What was the first boat you owned?

[Steam Flyer]

If "owned" means paid for it, then my Turnabout doesn't count, parents bought it when I was 9 or so.

In that case, an elderly 110 built by Lawley Brothers, raced it during high school off Marblehead. Got crushed by the Doyle brothers, among many others. But it was a fun Ray Hunt speedster for a teenager, and I learned how to race slow and semi-clueless, which later on helped me learn to sail fast by doing the opposite.

Next was a fiberglass 16' Marblehead Town Class, big main small jib lapstrake half-dory. Big racing fleet around New England, particularly Marblehead. The newer glass boats weren't as fast as the older woodies. So I sold her and bought an old but not too old wood one. Gradually improved and started winning. There were four races per week in Summer, so you could sail you ass off--Tues and Thurs evening races from a fixed starting line off the Corinthian YC, then Sat afternoon outside with a committee boat, and Sunday morning races off the Corinthian.

The Townie "nationals" meant a couple of boats from NH and RI joined us. I won it one year, just before moving south to New Orleans.

Aside from that, it's been OPBC for me, from college dinghy racing and coaching at BU, to crewing MORC, and doing a few deliveries around eastern New England. And borrowing and racing boats down here, and teaching sailing for an ASA facility, and now at our new Community Sailing Center.

Whew. That's probably a lot more than you needed to know. I've been lucky to sail mostly on the cheap.

I need to come by and check out y'alls Community Sailing Center. This place needs something like that.... in fact, IMHO most small coastal towns do

 

[premiumunleaded]

Vivacity 20 - English bilge keeler.

Very sturdily built 2KSB - if that.

View attachment 524993

My dad taught me to sail in an Alacrity, the Vivacity’s little 18 foot sister. Thanks for the great memories!

 

[Black Jack]

I had a dugout cayuco with an umbrella as a sail.

 

[Glenn McCarthy]

Laser.

 

[Rasputin22]

I had a dugout cayuco with an umbrella as a sail.

View attachment 525590

Serious cool factor there! Where was that?

 

[Laurent]

A Muscadet; a hardchine plywood cruiser of 23 ft, designed by Philippe Harlé. One of the boats that helped democratize sailing in France in the 60's and beyond. The class is still active in France, with Nationals every year. A great little boat. Some did the first Mini Transat. Headroom inside: 4ft3in....
I co-owned it with my best friend at the time when I was 18. When I announced over the phone to my parents (who are not sailors) that I bought a boat, there was a blank... and then my father said: "we knew that you would have a boat at some point, but we thought that you would have a car before you got a boat"...
You got to have your priorities straight.

Here is a picture of one with the same color scheme than mine, but it is not mine...

Philippe Harlé did a whole family of plywood hardchine cruisers, all named from wines (Muscadet, Sancerres, Chablis, etc.), or spirits (Armagnac, Cognac, Aquavit...)

 

[Navig8tor]

Pretty boat. Almost looks like a junior Finn.

Great little boats 7'7" long, every major sailor in NZ got their start in P class, Blake, Coutts, Burling to name a few.
Hard to sail well and terrifying downwind with a propensity to go goldmining, the nice thing was even with a full capzise you could be back in an upright boat in seconds and the small cockpit didn't get too much water in it, most had a venturi bailer.
Lots of fun and the independance- priceless.
More https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/p-class/

 

[dacapo]

O’day Daysailor III

 

[Coastal_Fox]

I had meant to be a lot more active in this thread, but a property closing that was suppose to have been scheduled for the 11th, got moved to Friday suddenly, sooo I've been a bit busy getting things ready on short notice haha.

I've really been enjoying reading your stories though! The first one is always the one you never forget and its cool to see the diversity in the ways people got their starts. Its been nice to read while i look for my first self-owned sailing boat ^^

 

[BrightAyes]

My first? Every man's first boat: the ubiquitous Catalina 22. Mine was a fixed keel. Great boat, till I got the racing bug. Then it was just another 4k shitbox.

 

[redboat]

First boat I bought with my $$ after college was a beater International 110. Rebuilt, sailed then lost it in a storm while it was on a mooring. Damn thing went to weather better than any boat I ever sailed.

 

[Marty Gingras]

In that case, an elderly 110 built by Lawley Brothers, raced it during high school off Marblehead. Got crushed by the Doyle brothers, among many others. But it was a fun Ray Hunt speedster for a teenager, and I learned how to race slow and semi-clueless, which later on helped me learn to sail fast by doing the opposite.

First boat I bought with my $$ after college was a beater International 110. Rebuilt, sailed then lost it in a storm while it was on a mooring. Damn thing went to weather better than any boat I ever sailed.

Never seen a 110 in person, but I've admired them for decades!

 

[George Hackett]

as a kid my dad bought me a 110. Rainbow and I’s first boat was a Flying Fifteen.

 

[guerdon]

I got a Finn, at the NYC boat show. It was 1964. I was 15. I asked the builder who brought her over from England, if I could get a special price if I took it home after the show. He looked relieved and said since I was so young he would give me a special price. I then told him that I was a surfer and had never sailed. "Do you think I can learn to sail with this?" " With this boat you will learn a lot." It was winter. I weighed @ 130 pounds. I sailed alone with two wetsuits. I broke two masts. I was a hassle compared to surfing, but I was so gnarly that I was hooked. I have learned a lot.

 

[Gouvernail]

Is it a missed companion?
Was it just the one you had before you got the one you wanted?
Is it the only one you've ever had?

Tell its story.

It was my fourth.
The person in charge of engraving the trophy for the Lake Glendale Sailing Club 1976 Around The Lake Race called me to find out the name of our boat. She said, “What is the name of your boat.”

I agreed

If the perpetual trophy is still being maintained, my story can be confirmed.” Here we are accepting the trophy.

 

[ryley]

When I was 10, my stepfather brought home a small sailboat that he bought by trading a bunch of marine junk (probably the last time he ever got rid of any marine junk ). I grew up thinking it was a wood pussy, but hard to say for sure, someone had converted it to a sloop. The mast he had was too short, so we spliced a piece to the bottom. The main was an old Interclub main that our neighbor gave us, and the jib was from a blue jay. it had a kick-up rudder but definitely not original to the boat. We named it "Wish." It was funky, and we kept it on a mooring in Stonington Harbor. He and I had a ton of adventures in that boat and as I got older I was able to sail alone, starting with the inner harbor, then the outer harbor, then along the coast and around fisher's island sound. It definitely helped bond me and my stepdad, and started off my long love of sailing.

When I was 17, a friend and I sailed it to Block Island - one of my first real adventures (and incredibly dumb). I had that boat until I was 20 and I still miss it.

 

[Surfer7]

1958 wood Lightning. Dad bought it cheap as it had been damaged. He and I fixed it up. I was 12. That boat taught me how to sail. I started racing it against the local fiberglass Lightnings and won quite a few races...

 

[arr4ws]

We got a J/24 with my 2 brothers at 16. We raced it in phrf until we bought a melges 24 in 2001.

 

[Squalamax]

Herreshoff 12 1/2(that my grandpa rebuilt) when I was 7 then later a couple 110's in my teen years.

 

[ROADKILL666]

We would have made a good Star team.

That’s what I did for a long time. Loved it. I was 6’5” and 245 lbs