Your first boat.

[MicHughV]

My first boat....and I use the term loosely here...was a 44 gallon steel drum, cut lengthwise in half, that had been used to hold feed for wild game.

Fitted with a broom and bedsheet I purloined from my mother's house, and a few other odds and ends of string and scrap wood, I fashioned, what I thought, was a pretty nifty craft.

I think I was 9 years old....maybe 8...can't remember anymore.
With more luck than skill I managed to drift over this body of water, without sinking, drowning or cutting myself on the drum's sharp edges.

When my mother got to hear about this tale, she was not amused, while in my mind it should have gone down in history as an epic voyage.

Shortly thereafter, I was sent off to boarding school, 100's of miles from any water, but the damage had been done, I was hooked.

So that's my story, what's yours ??

[MicHughV]

I should clarify that the "body of water" was a watering hole, maybe 100' across.

[CaptTom]

Good one!

Mine was a 4'x8' sheet of plywood, with crudely attached boards along the edges to make, what, maybe bulwarks? The idea being this "hull" would sort of keep the water out.

We didn't have a vast 100' wide sea to cross, just an area of the brook down the road which pooled up a bit. In my mind it was maybe 50', but possibly less as I was a lot smaller then.

Of course the bulwarks didn't hold and the only reason it floated at all was the buoyancy of the plywood. As usual, we came home with wet feet but slightly wiser about the ways of the world.

[Maldwin]

13 Ft Boston Whaler with an 18 hp. I loved that boat, and even kept the bronze bow cleat polished to a high shine.

[Tinker]

A Naples Sabot. It cost my father $85 dollars and was my birthday present.

The first time I was taken to saltwater in CA with the boat I was eight. I proceeded to sail away from my family on the swim beach, around the corner past the marina, out the channel to about a mile past the end of the breakwater. I loved the swells and it would be four hours before I returned to my frantic father.
I'm sure I was in some trouble, but the lovely shine of that accomplishment has stood the test of time and outshone the price I paid.

[kayakerChuck]

I guess I was high class. My dad let me mess around in our WWII life rafts. I remember us having a bigger one & a small one.

Here's a link. I think the "big" one was like a #151605.

https://www.wwiisurvivalequipment.com/life-rafts-usaaf

Hey- wait a minute! My dad let 4 year old me play around in a 35+/- year old surplus life raft, in Georgian Bay, with no PFD (or anything else)?

[leboyd]

First was also the plywood with 2x4s. I was 12. Second was an inner tube with @ piece of cloth to sit in and flippers. Did a lot of fishing from that tube.

[Tin Tin]

My first boat after the family 8ft pram dinghy with a 4hp British Seagull outboard, was a plywood Cherub Racing dinghy, had trapeze and spinnaker, spent the first season capsizing a lot, aged 12, way over the top as a learning boat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherub_(dinghy)

[HankOnthewater]

My first boat, here is a pic, can you guess what the 'hull' was?
Bonus points for the right answer

My sail was an old curtain from an aunt, the rudder and lee boards all nailed together or held with ropes. As you can see, a paddle was essential on this vessel.
edit: there were no leeboards on this boat, my next one had them.

[chrisr]

my first real boat was an international moth. i earned some money pulling golf buggies around (one reason i hate golf) and dad put in the other half

i was 11 and had already been sailing (crewing with dad) for 4 years

cheers,

[HeinSdL]

Laser sail # 15288

[boatman61]

A Magyar 7.. bilge keeler with pitch pine on oak Hull..
Unless you count a 6ft plank I rode down the storm drains during a monsoon season..

[thomm225]

16' Chincoteague Scow (made of plywood), 40 Johnson, rusty trailer. $300.

One of the rims disintegrated pulling the boat over to the Bay Side. Got another rim at the shop my brother worked at.

Motored out the creek to the bay where the engine over heated. Impeller was shot. Motored back in after motor cooled. But it would over heat and seize every view minutes

After getting outboard fixed took boat into bay and every wave you hit the plywood bottom would bend up an inch or two.....

Sold and bought another in about a 2 month.,

[chris mac]

I found plans in the back of a magazine on how to make a 16' catamaran out of plywood. I found a mast from an old hobie cat.
It worked, but my fiberglassing skills were poor so it leaked like crazy. One pontoon would be full of water within a couple hours. Like all good cats though it still floated and sailed when flooded.
It was a pain to drain and lift out though!

[Moosemiester]

1966 Chrysler "Lone Star" with dual daggerboards.

The forward halyard would regularly pull right out of the deck as it was just screwed into the fiberglass no backing plate at all.

Trailer was homemade, the bearings would regularly overheat and melt and the tires would just come right off, you'd be driving down the road and be passed by a tire.

I sailed the cr*p out of that thing in Newport Harbor, CA.

Alan
No longer Sailing, doing the great loop in a trawler, currently in Orange Beach,AL home port on Lake Erie

You Tube: Adventures of Yorksie and Me