[Gaul]

I''m 26 and just got into sailing last year. I was eating at one of our many bay-view seafood restaraunts on a Friday night last Lent and it just hit me that I wanted to sail. Until then I had only been out on a sailboat once and that was 8 years before. Of course most people put more thought into a prospective hobby than I do.

I don''t think that it is too cost prohibitive for a lot of people, I just don''t think people are really aware of sailing and lump sailboats in with powerboats when thinking about money. Finding out how much sailboat I could get for how little money I needed to pay really set the hook for me. Little used sailing dinks can be picked up for less than $500 with no club/slip/licensing fees and be ready to go on a lake or a protected bay right off a public boat launch. My Cat22 was less than 4K and it was in a very sailable condition even for a relative landlubber like myself.

I try my best to make people aware of sailing and am ready to go rain or shine if somebody wants to try it out. As soon as my nephew is old enough to be somewhat unsupervised, I''ll be showing him the ropes(sheets I guess). I have my niece helping me with some repair work, and sure I''m paying her, but she is starting to show some interest in actually learning how the boat works instead of just scraping and sanding.

The only way to get people interested is to make them aware of the sport be it through club programs, or just friendly outings.