OK, following on from What age did your child sail with you?

What age did you start sailing Cats ?

I started crewing on a Dart 18 at 12.
I started helming a Dart 18 at 13
I helmed my first Nationals at 17 (Dart 18)
I helmed first Euro's at 17 (Dart 18)

bought a TheMightyHobie18 at age 26.

For the benefit of us older people, maybe you should ask at what age we started sailing, and then, at what age did we start sailing catamarans. For many of us, catamarans did not exist way back when.

I started sailing at age 50. Never was on a cat until age 52. Now, don't want to get off cat....I have a lot of sailing to do to make up for the years I was running around on motorcycles and thought I had to go fast and/or have the front wheel in the air to be having fun. I didn't know that you could get your adrenaline flowing at speeds under 20mph!

Terry

Your post is wide open for some serious abuse, Mary
(but I'll let someone else step up to the plate for that)

Anyway, You're right. My dad built a Sailfish in our basement over the 1963-64 winter, and that's what I learned to sail on the following summer. (Age 4)

Sailfish, Flying Junior - Age 4
Hobie 16 (#6707) - Age 12
Sunfish (first boat I owned myself) - Age 16
Hobie 16 (#33556) - Age 18 (eventually inherited it)
Hobie 16 (#74722) - Age 23 (1st Hobie I owned myself new)
Hobie 16 (#937 - nationals boat) - Age 29 (pig of a boat - way heavy)
Hobie 17 (#4026) - Age 31
Hobie 16 (#102668) - Age 38 (still own it)
Hobie Tiger (#1111) - Age 44
Hobie 14 (hull #5010) - Age 44 (restoration project)

OK, sorry

Windsurfing at 9
Topper at 10

Cats were around already when I was young but I went the way of most Dutch sailors

12 years ; learned to sail in a 6.5 mtr open cruising monohull boat called 16 squares; soon after also on Valks (Falcons and very comparable to 16sq.)) You can sleep on these things, using a boom tent. They have a gaff rig and they are quite fast and are used for long weekends or short weeks of wandering around on the Dutch lakes.

16 years ; first time parents let me out on holliday alone. Went to a sailing camp as was typical for youngsters my age at the time. All others were sailing Valks and I was put into the crew of a 1879 (I think) Frisian Yacht. A shallow draft, double gunwhale boarded tradional design with a artistic gaff rig and a 200 kg 15 PK single stroke diesel engine. I thought I was done for the week. Doomed to sail slowly and be passed by all others in the faster Valks. Boy was I wrong. Got put in with a lovely Protugese lady. Way above me age, but heee! a man, YOUNG man, can dream even if he is still wet behind the ears. And sometimes dreams come awfully close to reality. The old lady (the boat) was adorable as well. Bloody fast that granny was. We sailed in the lead pack of the fleet time and time again and that was BEFORE we started the engine. I think that since that week I never look down on tradition designs and I still have a weak spot for gaff rigs. I never really took to bermuda rigs like most sailors. If I ever own a monohull yacht then it has got to be one with a gaff rig and a boomed jib. But getting of track here

Sailed 16sq. and valks for a few years. Then continued sailing these once a year for a single weekend as is the norm here in Holland. Nearly everybody does that. So things went quiet.

Than 1996 came and I was still studying and I got struck by skiffs, the 18 foot and 49-er kind and it looked like so much fun that I wanted to get into that as quickly as possible. But no money ! So a friend said why don't you buy a secondhander as see if you really liked it. My problem was that only catamarans were on offer cheap and so I ended up on my first cat Prindle 16. Love that one to bits, literally. After the really good but windy season 2003 I had to sell her, she had survived all since 1975 but the end was nearing. Sold it to another sailor new to cats and wiped a tear. Needless to say I lost interest in skiff for several years.

Than came the P18 in 1998; sold in 2002.

Than F16 in late 2002 , finished in 2004.

In 2002 my interest in skiffs revived and I crewed on several but never owned one myself. Did quite some 49-er sailing in 2003, None of that in 2004 and in 2005 we are going to sail that baby again, hopefully as we did in 2003. Great season 2003 was ! Bloody good sailing season.

And then I sailed scores of boats as crew now and then and at resorts.

And then the future ? I don't know. I have a dream but no idea how to get there. First earning lots of money I guess.

Wouter

My first sail was on Barnegat Bay in NJ when I was about 7 in an old wooden daysailor. My old man had blown up both 455's on his cabin cruiser and he decided to try sailing. Moved to the catskills mountains after that and only sailed at Boy Scout Camp on a sunfish. Moved to Florida at age 12. One day at the beach I went out on a H16 being sailed by the rental dude and I was hooked. I was amazed (and scared) when the Hobie powered up and the rudders started howling. Talked my way into being his "assistant" for the next few summers. I would ride my bike 15 miles each way every day so I could rig the boats, drag them up and down the beach and give lessons while he stayed in the hut and got stoned. I did get to sail for free though. I pretty much obsessed over cats for the next 20 years, making do with borrowed cats, rentals, and "Sharing The Wind". I finally bought my first cat (TheMightyHobie18 Magnum) when I was 32.

I bought a Hobie 16 at age 44 and had never sailed on a boat before, or even seen a catamaran up close. Switched to a Prindle 18 a couple years ago.
Jack
http://www.pbase.com/jmhoying

I started sailing in 'Enterprise' dinghies at about 12. The warp engines always had problems with their di-lithium crystals as they never seemed to go too fast.

Had a brief spell sailing 'Toppers' - even slower than the Enterprise - especially when your 'friends' take out the drain plugs just before a race.

Then Windsurfing until 17 on the lake of Thun (Switzerland) - the rawest form of sailing I have found. Not much beats getting a windsurf board on the plane and skipping over the chop like a stone!

After a 10 year plus break I moved to Texas and my wife and I bought a Hobie 18 Magnum. Cat sailing proved to be highly contagious (more so in my case). Just as the sickness really took hold the Hobie 18 pathogen unexpectedly died, but our weakend bodies were soon reinfected with an even stronger strain - the Hobie 18 SX . Since then and even more potent mutation has ravaged us - the Hobie Tiger. There is no cure in sight!

Chris.

This may sound corny or hard to believe, but my first ever memory is of sailing on a cat. I was four and all I remember is hanging on for dear life to the hiking strap of a cat (later found it was a P16). Dad took my sister and I out with a friend, it must have been windy because I remember going reeeeeeeeallly fast, with spray flying and all. It is a good memory, for sure!

I actually learned to sail at age 13 on a little postage size lake on sunfishes and lasers. My dad knew how to hook me and signed me up for windsurfing lessons. I was then addicted to sailing and spent every minute I could on a boat. I could ride my bike to the local lake and sail a laser for half day for $1!! My dad was a sailor and soon bought a H16, I was 14 at the time. Once on the 16, I was addicted to speed. Dad then bought a TheMightyHobie18 when I was 15 and my first time ever driving, I was towing the 18 back from a day sail on Tomales Bay. We sailed the 18, had a laser for the local beer can races and I eventually spent more and more time windsurfing. I got a driver's license and windsurfed after school every chance I got. I windsurfed until college, then after grad school and a couple of years traveling, settled in windsurfing mecca.....The Gorge.
I married and wanted to get my wife sailing with me instead of watching me windsurf from the beach. I bought a 16 and pretty much gave up windsurfing. I had forgotten how much fun the mental aspect of sailing was! I then bought an 18 about 6 months later (just loved the 18 and my wife didn't like the mere thought of a pitchpole!).
I can't imagine not owning a cat, but will likely add a monohull in the near future to do some local cruising and trailer sailing. In the immediate future for me is kiteboarding.

Kip
Boise, ID
FX-One

Hey Lance!

where is Safety Harbor?

I started sailing in 1959 at 13 but started sailing cats in the middle 1960s.

thom - 58 yrs old and everything still works occasionally...

I started sailing at the age of 8.

At the time it was safer for me to travel by sailboat to my friends' houses than by bike across highways.

It was a laser back then

but I always lusted after cats. Never got to ride on one until about 4 years ago. From then on I was hooked. (RTodd is credited for getting me into catsailing)

36 which was a couple of yrs. ago. Had never sailed by myself or crewed before (only sailed on monohulls as guest). Just got on and shoved off. And I have to say it was (kind of like becoming a parent for the first time) a life changing experience. When I finally got a hang of the thing I thought, " if I can do this, I can do anything!!"... It's been pretty cool. On many levels.

Eric,

It's in NE Clearwater on the Western shore of Tampa Bay. Great little hidden community in built up Pinellas County. I'm only about 15 minutes from Dunedin Causway.


Mapqwest Map

Very nice spot.

I was 12 and we rented a cabin in the UP of Michigan. A kid had a Sunflower (styrofoam boat with a lateen sail) I thought it was so cool.
After that vacation my Dad and I took a sailing class at the local community college and shortly therafter bought a Dingo catamaran. (small cat with a centerboard...yes, that's right a centerboard). I had a lot of fun with that but wanted to start racing.
We then 1978 bought a Hobie 16 #34853 and started racing with the local fleet. Still have the old 16, my kids have started to race it in our club races last year. Pretty cool

John