[phillamb168]

Sailing! I know a certain nederlander who does it. When I lived in Chicago I did a reasonable number of hours on J22 and J30s. And of course now that I'm in Paris on a regular basis, I tend to have beers on houseboats.

[morticaixavier]

I took lessons back in my early teens but have not done anything since highschool. It's a fun way to tootle around the water.

[narvin]

I love sailing.  I'm no expert but I belong to the downtown sailing center here... J22s, Sonars, and cruisers that you can take out once you're certified as a skipper.  My friend has a 30' Catalina... we go out sailing on the chesapeake, I bring the beer.  Seems like a fair trade :-)

We went on a vacation last winter and cruised around the British Virgin Islands for a week on a 40' that we rented... it was awesome.

[jaybeerman]

For us land locked dreamers there's this

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460766/

[phillamb168]

Jaybeerman thank you for the link! Looks like a great film.

But now, I think I'll go and watch master and commander, thanks. ;-)

[tonyp]

When i was about 16, friends of the family stored their little Sunfish sailboat at our house and said i could use it whenever i wanted. I knew nothing about sailing since i owned a ski boat but that didn't stop me and a buddy from wheeling it down the beach and trying. It took us a few days of flipping it until we got really good at it but i wouldn't have traded a minute of it for anything.

Best part of the story, my buddy's wife was preggo at the time and he had a beeper with him at all times. we were way out into the river beached on an island having a smoke when...beeep beeeeep beeeeeep! yikes! we hauled ass to the nearest marina where he called his brother to pick him up and take him to the hospital. I sailed that little boat all the way home by myself and made it to the hospital right before the baby was born. That baby just turned 21 and got married a few weeks ago. :/

We continued sailing almost everyday that summer until the owners came and brought our toy home

Good times.

Tonyp

[nicneufeld]

For us land locked dreamers there's this

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460766/

"Rated PG for thematic elements, mild language and incidental smoking"

LOL!  That's the first time I've seen that before.  Give us a few years and you'll see warnings for incidental salt or bacon consumption in movies!

As a kid I dreamed about sailing, and studied the principals a fair amount.  But I've been fairly landlocked since, so haven't had the chance yet...

[Pawtucket Patriot]

My father-in-law is a competitive A-class catamaran sailor. He has two A-cat boats and I sail one of them occasionally during the summer. It's a lot of fun to walk out on a trapeze and cruise on one hull. These boats go fast, even in light wind. They're all carbon fiber so they only weigh around 150-160 lbs. Plus, they're oversailed.  The only problem is that they're single man vessels. I'd like to get a Sunfish sometime down the road so I can include the family.

[weithman5]

i grew up on lake erie. water skiing, sailing, cedar point.  raced j30 and tartan 37, jennau 37. when i was in the navy i had a tasar.(no not a laser) now i have a thistle which is a great 3 man dinghy. unfortunatly i live too far from lake michigan for it to be useful so it is in my mom's barn in ohio.  very sad it doesn't get used. its for sale on the thistle site.  maybe one day i will move back to galion and have another go.  my oldest heads for pensacola for flight school. they just had the thistle nationals. maybe he can take it with him

[scooter2374]

We're mostly power boaters in my family but we do have a sailfish to mess around with when the wind comes up. In the winter three of my uncles iceboat when and if we get ice.

[jaybeerman]

"Rated PG for thematic elements, mild language and incidental smoking"
LOL!  That's the first time I've seen that before. 

Mind numbing isn't it? I'm surprised they didn't give it the pg13 because "water could be scary to certain young people."

This is a must see for anyone interested in adventure racing, solo endeavors. The docu covers the first solo round-the-world yacht race, in 1968.  Not only is the subject matter awesome, but the shooting of the film is perfection, and the main character is one hell of an interesting character.

You can watch the whole film (broken into probably a dozen segments) on youtube, here's the first segment.  Watch and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs3Be0klAvA

[oscarvan]

Where do I start.......at the beginning I guess.....I was born in 1957.

One of my first memories is in a rented day sailor on a lake in Holland....I needed to do a number 2, mom took an empty bailing vegetable can out of the bilge and caught it....overboard it went. This sort of stuff stays with you.....I'm thinking 1961 ish....

This one is from 1966, me and my little brother.... I cruised those lakes, by myself, all day long..I knew every nook and cranny....a thunderstorm was FUN....now the parents would call the coastguard, IF they even let the little guy go out by himself......it was a different world then.



Lots of crewing racing, later a two man Vaurien with my brother. Racing and more racing. Sailing vacations on IJsselmeer and Waddenzee.....no autopilots. 8 hours at the helm...... I WAS the autopilot. More seat of the pants than you could dream of.

Fast forward to 1982....sailing on the Long Island Sound....then moved to Cleveland....racing on Erie, bought a Catlina 30....got married to my sweetie...1990



Then kids and mortgage....finally got back in to it in 2002 with a Catalina 250 on a trailer.....I-95 down to FLA twice, lots of Chesapeake...

With the groove going we got the Catalina 42 in 2004, out of a foreclosure....after three months of hard work she was sea worthy. Sailed her on the Chesapeake and late October down to Fort Lauderdale.....Back up in April. Did that three times.....all but 100nm outside and half of it solo....Sunrise on the Atlantic..... And yes, I read Crowhurst and Moitessier and Chichester..... loved it....lived it.



But pushing kids through school does a number on the schedule, and the budget..... Lady Kay III moved on.

Lady Kay IV is a Dragonfly 25 folding trimaran. It's a serious project and I now have two years into her..(can you say DELAMINATION?)..OK, brewing gets in the way once in a while..... Rebuilding amas (7 GALLONS of epoxy.resin later.....) and the center hull needed a complete strip, and rewire. The latter is in progress. If I had two weeks with nothing else going on I would have her sailing.....








I REALLY hope to sail her late fall or early next year.

When the kids get off the payroll there will be more (bigger) sailing.....February in the Bahamas sounds like a really good plan.

So, I've been sailing since before I could walk....It's probably one of the things I know how to do best....

[tubercle]

Where do I start.......at the beginning I guess.....I was born in 1957.

Start at the beginning?  First there was a big BANG!!!

 Just kidding...great pics.

  The only sailing Tubercle has ever done is in a big ol' bass boat powered by by a big ol' black Mercury.

 I would love to learn to ride the wind.

[weithman5]

wow, oscar the catalina reminds me also.  i grew up on lake erie west of cleveland - marblehead.  banged around sandusky bay in a catalina 27 and 30.  the catalina 36 and 42 came out when i was in college. very nice.

[phillamb168]

  catalina 250. That is a beauty. Whered you pick up the trimaran parts? Foreclosure auctions sound like an avenue I havent considered yet...