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Tell us about the first boat you ever owned.

11K views 80 replies 55 participants last post by  tenuki 
#1 ·
I'll start, I was 16 yrs old, just learned to drive and was just driving around when I saw it. It was a 16' homebuilt pretty well constructed of plywood and fiberglass on a trailer, except.. it was in pretty bad condition (hole in the hull, etc) but hey, 200 bucks. Fixed the hole, sanded and painted it, fixed the mast, repaired the mainsail (used nylon fishing line to lash on the sail hanks, etc), all myself and for cheap.

So for my first sail I took her down to lake michigan (8 miles away) and launched her with the help of a friend. A girl I was trying to impress (who was coincidently an experienced sailor with her own hobie cat) was on hand to watch. Pretty much everything went wrong during the launch, and by the time me and my friend got about a mile offshore two things became apparent. First of all, a storm was headed in and a low, planing hull really wasn't equipped for the waves that were starting to be generated. The boat was swamping. Second of all I discovered that the centerboard that had come with the boat was the wrong one, it obviously was barely longer than the well, so basically no centerboard. Ok, should have probably checked that before I started.

At that moment one of the buckets I had for bailing floated out of the boat and away, fortunately I had tied one in so we could still bail. My friend then calmly informed me that he couldn't swim.

I ended up having to get out of the boat and swim it around to point it back to the shore, then scramble in before it took off without me. it was like sailing a rudderless submarine, but we finally got back to shore about a mile and a half down from the boat launch.

The girl had left by the time we got the boat back and she never returned my calls.

It's a miracle I'm still sailing. :D
 
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#28 ·
I built a Glen-L 8-ball when I was 12, sailed it until 17 or so, sold that to buy the sails for a Glen-L 12 sloop I built, then sold that to put an engine in a convertible bug I had.......not sure if that was a good thing or bad!

I also have a Easy Rider Canoe since 81, named the Easy Tipper due to a scout 50 miler in the same design, but different one.

I also remember sailing some of the first lasers, with hull numbers in the 700-800 range, I got wet a lot in those too, everytime someone said "Starboard" in race, I went over for what ever reason, usually went from 3-5 place, all the way back to last about 30'ish, what a pain when one is a "100 lbs dripping wet 14 yr old!"

marty
 
#29 ·
blt2ski said:
I also remember sailing some of the first lasers, with hull numbers in the 700-800 range, I got wet a lot in those too, everytime someone said "Starboard" in race, I went over for what ever reason, usually went from 3-5 place, all the way back to last about 30'ish, what a pain when one is a "100 lbs dripping wet 14 yr old!"
Boy, does THAT bring back memories. I learned to sail when I was 14, at the Culver Military Academy back in Indiana. I started in cat boats, then O'Days, and finally moved up to Lasers. I really liked those Lasers, particularly on hot, muggy, Indiana summer days on Lake Max. They kept me wet and cool.

They eventually bought a bunch of Hobie 18s, too, which were great. The problem with the Hobies was the depth of the lake. The kids were always knocking them over in the shallows. Some of us were VERY fast to jump the bottom pontoon, grab the strap, and get them back up. If you were too slow, the mast would fill with water, the masthead would hit bottom in the silt, and the wind blowing on the now-upended tramp would bury the masthead. It took multiple power boats to get them out when that happened.

I wouldn't mind finding a E-scow someplace. Those were fun, too....

Cheers!
 
#33 ·
Cabo Rico 38 for sale

After sailing the Bahamas and Cuba on our beloved Pioneer, a beautifully maintained 1987 Cabo Rico 38, we find that health issues require that we put her up for sale. We bought her privately and want to sell her privately. She is immaculate, loaded with equipment, new Yanmar engine and is ready to start cruising again with new owners. We are presently in the Florida Keys working our way up to North Carolina. If you are a serious buyer, email us at harhender@totallyfloats.com for a complete description. You can also check her out on our website at TOTALLY FLOATS!

Ron and Judy
presently living aboard Pioneer
phone: 252-876-2552
 
#34 ·
Ron & Judy-

I'm sorry you have to sell your boat, but you really should start a separate thread for it... it will get a much better response if you do so.

Go to the "Buying a Boat" forum and then click on the "Forum Tools" drop-down menu and select "Post a New Thread"
 
#36 ·
The first boat I bought was a canoe. After a season of paddling every body of water within a couple hundred miles, it became painfully obvious that my bowman (wife) wasn't as interested in covering distance as I was. To compensate, I experimented with double-bladed kayak paddles & eventually a tarp sail.

The tarp worked so well, we'd travel five times the distance while she sat in the bow reading. Sailed the experimental rig for two seasons. This winter, I was planning to re-rig the whole thing with a more lightweight permanent solution and a roller furling jib; she insisted we buy a "real" sailboat instead. After several months of research & watching the used market, the San Juan 21 sounded like the perfect step-up from a canoe: Shoal draft with board up, easily trailered & rigged, performs well in light wind, and a bit tender for that canoe'ish excitement in a puff.

Watched a listing for a 1981 SJ21 MKII like a hawk all winter long. The MKII has the big flat deck, versus most other designs in this size range having the tiny catwalks that my flipper feet wouldn't do well on. She was covered head-to-toe in moss, mold, mildew, and various other organics including mud dauber nests... Registration tags were five years expired. Hull & deck felt very solid, price was right.

Took the plunge & signed on the dotted line one day before our fifteen year wedding anniversary. The traditional gift for 15 years is crystal, thus her name Crystal Anni.

Here's the most recent pic after about two months of scrubbing, rubbing, buffing, and cursing the previous owner. Wheels, hubs, and tires get replaced in next few days, hoping for maiden voyage next weekend (damnable weather permitting).
 
#37 ·
Mine was a piece of roofing corrigated iron folded in half with the ends bashed over and filled with silastic a piece of 4 x 2 held it open. voula one home made boat for the billabong.
 
#38 ·
1984 Newport 28. A C&C designed-hull, with a very nice cruising interior. Spent many a wonderful long weekend on her. Very comfortable, too. A bulkhead-mounted dinette table when in the up position made for a seemingly huge main cabin. Owned Sakana (Japanese for "fish") in Portlland, OR and sailed her up and down the Columbia River. I would run into sailors all the time who would say "Hey, I know that boat - used to beat me all the time", so you know she was a good little performer, too.

Still miss that boat...
 
#39 ·
my first boat was and i still have it a nacra 5.2. got it for $500 around '91. have not had a chance to sail it much now that i have two kids (one 2 the other 4). the 4 year old has been out on it though in the Gulf of Mexico. was a bit skittish till i grabbed a cannonball jellyfish for him to touch and see. now loves to be on boats. getting an Elite 29 for the family to sail on till they get old enough to hang out on the nacra traps.

about the time i bought the nacra also bought a Melges M-16. got that one for $200. sailed that one a few times. i then traded it to my roomate for my first computer. i need to ask hime what happened to that boat.

here is a pic of the wife (girlfriend at the time) and i on the nacra in Florida. pay no attention to the rooster tail. who says you can not have rooster tails on a sailboat. :D



G~
 
#41 ·
Interesting round robbin history.

The first boat that my father owned was a sailboat. Sold it to buy a boat that my mother would like which was a 12' power boat named after her. He sold it to get married as he left for war in 1942. In 1954 he bought a new 12' Wagemaker, center deck, beauty and named it after my mother as number II. I was conceived when he returned from Burma and was 8 years old at the time. So, this was my first boat and his third and it was a II. Two years later he bought a 20' cruiser and it was III. The good news was he was so infatuated with III that II became mine. At the same time he decided that I needed a hydroplane, so he and I, with the emphasis on HE, built one over the winter. So, I am 12 now and have a hydroplane. By the time I am 15 I have sunk it three times, still have II which is still sweet, and he never did find out about the sinkings. No matter what people think about Firestone engines, they take water and with a little TLC they start and run great again. Sold the hydorplane when I was 16 (needed gas money for the car) but II is still sweet.

OK, this is a sailing forum and I know you are waiting for a sailing story. At 17 I was in love and a friend had a Sailfish. Great platform for a date. Loved it and wanted one. My first love went away, but the love of sail lasted. More to follow.

OK, fast forward to 30 years old. My father bought IV, a 17' Larson, and I loved it. Bought it from him in 1978 and had a great time. He still owned II so had a boat anyway and could use mine. In 1986 he gave me II and I was going to refinish it so my son could use it when he was 12. Thought it would be a great winter project. Later for the finish.

Bought a 18' Dolphin wet boat and loved sailing her on our inland lake. It was so popular that I bought another wet boat to sail while everyone else was sailing my Dolphin.It was a great boat that everyone else called the death ship. The rigging was a little wierd and most people did not like getting caught in it. Hey, if they did not like it I could use it. Worked for me. Kids had a great time for 15 years beating those boats up and they finally had to be scrapped, but good sailing money spent.

In 1988 bought a 21' Sea Ray to tie at the end of my dock. Still have her and she is great. Always said that if you could not troll at 50 MPH, why would you want to fish. In 1995 bought a SeaDoo because my 17 year old had to have one. It too did over 50 and was a lot of fun. Never buzzed a sailboat with it and never will. Still at the end of the dock! OK, now you are thinking, this guy has a Sea Ray and a Sea Doo, so he is an *******. Partly right! Hey, I golf too.

In 2004 I came into possession, through good friends, of the same Sailfish that I had dated on 40 years earlier. A little work and she hangs on a stand on the dock and is used by me mostly, but also my grand daughter and my kids. My grand daughter loves to sail, continues to take classes in prams, and loves hiking out on a Sailfish that is really not meant to hike out on. Remember, this is a Sailfish, a flat board, not a Sunfish.

OK, also in 2004 bought a Catalina 34 for use in Lake Michigan. I love it, and only wish that my father, who started it all with a sailboat, could have sailed with me. He would have loved it. Still have the Catalina 34 and will have a larger sailing platform like it till I can't handle it or die.My plan is that my kids will have to dispose of it many years from now, or that my grand daugher will own her. Love to go slow as much as I like to go fast......only different. Still don't fish.

In 2006 finally decided that since my son was 31 I probably was not going to get II done in time for his 12th birthday. I do not have the skill or patience to do great varnish work on a classic beauty. Found someone that really knows what they are doing to do it for me. 3 months later, at a price 10 times more that the boat cost new, I have II back and she looks like she did when I was 8. I again wish that my father was here to see her. My son, who was going to get the boat when he was 12, is not allowed to come to close to this little beauty. However, my grand daughter looks really cute in it. Hey, she is my grand daugher and my sailing buddy. At 11 she is still perfect, AND she loves to sail! II, which hangs at anchor, when she is in the water, will never hang on a dock again. No scratches on my childhood as I already have too many scars.

Also own a rowboat that nobody ever uses...HEY, we don't fish!

My father started all of this. My brother, who is not a boater, and I always thought he missed his calling. He was a manager in construction, but should have been in marketing. My mother, who could not swim and hated the water, had to boat because she had FOUR boats named after her. How could she not?

Now, if I could just find that damn hydorplane!
 
#42 · (Edited)
I was a lot older when I actually "owned" my first boat. I was 29 when I bought my first boat, a folkboat. Never knew a thing about owning one, had always been on other bigger boats, tall ships and offshore and the like. The guy who sold it to me was instrumental, an old Polish Navy Navigator. I found the boat in Boat Journal and talked to him all winter, since I worked the rigs and could not get away till springtime. He had not sold the boat in almost a year. Many a tire kicker (or would it be hull kicker) and people who wanted to make deals that fell through. Spring came, I gave him my weekly call and headed down to Vancouver to see the boat. I liked it right away (it was the first one I looked at EVER!! what was I thinking!! ) said I would buy it on condition of survey. Survey was good and he then took me out for a sail to show me the boat. I bought it for $12000 CDN. The motor (1979) on the boat was older than the boat (1982)! I thought I was king!!! With my sea experience being quite good, I had done lots of offshore from Seattle to Alaska and in the Atlantic and been in big boats. Fishing boats, working boats, tugs, skiffs, sail ships you name it. I thought water was my middle name. The thought never occured to me that maybe I DID NOT know how to sail a boat by myself!!

I was quickly put in my place when one afternoon I left the Marina, almost whacked two boats getting out of a tight spot and went "SAILING". (in the subsequent few months while I was still learning I did whack 2 boats!! But none since then) It was more like a dumbass on a boat pretending to sail. We had a stiff 20knot breeze outside in the bay and I soon shut the motor off to start "SAILING". No sooner had I tried to get the main up when viscious waves and wind pounded the boat. Not being able to get the main up (because I had no motor to point me into the wind) I decided to pull it down and start the motor. Nobody told me you cant pull start an outboard in gear!! No motor and now no sail and yes now there were lots of rocks close by since the wind and waves had pushed me onto a leeshore very quickly! I tried to raise the main again (by now the wind was gusting 30) only to find out it the battens became entangled in the raked shrouds. Still, I kept a cool dumbass head and tightened a half lifted main enough to give me some way. somehow I managed to go close hauled while missing some very big rocks by only 10 feet, being unable to tack because that would have put me right back into the circle of rocks.


It was after this when I finally got far enough out into the bay and started the motor after cussing and swearing like the rig hand I am that I decided maybe I should read a book or two, perhaps even the owners manual for the outboard might help.

Amazing I didn't kill myself really!!

And thats my first idiotic boat story. Wait till you hear the one about how years later with much sailing experience under my belt I nearly killed my girlfriend in 70knot freak storm who had never even been on a boat before!!.......Still....we are together and alive and not missing any body parts....aaah....the memories.

Amazingly, I kept the boat. That was the boat that had kept me alive and my girlfriend alive and given so much joy and happiness to others. We even raced it sometimes. that little boat has had a good long life and will continue to. I loved that boat so much I redid everything on it. Sails, rigging, tore out the inside, redid the electrics, everything. I now know every little bolt on that boat. Every one. So for me, the first boat I bought is still the only boat I own many years later.
 
#43 ·
In 1978 (I was 30 then) we lived in California and I purchased my first sailboat, an Aquarius 21, (I can't remember the year of mfgr) after a couple of rides on the sailboat owned by friends named Dotty and Gene (my wife worked with Dotty) - their boat was named 'Whither Thou' out of Alameda.
 
#44 ·
Just bought my first one. A '80 Catalina 25. We love her. She is essentially stripped down, it's like the previous and original owners didn't do anything to her. No instruments, lines aren't organized at all and theres no appearance that she ever had instruments or organization. She isn't even named.

The nice thing is, we get to do a lot of the work on her and make her like want her. She is in good condition and we got her for a song. The surveyor stated that for the price we got her for, we could flip her and earn money, in the event it turns out sailing is not for us.

So far, sailing is great. Theres a lot I want to do to her to improve her, but as she stands, she is a good boat.
 
#45 ·
Sadly, my first sailboat was a 12 foot homebuilt by my grandfather when I was like 11. I let it sit around in the dry slip next to my fathers hobie 16 for too many years and never got sails made like my father told me too (being a typical kid), and he sold his boat and gave mine to my uncle. So my first boat was a paper weight thanks to my thick skull, that I would give anything to have now.. My first boat I owned and used is my current boat 1975 chrysler c-22. A big time fixer upper named "money Pit"
 
#48 ·
I caught the sailing bug when a coworker invited me to play hooky from work and sail with him on Barnegat Bay. Prior to this my only sailing experience was on a sail board in Martinique on my honeymoon. I got stuck out in the bay and the lifeguard and to come and retrieve me. My first boat was a Catalina 25. We sailed it on Greenwood Lake in lower New York. I took one 1-hour lesson, and then learned by trial and error. We had great fun and a few scary moments. Once we pulled up a wheel chair while hauling up the anchor. We were thankful that no one was attached to this. See story in the attached link.

http://archive.recordonline.com/archive/2004/07/20/wheelcha.htm

We now have a Catalina 30 up on the Hudson.
 
#49 ·
Tommy T,
Please explain this

"I was conceived when he returned from Burma and was 8 years old at the time."

You were conceived when your father was 8 years old,
or
you were 8 years old when you were conceived?

Great life story about the boats, but im confused about how you were conceived.
 
#50 ·
sailortjk1 said:
Tommy T,
Please explain this

"I was conceived when he returned from Burma and was 8 years old at the time."

You were conceived when your father was 8 years old,
or
you were 8 years old when you were conceived?

Great life story about the boats, but im confused about how you were conceived.
OK TJ, sit down, we need to have talk. See, when a Man and woman fall in love, they..............................:eek:
 
#51 ·
goose327 said:
OK TJ, sit down, we need to have talk. See, when a Man and woman fall in love, they..............................:eek:
I get that................ but he said he was conceived when his father returned and was "8 years old" at the time.

Way to go stud!
 
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