How did you get into sailing?

Well, 1968, me 6yrs old, Dad bought a canoe which we paddled around on the Thames. Dad saw a Merlin fleet getting ready at Laleham and decided that was what he wanted to do. Bought Mirror 35508 and built it from a kit in the garage, called it Dambrieisi. Launched on the Thames, forgot to put the cbd down, blew sideways x-river, got tangled in the lines of fisherman on the opposite bank. Joined Hillingdon SC (Mirror fleet only) and it grew from there. Days spent bunking off school taking mates down to the boat...re-rigging everything cos I thought I knew how to tune a Mirror. Coming home from school on hot summer days with my school uniform dripping wet (not good capsizing in yer school uniform) and saying got caught in a downpour. Oppies? squads? Parents with more money than sense? I didn't need it!

Originally posted by sargesail Those were the days Kev

I'll never forget that moment on the first morning when the duty instructor stood up at the morning briefing and asked the squaddies if any of them had peeved, puked or shat in their beds the night before and then slowly seeing a couple of hands go up.  Apparently it was quite a common thing to let everything go a little too much on R&R.  

just have, interesting concept although not my cup of tea. looks to be too stable for me

I am one of the few people who just started sailing because I have a 'thing about boats'. No-one introduced me to sailing, and neither of my parents know anything about boats, and never have done

Someone took me sailing when I was in the army serving in Germany, turned out they had no idea what they were doing. Eventually learned to sail in Cyprus in 1986 with my wife, we did a course over a couple of weekends in Albacores on the sea. Unfortunately the club was run by officers who had only run the course to get some crews as their wives would no longer sail with them. Happily my boss had a GP14 at the club so my wife and I could sail that unless his kids were out on holiday.