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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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What, When, Where did you get your first boat?

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ddlyle
Captain

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302 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 15:49:09

Martin,
You're right...the Capri 16 is a very nice boat. Mine (c16)had a roller furler and I wish my C25 did. It had the porta-potti and we even spent the night on it a couple of times.
My little 1990 nissan 4 cylinder pickup pulled it nicely.
Fortunately I'm only 4 miles from the marina where my C25 is.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 16:58:45

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by MartinJW
 ...I know that many people are very good at quickly getting boats off/on trailers, but I'm just not up to this inconvenience any longer. Perhaps I'm getting old.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Nah... After one year of trailer sailing our little Daysailer, we got her into a slip two miles from home. Nothing like stepping aboard and going!

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bigelowp
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1778 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 21:01:50

My first boat was a 14 foot dory that I bought for $12.00 in 1966 (when I was 12) evolved through power boats through college (Old Town/Lyman/Thompson). My first Sail boat was a Corinthian (19' Bristol designed by Alberg) which I purchased in 1984. The rest is history!

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piseas
Former Treasurer

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USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 22:43:37

My first boat was in 1978, plus or minus. It was a Catalina 22. I bought it in San Diego and how to trailer it to Newport Beach. I was on July 4th weekend-big mistake. Anyway I rented a Uhaul truck cuz I didnt have a truck. Well I neglected to check the lug nuts of the trailer. Do I need to say more. Ok, driving on the freeway, I noticed a tire passing me up. It came off the trailer! Yikes. Luckily it was a big truck/van so nothing tipped over.
However the CHP that came by said if I didnt get if off the freeway ASAP, he would tow it. But again I lucked out and found a salvage yard open, it was a Saturday, and they had the lug nut I needed.
I tightened everything back up and was on my way.
I was sailing the next day. But I will never forget that.
Steve A

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SteveRoberts
1st Mate

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USA
45 Posts

Response Posted - 05/28/2008 : 18:10:35

My first sail was out of Cornet Bay (by Deception Pass in Washington) into the San Juans on a thirty-something foot cruiser owned by a friend of my dad's. I was about 12 or so and didn't do much other than ride the bow.

Took sailing classes in college and dreamed with a buddy about sailing around the world. That was on International 14s.

Our first boat was purchased in the San Francisco Bay area in '84 or so. Can't remember the make but it was a 16' cuddy cabin with iron swing keel. My wife named it "Duckling" for its looks. Never had a motor for it so we learned to sail everywhere we wanted to go. We sailed it up and down the Alameda Channel and trailered it to some of the nearby lakes for a couple of years until we bought our Valiant 32 Huckleberry.

We had the Valiant until 1991 when we sold it and swallowed the anchor to get the family underway.

We bought Loon last fall and while I didn't think I missed sailing for 16 years, I'm sure enjoying it now.

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piseas
Former Treasurer

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USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 05/28/2008 : 19:22:26

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by SteveRoberts
 I didn't think I missed sailing for 16 years, I'm sure enjoying it now.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Steve, I didnt think I missed it either until I got back into it. With in a few months, I got my c250-it took me a month + to find the one I wanted.
Steve A

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Tradewind
Admiral

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USA
531 Posts

Response Posted - 05/28/2008 : 21:19:51

First boat was a Pearson Triton 28', got it in 1976 while stationed in Puerto Rico with the Navy. Kept it for 2 years, sold it and bought a Cal 36, had it for 26 years until IVAN took it in 2004. I enjoy my C-250 on the lake now but I do miss coastal cruising.

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Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 05/29/2008 : 07:05:22

This thread seems to have taken on 2 ideas, first boat, and first sail. Lets see...

The dream began with watching the likes of Jaques Cousteau on TV as a kid. Crazy adventures and "The Rapture of the Deep", then as a preteen reading about journeys into the interior. I desperately wanted to be an adventurer. I joined Sea Cadets (a youth training branch of the Canadian Forces aimed at getting kids to think about entering careers in the navy) Our corps had 3 Petrels, and once a week in the summer we would take them out on Guelph Lake to go sailing.

Once a week I would end up in the middle of the lake stuck in irons. I decided sailing sucked.

Then Cadets sent me on a summer camp in Kingston Ontario, home of the Canadian Olympic Regatta, Kingston [url="http://www.cork.org/"](C.O.R.K.)[/url] where they had a much more serious sailing program. We took sunfish and lasers out into the harbour and sailed around in them. I got my White sail 1 or 2, but still spent 75% of the time in irons. Sailing still sucked.

At the end of our 2 week camp we took out the [url="http://www.brigantine.ca/"]St. Lawrence 2[/url], a brigantine, and had an amazing day of tall-ship sailing. Wow. Tall ship sailing was very different, and super cool. This was worth doing again, but totally unrealistic for a 13 year old to get back to.

I worked hard at the cadets stuff, and managed to get signed on to a training course as a marine engineer. I thought that meant naval architecture, and was deeply dissapointed to find out it meant the guy who sits in the engine room watching gauges and doing damage control. Oh well, at least the course was on the BC coast, and I got to run a 75ft [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAG_training_vessels"]YAG[/url] and lie out in the sun while cruising the straits of juan de fuca. Not bad for a summer job.

Our year end party was daysailing on [url="http://www.navy.forces.gc.ca/oriole/"]the Oriole[/url], which once again was simply amazing. Now I was 16, but still had no way of doing this again since I lived in land-locked Southern Ontario, and could only get to sailboats by driving to either Toronto or one of the coasts. I decided there had to be another way.

I finished high school, went to Georgia and hid from the world for a couple years, then came home and thought about getting on the water again. What I wanted was quiet, adrenaline, and reflection time. I couldn't afford to buy a tall ship (I was working factory jobs and just getting by). I took up canoeing.

The first boat I ever owned was a chopper-glass canoe which weighed a tonne, maybe more. I dragged it around Algonquin and paddled up and down the Grand River. It was great. My wife would go out for an afternoon but wanted nothing to do with the boat. When my daughter was born, I started taking her with me. I can still remember stuffing her car seat with chopped up pool noodles and heading down the local river. By the time she was three the wife was gone, and I was raising my little girl on my own. We'd take off at a moment's notice and go adventuring. Everyone thought I was nuts, but she'd come home covered in mud and bug bites and smiling from ear to ear.

When Chuck was 4 I took her down the [url="http://www.myccr.com/canoedb/routeDetails.php?routeid=182"]Upper Wanipitae River[/url] with a girl I was seeing. The girlfriend was in tears and feared for her life. Chuck was laughing. The girl didn't last long.

We Canoed for about 10 years in all, going on some pretty cool trips, and somehow in that time I managed to go back to college, and to find an amazing woman who I married last summer.

All through the summer last year we crewed on a friend's Cat-27. It was a good boat and we had a load of fun with him. It was also a lot less fickle than the dinghys had been, a lot less expensive than a tall ship, and could cover bigger water than the canoe. Hmmm.

The day before our wedding, Herself and i discovered we were going to be having a baby. YAY!! Chuck was excited that instead of just getting an official Mom, she was getting a whole family! I pointed out that with four people in a canoe, it might get a little crowded.

So last summer we bought a new house and car in July, got married in August, bought a minivan in September, and then bought our first sailboat, Iris, in October.

Last night I took Iris out with a friend for a most amazing sail. wind in the 15 - 18 knt range, the boat heeled to around 20 deg. and coasting at 6.5 knts for about an hour straight, ocassionally hitting 7kts on the downside of a big wave. It was most magnificent and salty.

Edited by - Prospector on 05/29/2008 07:15:22

DaveR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2015 Posts

Response Posted - 05/29/2008 : 10:03:00

You're right Dave Bristle, what a great re-read and some very interesting new posts. I was born in Jackson, MI and spent my first seven years there. My Grandparents lived on [url="http://michigan.hometownlocator.com/MI/Calhoun/Duck-Lake.cfm"]Duck Lake[/url], where my dad had several boats. First a 16 ft. power boat, then a 16 ft lake catamaran and then and 18 ft lake cat. These boats were fast! One time they decided to experiment and put my oldest brother Steve on some skis and actually got him up behind this lake cat. My parents raced regularly and I remember how much fun they used to have. My dad would hang a lantern from the forestay and take us out at night sometimes, ah great memories...... But I was hooked on sailing at 2 yrs old. Never really had to learn, I had seen my dad sail so much it just came naturally. It was probably 1965 that the family rented a 27 ft (or so, don't remember the make or size exactly) sloop in [url="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5182841"]Charlevoix MI[/url] and sailed the family to [url="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5891372"]Beaver Island[/url] for a week. WOW, I was a real sailor now!!
We sailed the cats on Duck lake until my dad was offered a move to Daytona Beach with his company Sparton Electronics in 1967. Lots of water but the parents were to busy working and taking care of 4 boys to afford or have the time to sail. But there was a local sailing school were you were taught on [url="http://www.sunfishsailboats.com/"]Sun Fish[/url] and [url="http://www.torresen.com/sailboats/Optimist"]Optimis Prams[/url], the latter being used most. Fun little boats. In 1972 dad quit Sparton and bought a Dairy Queen type place called "[url="http://shim1.shutterfly.com/procgserv/47b8db08b3127cce98548a1bec7700000027100QZN2rRqzaMb"]Snow Queen[/url]". So now there was more money and more time so in 1975 6? he bought a 40 foot Yall by the name of Taya. Almost never got this 6'5" drafted boat away from the dock but spent lots of week-ends on it and at the boatyard flirting with the girls and exploring the local canals in the dinghy. Fast forward to 1983 when my brother, father and I went together on a Catalina 22 named Contention. I sailed that thing for three or four years and a couple thousand miles up and down the east coast of Florida until I bought a water softener business in '85. No time for sailing so sold the boat. Sailed infrequently between then and 2006 when I bought Bamboo. As others have said and it was on my mind but I didn't think I missed sailing as much as I knew I did the first time I raised the sail on Bamboo!

Edited by - DaveR on 05/29/2008 10:14:10

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 05/29/2008 : 10:49:42

Duck Lake... Right next to White Lake where I spend a dozen family vacations. Duck was smaller and prettier. I haven't seen 'em for over 30 years.

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