sailing regrets

Not really getting into dinghy racing till my thirties, to only bail out after only two years, but finally to finally return nearly 11 years later.

Bailed out of dinghy racing first time as I got seduced by the assymmetric marketing in the late 90s, went and bought a twin trapeze Topper Spice to teach my just married wife to sail and race, only to find the racing limited cause the class died. I was also completely unsuited to the boat as I was far too big and heavy to be at the back end. Great fun for just blasting in a big breeze though.

After that I did own and race a keelboat for 3 years and the maintenance and managing a crew of 5 was just too much work. Got disillusioned with the whole racing scene and left till last winter.

What should have happened was that I should have been shown a suitable dinghy for my 6'6", 15 stone frame and I could have become a much better sailor and avoided a whole bunch of hassle and cost in the intervening years.

Not sailing a Foiler sooner than I did.
Sailing a Foiler as it ruined everything else!

not practising more in my charter boat before going to the contender worlds in canada in 2008.  otherwise no, no regrets at all.  I'm now hoping to train as a coach assessor and loving every minute.

Originally posted by G.R.F. I guess allowing my prejudice to cloud my judgement regarding the whole inadequacies of dinghy sailing and thereby not coming along sooner to save it from itself...

Driving nearly 100 miles for an open, spending close to £100 on a B&B, and finding that only 3 other boats had turned up.