was one of the early junior fleet champions. Well Uncle Charlie was, but she crewed.
Ryan, What was your grandmother's family name? I may know them. I have a lot of ties to Culver; the academy and the community, and Lake Maxinkuckee. I graduated from the Culver Summer Naval School in '77.
I've sailed that home-built Sailfish many times on that lake, along with all the variety of boats the academy has had over the years (they now have a large fleet of Interlakes as trainers), including their 65' three-masted square-rigger.
I'll add here that my point to starting this thread was... Any beginner boat that inspires a love of sailing has done it's job. From Snark to keelboat, it doesn't matter, as long as it was there. Although it's interesting, not one respondent has mentioned Optimists.
I don't recall the Faileys. On the east shore, I have known the Kelleys, Wests, Osbornes, and my brother-in-law rented a house there for several summers. Real estate and taxes there have really boomed recently too. Some friends on long point have had to sell their house last year because they can't afford the taxes.
Mine was a $600 Merrimack 14, looked like a rowboat but with a cat rig sail and no oars. I paid for it myself with money I'd saved. No lessons, no kid's programs, I bought a book, "This is Sailing" and figured it out. The next season I met a guy who raced Flying Scotts, who told me, "If you race you will learn 10x more in one year than you would by just dinking around..."
So I bought a Flying Scott and started racing with those guys and been racing ever since. I don't know how to cruise...but after 30+ years racing I think I'd like to learn! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Last edited by Timbo; 04/07/0811:52 AM.
Blade F16 #777
Re: First Boat?
[Re: Timbo]
#139187 04/07/0804:10 PM04/07/0804:10 PM
Read 3 pages from the Funk & Waganall with my dad and rented an Aqua Cat in 1967 scoured the papers and found a used one for $400, then upgraded to a Pacific Cat a couple years later found "rusting" at the local Yacht Club Erie PA. The first boat I bought was a Hobie 16 in '83. John
I can't remember whether I was 8 or 9 years old, but I really learned how to sail when I was sent out by myself on our pram-nosed dinghy and told, "Just don't run into any of the boats in the harbor."
That'll teach you fast which way to push the tiller! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
That same dinghy taught me how to row and how to run a small outboard motor.
Re: First Boat?
[Re: Mary]
#139189 04/07/0805:42 PM04/07/0805:42 PM
I can't understate this enough, the ENTIRE reason I got interested in sailing was because I watched the America's Cup on TV back when it was still in Newport and I was in junior high. The type of boat made absolutely no difference to me at that point, because I had no family experience with sailing, etc., I just wanted to get on the water.
I have no idea what it was called, but the first boat I sailed on was a small wooden mono at Boy Scout camp. It wasn't an Opti, it had a triangular mainsail (no jib) and could hold two teenage kids.
I sailed on a 420 briefly (OK, once) in college in upstate NY. It was a day to let freshmen try out different clubs. The a-hole club member on the boat with me didn't let me touch ANYTHING. Needless to say, I never went back.
A few years later, at my second college, I was in Newport and there was a waiting list for the sailing class, and for the sailing team. I decided to buy a boat. I had a roommate who had previously re-glassed a Laser, so I bought what I was told was a Hobie 16 for $300.
This was a wooden Hobie 16, and I didn't find out my (now obvious) mistake until the money was spent. I proceeded to waste several hundred more dollars and made a huge mess in the garage, and the boat never saw the water.
Eventually, I just broke down and bought a real Hobie 16 (a 1983), probably around 1991.
Boats I've owned:
1983 H16 (yellow, destroyed by Coast Guard, another long story) 1983 H16 (blue, first cat I raced, got totally bitten by the bug) 1997 H16 (BRU Cat) 2001 H16 2006 H16
I've also sailed on H17, TheMightyHobie18, H18SX, H20, N6.0, M6.0, and even a J24. I don't like any of them more than the H16. The spinnaker experience on the H18SX scared the daylights out of me, because we couldn't see around the sail...
First time sailing was when I was in my teens. I was main breast-stroker on the swimming team and the best backstroker friend of mine decided to build a canoe. We mounted a sail and leeboard on it and sailed on a small lake near Akron, Ohio. Got across the lake and was becalmed. But, we had paddles.., so no problem. That did NOT impress me about sailing. I was attending Long Beach State College, living in Belmont Shore and my roomy and I were laying on the beach studying. Along came a power boat and put out a mark. Then there came some really teeny, slow boats that went around it and headed back from whence they came. Then a funny looking, two hulled thing came roaring up, rounded it quickly and roared back from whence it came.., much, much faster. The first were Sabots, the latter was a Malibu Outrigger. That experience made me buy a Shark Catamaran in 1965, and the day I took delivery I sailed in a regatta at Mentor Harbor YC, Mentor, Ohio. We were dead last, and I noticed this beautiful, bikini-clad girl helming another Shark. They were dead first.., every time. I told my buddy, we have to follow them and do everything they do.., plus the scenery would be great.
That was when I met Mary Wells.., married her many years later. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Rick
My first experience of sailing was in high school on a friend's home built Mirror on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. I sailed again on another Mirror during university in Ireland. When I got married my father-in-law had a Laser on Klerksdorp dam in South Africa so I sailed that quite a bit. That Laser was my first taste of a bit of speed on the water, although we had to wait for the wind generated by thunderstorms to get it planing. That taste of speed was what really got me interested. I sailed on and off over the years but never owned a boat. The first cat I sailed was on vacation in Mexico - probably a Wave. I thought I knew what I was doing but really only knew enough to be dangerous! But I did realise then that speed = cat. I sailed a cat again on the Swan River in Perth still not really knowing what I was doing. Last year I was fortunate enough to be based in Curacao for a year and took the opportunity to get some lessons from the team at Catsailing Curacao who, for the first time, taught me how to sail a cat properly and safely (thanks Iko!). I sailed almost every weekend on one of their Getaways. I progressed to the point where I could handle the boat on my own and almost bought a H16 but realised I was about to get transferred away from the island and decided to wait. I am now living in Reno and about to take delivery of a VWM Blade F16. I guess it will be a challenging step up from the Getaway but I'm really looking forward to getting to know the boat and hopefully racing before too long.
Took me a while to find these... my first boat, a P Class, circa 1974 at Baddeley's Beach north of Auckland. Generations of NZer's have learned to sail on these.
Re: First Boat?
[Re: ]
#139194 04/09/0802:10 PM04/09/0802:10 PM
Learned to sail on a Sunfish in Stone Harbor, NJ, this was during the Johnson Administration. Went on to by a Sunfish at age 14, and kept until AMF came out with the Force 5 – then got one of those. Sold that when I moved to CA to go to college, and after college bought a Prindle 18 classic. I had it three weeks before it was broadsided by a car, and then got another one. This was a blessing as Surfglass went from the fiberglass lay up to the foam core and the new boat was foam core construction which IMO was a better boat. Since then, I have owned another 18 classic, an 18-2, Prindle 16, and a NACRA 5.8NA.
Currently have a Force 5 for harbor sailing with my son, and may pick up another Prindle 18-2 for some local distance racing.
I wonder how many folks on the list we first introduce to sailing on a Sunfish.
I wonder how many folks on the list we first introduce to sailing on a Sunfish.
OK, to answer the "first sail" question. My brother-in-law built his own super sunfish, don't know exactly with what rig and really didn't care because I was only 11, and a waterskier. He took me out on a little lake and I soon learned why he was so adamant about me going with him...he needed my chubby little butt to keep it flat. I understood what getting on plane was, but not happy about the physical exersion required to hike out flat. My impression was, this going for a ride on a sailboat involved entirely too much work. Thirteen years later I got my second sailboat ride, double trapped on a Hobie 16. The skipper buried it and it is to this day probably the quickest picthpole I've ever encountered. I popped up from underwater and shouted "Let's do that again!" Three days later I bought a brand new one <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Hey Rick, we'll have to ask Mary about that swimming team thing,I'd say you had the better job than you're buddy <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />just kidding... First sailing was with my dad on a LS13 (Chrysler) then he got an Aqua cat..he passed away when I was 13(1973) and I got into motocross on a TM 125 here in Michigan. pulled that Aquacat out of the backyard in 2000 and actually sailed it at BurtLake..completly refurbished it as a 14 with new hulls,sails,rudders and fittings,sold it and bought a 450 Nacra from The Cat house(Mark Biggers) in Michigan..lotsa fun <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />