brixxton

I just wonder how many of this illustrious crew share my other passion with me. Started with a $1000 which got me a 26ft sloop and I was off. Unlike bikes keeping more than 2 at a time gets very expensive ,luckily it took less than 5 years, 7 boats and a lot of elbow grease to get what I wanted. Over those five years I couldn't say the number of bikes that lefr my workshop, reborn and unlike boats I get to keep more than one. My personal stable has slimmed down to only 4 or maybe 5 if I keep the Univega Via Carisma which has turned out to be a sweet ride. Anyone else had experience with these?

Freedom to ride my bike and sail my boat without being hassled by the man.

SkinGriz

Grew up taking sailing lessons. My grandfather was really into sailing.

I remember being on the water with my grandparents and my grandmother was working the jib and the mainsail, grandpa on tiller.

I was like “Grandma is the one sailing, you’re just steering.”

He got to do something on support boats when the cup was in SD bay. I think his secret motivation was just to get better pictures.

SkinGriz

Too busy to be into sailboats now.

Would definitely prefer sailboats to the noise of an engine. Or maybe a canoe or something small with a shallow draft like a jon boat, simple and cheap, both in maintenance and storage.

I have coworkers who need to bigger everything. Volvo penta outdrives, newer side by sides, lifted trucks, etc.

“biggered my factory, I biggered my roads, I biggered the wagons, I biggered the loads”

After hearing machines all day at work I can’t stand the noise.

Velo Mule

I was racing bicycles in college but encountered knee problems as I added more and more miles to training. This got me to contemplate my next endeavor. I figured that I had been bucking the wind all these years, why not get the wind to work for me. I learned to sail Sunfish sailboats when I was a kid in summer camp. I ended up with Lightning class wooden boat, that I raced locally. I also traveled to crew on other Lightings and sometimes other boats. I also had and raced a Sunfish. There is lots of Sunfish racing on Long Island.

After getting married and having a child, sailing just wasn't happening and I end up selling the boats. I miss it sometime. I wouldn't mind getting a Sunfish or other simple boat when I retire someday.

brixxton

I am sure there are many ways a stationary set up could be used on a boat that are yet to be devised. The applications are endless from retrieving the anchor to pumping air for dighys or divers. This could be a new type of bike , wow, all human no battery?

SkinGriz

SoCal it’s sabots instead of Sunfishes. The most expensive boats in the world per foot.

Pompiere

Many years ago, when I was in the Navy, I learned to sail. Almost every Navy base had a boat rental, so the investment was minimal. Since then, I have only been on a boat a handful of times, even though I live less than ten miles from Lake Erie. I retired this year, so there have been discussions with the wife about getting a sailboat. I have had a couple inquiries that I would have jumped on when I was younger, but at my age I want something that sits a little higher out of the water and doesn't require gymnastics skills to operate.

bwilli88 

Sailing with my brother near Atlanta Georgia.

stardognine

I never learned to sail, but we went boating on Lake Erie when I was a kid a few times. I always loved the Heart song, "Mistral Wind", about sailing, very powerful, and sparks the imagination like crazy. 😎

I ended up living in Seattle for several years, where boating is life, for a lot of people. Did a trip up to Alaska, for commercial fishing, and went through a little rough weather, lol, so have a much better idea of the power of the ocean. 😲😉

Velo Mule

Is that a Flying Scot that you are sailing?

repechage

there are some gold plated Cal20's

and in Newport Harbor- Lido 14's

Super Sabots go back to the 1960's, the guy who owned the 8 metre Sally had one of those no expense spared Sabots.

In high school I bought a used 470.
learned soon enough that to launch an Olympic campaign it was going to take way more money than I could muster.

I have a Classic plastic 30' sailboat now, looks modern unless one knows boats.

Spaghetti Legs 

I’ve always wanted a little sailboat but yet to live in a place where it makes sense and in a time I could afford one. Made me think about past sailor days. This was a pic I recently got from a friend of me on a shipmate’s boat a long long time ago. He lived on the boat in Alameda, not far from where our ship often moored. We spent a lot of time on the Bay in that boat, 38’ Alden yawl. When he got posted to Monterey, I helped him sail it down there.

Also @Classtime has a cool boat.

bark_eater 

I'm behind the camera. Pops has his game face on and I'm sure we brought home another engraved nut dish.


Glory days.

The present reckoning.

TiHabanero

Virtually grew up on the water, in the swamp and playing in criks. Learned sailing on the Sunfish at the local yacht club, but couldn't afford to be a member so after the lessons that was it for sailing until I was in the Navy. Sailed something that was rented out on base, no clue what it was, but it took two of us to handle it. I don't like power craft. They pollute the water, make too much noise, and stink up the air. I like quiet and clean, much like some of the others here.

Sailed the pacific with Uncle Sam, went up to the Bering Straits and encountered some seriously rough seas and some serious cold! Didn't even bring fresh air into the engine room because it was too cold for us to be comfortable. Sailed the outer edges of a hurricane on our 972 foot "boat" and we were walking on the bulkheads. Rougher than the Straits that day for sure. I love the water, and am in love with the seas. Brandy is a fine girl, but is no match for the draw of the sea.

obrentharris 

I learned on El Toros as a kid. In college I sailed every week with a professor who had a 35 foot Lion, also sailed an International One Design a couple times. After college I raced in a little local Laser series in a borrowed boat and was the trapeze man on a Laser II on storm days: On light wind days the captain would replace me with a pretty sub-110 Lb. girl! I took up boardsailing for a little while but between bicycling, working, and raising a family, sailing fell overboard. That was about forty years ago.
Brent

Classtime 

I sold my Sid Skiff to a nice lady who will take care of it. My son and I have “plans” to build a light weight pacific power dory for getting too and from the fishing grounds more quickly. Or, he might end up talking me into restoring a left-for-dead Boston Whaler.


Saying good bye after 20 years. (It was built by NWSWB in Port Townsend.)

79pmooney

I sailed all my life until I moved to Portland 24 years ago. Northeast, Bay Area, and Seattle. Racing since my age hit double digits. Had my own at 12. (Firefly, hot little English boat.) Bay Area, it was Moore 24s and Wylie Hawkfarms. Seattle, Tasars. I love racing and small fast boats. But I cannot do it and keep it "recreational" and I'm not good enough to go pro. Bikes are a better fit for the rest of my life.

But there were moments that were some of the biggest highs of my life. Planing my Firefly as a college student clear across Buzzards Bay in the famous afternoon southwester. Going much faster in my Tasar across the Columbia River. Sailing the North Atlantic, Newfoundland to Ireland. A ride on an old scow. Wow! And an equally old iceboat owned and raced by a sailmaker. Being part of crews that were good. That Hawkfarm. My sailing partner of 7 years on my Tasar. (We practiced "when all goes to hell" mark roundings. At tight, chaotic roundings in large races we used to pass large numbers; so busy we never noticed until later!)

I sailed that Tasar until it broke down in the World Championships we hosted in '96. Married a woman who was not a sailor and never sailed it again. Still had it when our marriage fell apart but I didn't trust it as a singlehander with no one else around and there was no Tasar racing in Portland so I cut it up and scrapped it. Sad. But I couldn't in good conscience sell or give this to someone and have it break and maybe get them in life endangering trouble. Old lightweight, thin polyester fiberglass, I used to build similar boats. Know that stuff altogether too well. It has a lifespan. Now, it it were epoxy, I'd still be sailing it which might not be good as I outlined above.

Oh, someone mentioned Flying Scots. My dad had number 140. Forever. Really good boats. On windy days, you could take complete non-sailors out for their first sailboat ride ever and show them what planing is all about. Turn around, sail upwind back home and pick up a mooring in a very tight anchorage, all the while being the only sailor in the boat. Don't know any other boat as good for that. (That "crew"? My cook/boss and his wife. We put that Flying Scot on a 2 mile bottom pounding plane.)

79pmooney

El Toros! Didn't sail them. But worked at SailNetics four years and built a bunch.

bwilli88 

Yes, it is a very nice boat. My brother is still learning how to handle it. It is #1244.

Velo Mule

Flying Scot's are great boats. This is coming from a Lighting sailor. Flying Scot's are sort of a rival boat to a Lightning. That is only because they are both 19' long.

I've always felt that sailboat people and bike people have a lot of overlap since both forms of transportation do not depend upon motors.

squirtdad

moored at Alameda....Coastie or Navy? (I went to coast guard boot camp at alameda (government island)

squirtdad

no sail boat for me.... but sea kayaking is pretty gear intense and seems to be K+1

My current "sail boat" is an inflatable paddle board with a windsurf rig

Spaghetti Legs 

We were Navy. We were on the Shasta, technically home ported in Concord, but ship spent most of its time in Alameda and Oakland. My buddy kept his boat at a marina in Alameda. I’ve always been a little jealous of the Coasties as the bases are always in nicer locations than the Navy (station at Chrissy Field just out of picture behind my left shoulder for example).

Reflecting on the pic above, late afternoon sun and the long long haul back to Alameda (or TI for that matter) didn’t click, I remember now that wasn’t my matey’s boat. That was a boat some friends and I chartered for a last hurrah around the Bay before we all went our separate ways in life. I was just a passenger that day and out of the Navy for a year or so, hence the longer than regulation hair.

daka

I share the passion for sailing and have two boats, a Capri 26 that is kept in a slip ($$$) and a 19' O'Day that lives on a trailer ($).
The 26 gets the most use - It's 20 minutes from the house and is rigged and ready to go. This boat was a true blessing during the COVID lockdown when our other travel plans were all put on hold. We used it to explore the rivers that feed San Francisco Bay taking the Petaluma River to Petaluma, the Sacramento River to Sacramento, the Napa River to Napa and the San Joaquin to Stockton
The 19 is for trips further afield from our home waters. It has sailed the San Juan and Gulf Islands to the North and been to Catalina and Anacapa Islands to the South. Monterey Bay is a favorite destination as is Lake Havasu.

Saudadeii

Took a number of sailing classes at OCC Sailing Center (for those of you in SoCal), Lido's, Shields, and bigger boats too. Did the Newport to Ensenada race one year. Bunch of "beer can" races in Newport and Long Beach way back when. Just a landlubber now. An old man riding my old bikes.