How did you first start sailing

[StuM]

Started in the early sixties in a school sailing club around Langstone and Chichester Harbours. (Fireflys and Albacores)

[Group9]

When I was about ten, I was taken sailing on a Hobie 16. It was like someone gave me crack to smoke.

I signed up for sailing lessons when I was 14, and I have been dumping every bit of extra money I have into sailboats ever since. When I graduated, I only applied for jobs in coastal areas, just so I could sail in the ocean, and with one brief exception, I have never accepted a job that wasn't on a coast.

[Hudson Force]

I was in a pram among the "butterflies" on the water attending summer camp in Fort Lauderdale at age nine.

[keepondancin]

Lived by a lake when young.. Sailed in a 8' pram at age 5. When I was six, my dad bought the pram for me. A succession of boats, sailfish, super sailfish, all wood, then a locally designed one design sit in boat. Couple years of motorcycles and girls and bought a Hobie 16 and raced. Catalina 22, then a 25, then a 34. My wife had been in a very severe car accident in '71, and knew her mobility was going to be compromised. We partnered on a Morgan 41 OI kept at the old Moorings base in Tortola, spending several weeks a year on it. Decided to take a break at age 42, sold the house, purchased a Crealock 37, off to the Caribbean for a year. 10 years later, after being able to do 6 on and 6 off, wife needed surgery and we ran out of money. Able to work out a dollar for dollar sale and purchase of a Bristol 41.1 with the pretense of spending time in the Bahamas. Surgery was a failure, wife's mobility was severely compromised, never made it back to the Bahams. She died last year,tough year, but this year I feel good, and plan on heading south again and get out to the Bahamas.

[exMaggieDrum]

I grew up in West Texas and my idea of boating was my older brother's little ski boat he would bring every other year to take out on our little town's lake. NEVER had any idea that I would ever own a boat and go sailing. In fact the idea of even being on water deeper than 50' seemed very creepy (as if anything over 6' really matters).

Got the idea to get a sailboat and go cruising while living in Colorado at age 49 - mid-life crisis?? Got hooked on the idea, put together a plan, and had a 42' sailboat withing the year. But we lived in Colorado so had to move to Washington on the coast. That was in 1999. We weren't 100% sure it would last for a long time but we now have another boat after sailing our first one to NZ and selling it in 2008. We bought the new/old boat 13 months ago and are upgrading her for more adventures.

It is now our lifestyle to have a boat. Most of our friends have sailboats. Our whole life is not just sailing but we found our life missing something after we sold our first boat. My only regret, and it's really not a regret if that makes any sense, is that I didn't grow up with boats.

[alctel]

I bought a sailboat and moved onto it (which was the first time I'd ever got on or even touched a sailboat).

Turns out sailing is amazing!

[monte]

Good to hear some stories. Sorry about your setbacks keepondancin, good luck with the future plans.

[Cheechako]

Racing

[jdazey]

Sea Scouts initially. Later, I needed a place to live and bought an AA31. My wife was damned near born on a boat and sailed dinghys growing up. Her downfall (and mine) was reading Trans-Atlantic Trimaran, Trans-Pacific Trimaran and Trimaran Third Book. We met through the Northwest Multihull Association. In some significant way, we owe our marriage to ---- Arthur Piver. Did anyone ever put more dashes into his writing?

Some 34 years ago, we took our little AA31 to Alaska and haven't been able to stop going back. We fished the tri for a couple of years, but had to get a bit more serious about making a living, so the tri has been replaced by a series of genuine trollers. Now that we're about finished with commercial fishing, we're looking for another multi of some (performance) kind. And the first place we plan on going is to Alaska.

[Capt Phil]

First boat was a small dinghy that washed ashore on Spanish Banks just west of Vancouver, Canada where I grew up. I was 9-10 years old at the time and a friend of mine and I dragged it into the bush to hide it? We whittled a mast out of a 2x4 and nailed an old bed sheet of my mothers to it and off we went using a cut down old oar as a tiller. The main sheet was an old piece of line that we tied down to the thwart, no centerboard, no life jackets, no common sense! We ended up somewhere around Second Beach near the West End of Vancouver (this was long before there were 30 story condos there) but it was one hell of a sail and hooked me for a life time!
Spent the next 50+years working and living on the water so it must have left quite an impression... That and the stories my mum's boyfriend used to tell me about his life at sea.
Phil

[Island Time O25]

Fate kept pushing me into sailing (growing up many relatives and neighbors were navy saliors, merchant mariners and such) but I was stupidly resisting it. In my mid 20s had a chance to spend a summer month in the Caribbean when my best friend and his fiancee decided to charter a captained 57 footer with 8 other people as their wedding/honeymoon platform. Blew them off as I wanted to speed up finishing grad school by taking summer classes. Bad choice as it postponed my sailing bug bite by almost 10 years.

Anyway about 10 years later a former colleague was coming to visit from an overseas job and another mutual former colleague invited all of us for an daylong sail on a Cal39 out of his sailing club. This was a first for me on a real sailboat, other than an occasional sundowner jaunt on various touristy "jolly rodgers". Never looked back ever since. Turned out it was not only the sailing bug that bit me but the "fix-it" and "putter around" bugs as well. I'm now one of those who enjoys anything sailing related - from actual sailing to reading books about sailing and everything in between.

[TeddyDiver]

I've allways been on water sports and boating as early as my first memories as a child. Learned to row before ride a bicycle. My first "sailboat" was Optimist thou I hated that tub..

[terah]

When I was 12 my folks moved to the Pacific for a few years - their neighbour let me borrow his dinghy and windsurfer so I learnt to sail in the sea lagoon next to us.

By 16 they were in the Caribbean and we sailed our home built miracle dinghy, though at the time I was more into diving.

Uni and work took over for a while, then about 10 years ago was invited dinghy sailing. Remembered how much I loved it and two months later had my first yacht.

Have been mostly coastal sailing and club racing since then, but now in a position to consider longer distance and longer term sailing. Hoping to get back to the Pacific one day.

[SkiprJohn]

After having served on a DE, a couple DDs and done a tour in Vietnam on the Rivers I was sent by the Navy to Germany and there I was introduced to sailing on Chiemsee, a large lake. I had signed up for the MWR American Red Cross basic sailing course. It was absolutely the best idea for recreation I ever had. Old heavy wooden lake boats with gaff headed mainsails on a mild few days. That was 1972. I've only started to slow down the last couple years. I still love boats and the water but don't get out there as much as I'd like to anymore.

[JPA Cate]

in my late 30's. A woman friend of mine invited me to go crew on some beer can races. Eventually got a ride on an ocean race. Was a sailor when I met Jim, who had this idea of cruising...... the rest is history.

keepondancin' sorry to hear that story; best wishes.

to the OP: do learn to sail before you spend your retirement on a boat. People don't always like it. Most everyone on this forum will offer you encouragement, but we're some of the ones who took to it. Not everyone does. And some people go off without a lick of experience and Neptune does not smile on them. (Just read a thread about one of them, so this is up in my consciousness.)

Ann