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!