[jjrux]

I just bought my first boat (1981 O’Day Widgeon) a couple of weeks ago and I don’t much experience sailing but this thread is just too good to pass up.

My worst bonehead sailing maneuver occurred on my maiden voyage to a local lake. After carefully trailering, rigging, launching, and paddling out I was struggling with raising the jib and main when I began to rapidly drift back to the rocky shore. It occurred to me that I should make sure that the rudder was set correctly when I finally noticed that I had forgotten to bring it with me! In fact it was still sitting in my garage miles away. While packing up to leave a park ranger stopped to check my launch permit. Needless to say I didn’t have one (or even know I needed one). After hearing my story the ranger chuckled and let me go w/o buying the permit. So ended my maiden voyage. The following trips out have been much more successful, but I’m sure that further mishaps await.

I have a number of newbie questions primarily to do with getting underway, but I’ll save them for the “learning to sail’ forum.

John