How Young, plus small story....

[CSMcKillip]

Ok, just wondering what the average age of everyone might be. Let's have an age followed by a short description how you got into sailing.




38, My father won three North American Championships, and a World cup in sailing. I never got to sail the bigger boats, but got to sand and clean them allot. I purchased my first sailboat at the age of 32.

 

[Loren Beach]

Good thread for The Raftup, dontcha think? You could move it over......
:nerd:

I rowed around in a pram my dad built when I was a kid. In my teens I had a Gruman canoe, too.
My first sail boat was a Ranger 20 in '76. Niagara 26 in '83... and our Olson 34 in '94.
Born in '44.
My pop never sailed, but did fish and camp every summer and rebuilt a plywood 18 foot cruiser once. We were always tent campers -- back when only the rich had trailers!


Loren

edit: after reading over the many replies, it appears that most of the regulars here have wrung more sea water out of their socks than I have ever sailed over!

 

[Glyn Judson]

How old am I and how did I start?

Loren, Before he moves it to the Raft-up let me chime in. I'm 18.89 Celsius and my first memories of messing about in boats dates to when I must have been -15 C or thereabouts. My dad built a trough from 1X4's on 4X4 posts in our back yard in Venice CA and used hot tar to seal the seams. I remember the white gas blow torch he used to melt the chunks of tar in a coffee can as vividly as if it were yesterday. As I recall it was about 10 to 12 feet long at little kid waist height. He went to all this trouble so his young son could operate a little post-war Occupied Japan-made tin motor boat powered by a coiled tube heated by a chunk of Sterno. The tubes terminated in the transom and below the water line. Fill the tube completely with a mouthful of water, cover the ends with your fingers and drop the boat in the water. Light the Sterno under the coil inside the boat and as the water expands, one end of the tube will expel water while the other sucks it in and the result is that it moves through the water, too cool for a little kid!!. Fast forward to after graduating from college in Santa Barbara and emigrating to Vancouver, BC where I bought a 70" long Santa Barbara One Design RC sailboat, my first "real" sailboat. Since then Marilyn and I have sailed on a handful of bigger boats and according to her, our E31 is our fourth last boat. Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA

 

[Keiffer]

Slow start

Growing up in Toledo Ohio my first introduction to boating was working on Lyman's with my brother in law. Yea- i know Lyman's didn't have sails but they were good looking and great for fishing!
After moving to Atlanta on my 29th birthday I started an annual trek to the Gulf where we would rent a retired 18' hobie kat that had been raced in the Hogs 1000 and sail it as far out and back as we could in eight hours.
Boats for me had always been as much about working on them as using them so I decided to build one. Twenty three years ago I built a 16' Steve Redmond Designed "Whisp" which after years of use and neglect I recently re-stored.

It was during that restoration that I really got the bug and along with my wife began looking in earnest for my first "big" sail boat. It was during that search that I had the good fortune to meet Glyn Judson and last March purchased the Emerald Lady a long neglected 31' Ericson Independence.

We have spent most weekends on the boat this summer work / sail / work / work / work / sail etc.

We are having the time of our lives!

 

[Keiffer]

Age

As it goes with age I rambled on in my last post and did not answer the question!l I am 54

 

[Frank Langer]

I grew up right by Lake Ontario, had my first wooden raft at age 6, my brother and I built our first sailboat (with an old sheet as sail) at age 10 with me bailing while he held the tiller. I began dinghy sailing at age 17, bought our first 22 foot sailboat at 43 and now own a 1984 E30+ on Vancouver Island, with my wife as my main sailing partner, though all four of our adult married kids enjoy sailing. I am 59 years old and recently retired.

Frank

 

[CSMcKillip]

Personally never been in the raft threads, 98% of my time is spent right here as my boat still needs a lot of work, and I enjoy reading stories of the possible problems I my have in the near future.

Maybe a sticky, this was a great topic on our Catalina fourm several years ago.

 

[CSMcKillip]

BTW, my first sailboat was a Styrofoam boat, maybe 10 feet long that had washed up onto our shoreline. Good little boat as it would not sink, but the bow section was completely gone, any wave would fill the boat full of water.

Second boat was a laser back in 1978, I was 7-8 years old. Our first real sailboat that I purchased was a 1979 Sanjuan 24, then a 1980 Capri 25, 1984 C-Scow, then our Ericsson 33.

Family boats include Moore 24, Lindenburg 22, Santacruz 27, Bruce Kelly custom miniton. I have the molds for a custom designed 12 ft boat to compete with a laser in my garage designed by Laurie Davidson.

Great times......

 

[toddbrsd]

The Other Side of the Coin

Well its a bit intimidating reading your stories. I am 46 and had only been a passenger on a couple of sailboats prior to about a year ago. But those few instances and my love of Jimmy Buffet music (I know from previous threads that their are Jimmy Buffet haters out there in EYo land!) led me to this romantic notion that I wanted to do more sailing. Last November I started taking sailing lessons at OCC School of Sailing in Newport Beach, CA starting with the 16' Lido and then on to the 30' Shields and finally a 42' Catalina. Last March I purchased my current E27 and wondering why I waited so long!

Glad to be able to rely on some of you old salts!!! No offense intended.

 

[tenders]

I've been sailing with my family since I was a little kid on vacation in Maine. I initially hated it but took sailing lessons in Erie, PA starting in middle school and was a small boat instructor throughout college. My parents owned at various times a Star, a Reinell 22, and a Pearson 28.

I'm now almost 42, having bought my Ericson 32 in in 1991 in Marina del Rey during my first few weeks as an ensign in the Navy. While not deployed I lived aboard the Ericson in Long Beach and San Diego while I was assigned as the communications officer aboard the mighty USS OGDEN (LPD-5).

When my active duty ended in 1995 the boat was shipped as part of my household goods back to my Erie, PA hometown. In 1999 I took her through the Erie Canal (which actually begins in Buffalo, NY and has nothing to do with Erie, PA) and down the Hudson River to NYC, where she is now berthed at City Island on Long Island Sound.

I am the most seasickness-prone person I know and have the rare distinction of having lost it over the side of my own boat in the Great Lakes, both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and one particularly ignominious time while moored in the Hudson River in broad daylight, perfect weather, and good health.

 

[treilley]

In or on boats all my life(44 years at last count). I spent summers as a kid on a lake in Maine. All my friends in PA thought we wore parkas up here!. My father and a couple friends imported the first(and maybe last) 5 Mirror kits from the UK in the mid 70s. We built and sailed the boat together.

As a kid I was always building a sail out of tarps to attach to most any wheeled vehichle I had. High school brought the need for speed so I got into windsurfing and parking lot sailing. When the winds were too low to sail in the water fast we attached our rigs to skateboards and flew around the parking lots.

I have owned many cats and dinghys ever since and bought my first daysailor(San Juan 21) about 12 years ago. Then came the Pearson 28, Ericson 35-3 and now the Caliber 40lrc that we live on.

BTW, the admiral also loves sailing. She has been doing it since she met me.

 

[Jeff Asbury]

Born Again Son of a Sailor

I copied and revised this a bit from my Steering Committee introduction:

Permission to come aboard?

Born Again Son of a Sailor. I started sailing around 7 or 8 years old first on Northern California Lakes with my Fathers 16' open Tiburon. Then Dad moved right up to a 1966 Islander 33 flush deck ("Lady Porpoise") when we moved to the Puget Sound. A big and not so pretty boat, but it was a practical for a family of seven to cruise the Sound & San Juan Islands in. I raced dinghy's and won a few seat cushions and PFD's for the Family when we were members of the Bremerton Yacht Club in the 60's, I still have my Dad's old BYC Burgee! My sailing dinghy was a 10' Clark named "The Baby Porpoise", very tender with a tall mast, but very fast. I was single handing that sailing aircraft carrier of a Islander 33' by the time I was 15. As the five kids started moving out, Dad down sized to a Canadian made Bayfield 25 full keel ("Scrimshaw") in 1975. She was moored on Lake Washington with access to the Sound and beyond. The Bayfield became as much mine as my Fathers boat through the 70's & 80's and I enjoyed exploring the San Juan's and Vancouver Island on my own. Man, I have got some stories about groundings, fast tides in the PNW and battling big seas crossing the "Strait of Juan de Fuca" more than a few times.

Then I did a dumb thing. I moved to California in 1982 and left my access to my Dads boat. Although I would go back to the PNW for some summer sailing just about every year. My Father single handed his Bayfield 25' to Alaska in 1992 and I flew up to Ketchikan and cruised with him through the Tongas National Forest and the Misty Fiords, talk about weather!

It wasn't until 2000 that I finally bought a little 22' MacGregor trailer sailor. I sailed out of Channel Islands harbor in Oxnard for a couple of years until I got my ass kicked it heavy conditions (Santa Anna Winds) sailing back from Santa Cruz Island in the Santa Barbara Channel in too small and poorly built boat. The Macgregor and I survived but I then realized that Blue Water sailing off the So Cal coast was quite different than sailing the inland passages of Puget Sound. That's about when I decided to up grade to and restore my 1973 E-27, the "Pride of Cucamonga". I purchased my E-27 in San Diego in 2002 and sailed it up the 100 miles to San Pedro with my hard core well seasoned sailing Father. Dad was the best aid to navigation I could have asked for. It probably took me 4 years to restore my E-27 to the way she is today, but I sailed her all the time during the restoration.

Now I live in San Pedro about 10 blocks from my marina. I sail just about every weekend year round. I have sailed to Catalina Island 30 times now with my E-27. On my MacGregor I visited Anacapa & Santa Cruz Islands several times.

I can't thank everyone enough that has responded to my posts over the years, in helping me restore my pride and joy. The "Pride of Cucamonga"! I do not claim to be any kind of expert cruiser or racer and I continue to learn all the time at age 54. As a very famous Sailor once said, "I am what I am".

Here's a photo of my Dad & Sister I took in Alaska on "Scrimshaw" in 1992

 

[bayhoss]

I'm 55 yrs and grew with with a father that lived for being on the water. I have been on or around boats on the Chesapeake all my life. I bought my first boat at age 23(Catalina 22). I've been sailing ever since. Heaven consists of a fried soft shell crab sandwich, a cold beer, and the wind blowing just rite.

Best,
Frank

 

[CSMcKillip]

This is taken from SA and GTR Newspapers about my father, Mike. I thought I would share with you all.........


I have been searching the Internet unsuccessfully for a sailboat called Mr. Bill’s Dog my father used to race all over the world. I have been on some of the largest sailboat forums asking all the right questions about the boat and posting information to once again have the chance to see Mr. Bill’s Dog. The boat was designed by Bruce Kelley, and built by Lovfauld Marine located in Florida.

In 1976, my father Mike McKillip began sailing. One of his clients was sailing a three-quarter ton sailboat named ‘Fun.’ My father really got into the sport and bought a sailboat and started racing. The year before my father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He was told that he had about five years to do what he wanted and that the doctors really didn’t know how the MS was going to affect him.

In 1977 he was sailing every weekend, and my two brothers and I would spend the weekends at the cabin at Grand Lake while dad went racing. 1977 was a good learning year for my dad, as he won the PORC in San Diego and placed 3rd in the three-quarter ton Torc in Corpus Christi, Tex.

In 1978 he had placed second in the one-quarter ton North Americans located in New Orleans, and placed first in 1978 at the Mini-Ton North American in Dallas sailing a Lindenburg 22 named Sauerkraut. In 1978 dad started talking to Bruce Kelley about designing a Mini-Ton boat. The boat was built by Lovfauld Marine in Florida in 10 weeks. It was a cold molded boat from what I have been told.

“1979 my father was losing the use of his legs and was complaining about how the bottoms of his feet were feeling. I remember him going to Dallas for treatments. He would come home from Dallas and Houston and would spend weeks in the bed trying to recover from the doctors” exploratory treatments. Despite the medical problems, 1979 was again another great year of sailing for my dad. He won the 1979 Mini Ton North American in Marina Del Ray, and again in 1980 in Annapolis. At this point the Mini-Ton association was becoming very strong and my father was invited to the World Championships in Scotland.

By this time my dad had taken a turn for the worse and was now walking with a cane. I remember him taking us all to Hawaii for Christmas in 1979. By the time we all got back he now had to use crutches, and he decided to let the crew of the boat take her to Scotland.

In 1980 the crew of Mr. Bill’s Dog had won the World Championship. Dad seemed like he was on top of the world, but he was stricken with the MS. At this point in our lives things started to change. The expensive cars and houses were being sold to pay for medical bills. The boats were all sold, and the cabin at the lake was also sold. I have fond memories of Grand Lake; I also remember my oldest brother taking my father over his shoulder and having to carry him down the catwalk to the dock with Max, our English bulldog, sitting on the beach eating rocks.

My father was a fighter and wouldn’t let the Multiple Sclerosis keep him down. He was a fine arts major from the University of Tulsa and had learned to use a head mouse so he could paint on the computer. He had a showing at Philbrook Museum in Tulsa. It seemed that he was keeping his mind off of the MS and back on the sport he loved, sailing.

In 2003 my wife and I bought a 1975 San Juan 24 sailboat from the local MS Society. My father had remembered the boat from his sailing days, and my wife and I loved going over to my parents home and telling my father what we had learned on the boat. In 2004 we bought a Capri 25, which needed some work done to it, and I would love going over to the house and telling dad again what I was up to. I was repairing the boat for our annual MS Close Regatta that was to be held on September 10, 2005. It was June of 2005 when I received the news that my father had only about a month to live. I spent every day at his bedside or at the lake trying to get the boat into the water.

July 1, 2005, my dad passed away at 59 years old with us all at his side. His last request was for him to be set out to sea. He wanted his ashes spread into the Gulf of Mexico off of Corpus Christi. “Not in the bay,” he said “but in the ocean” where he used to sail. On my father’s birthday my mother felt it was her time to let my father go. Mike Braney lived down in Corpus along with a great friend of my parents Mark Foster. Braney and Mark had set us up with a great place to stay, and we set out to sea on dad’s birthday, spreading his ashes into the Gulf. We had a relaxing day back at Corpus.

I sail our boat because of my father. He never really had the chance to teach me how to sail. But I would sit by his bedside and listen to him tell me what I needed to do. Without him in my life I would have never had the sensation of the wind blowing across my face. When I walk outside and I feel the winds picking up, I think of him. I know that he would have given anything to be sitting by my side on the weather rail.

For whoever has the boat Mr. Bill’s Dog, you hold a very important part of the lives and history of the McKillips. Keep her in good shape, and sail her fast.

I lost my father Michael McKillip to Multiple Sclerosis, a potentially debilitating disease in which one’s immune system eats away at the protective sheath that covers the nerves.

Later this year will be the 31st year that Windycrest Sailing Club holds the MS Close Regatta. The Regatta will be held in September.

For more information about how one can support the MS Society, please visit a local MS Chapter or Windycrest Sailing Club Windycrest Sailing Club is located on Keystone Lake just a 30 minute drive from Tulsa.

This article was written by the son of Mike McKillip, a Tulsan and Regatta sailor who won the World Championship in 1980 in Scotland while suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Chris McKillip writes of his memories of his late father and his love for and successes at sailing. His son hopes to repeat his father’s sailing successes and fight MS by supporting the MS Close Regatta at Keystone Lake in Sept. Thanks to GTS newspapers.

 

[Jeff Asbury]

Wow, what a inspiring and touching story Chris. I have a couple of friends that struggle with MS, but not to the severity that your Father did. One of those friend's is a Sailor and a live a board. My Father suffered a stroke a couple of years ago and so he does not sail with me anymore, but I call him just about every time I am on the water. Not to mention, just calling him every week to just talk. Nine times out of Ten, the conversation ends up about sailing.

I will keep a look out for "Mr. Bill’s Dog".


Jeff

 

[treilley]

Great post Chris. Although I am not close to anyone with MS, my wife and I do all we can to support the local chapter through their annual Regatta. We have raised money for the regatta and sailed it many times.

 

[Maine Sail]

Excellent post Chris!




Currently 43, began at the ripe old age of..... months...


Check out the killer inflatable from the 60's. My dad always was ahead of the curve in adopting new technologies! (somewhere in Maine 1967)

Had grand parents on both the ocean and lakes. Grew up to really dislike the claustrophobia of a lake. Spent summers on the ocean from the age of being born. Sailed, power boated, fished etc. etc. but always liked sailing the most.

Got my first boat of my own at seven. I found it behind a neighbors house, an old rotted wooden sailing dinghy of about 9 feet. Spent the entire summer fixing, sanding and painting it with whatever was in the shed. Proceeded to lauch it in August and it promptly sank. Dragged it home and stuffed the seams some more and got her floating!! Tacking out of the cove on my first sail I blew out the moldy, rotted cotton duck sail and had to row back in.

Went to the boat show with my dad that winter and he bought us a Dyer sailing dinghy. Loved that little boat! Over many summers we owned many, many boats, a Ligntning, Oday mariner, Rhodes 19, Cape Dory Ty, Ranger 23, CD 25 etc. etc. and my relatives had a Hinckley Pilot 35.

My best friends parent also had the most amazing boat I can remember. She was a 52' Bud Macintosh designed & built wooden schooner. Did a couple Bermuda races and lots of cruising on the old green beast. Sailed like a dream and I still yearn to someday own a woody. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, sails like a wooden boat.

When I was ten my dad let me get a sport lobster license and I hauled 5 traps, the limit, out of a 12 foot Sea Nymph with a Johnson 9.9 horse motor. This was pure over the gunnel fishin', and hard. On the weekends my dad would help pull but during the week I did the pulling, baiting and setting. The traps were really much to big for a ten year old at 32" long.

That winter when it came time to renew the license I asked my dad if I could check the box that said "COMMERCIAL" instead of sport. I did and we sent in the $100.00 fee. About a month later my commercial lobster license came in the mail. I was officially the youngest commercial lobster-man in the state of NH, at 11..

So with a loan from my dad, that was a tough conversation, I bought 90 custom made 30" Maine built traps, spent all winter rigging them, and also bought a new boat. She was a 16 foot Amesbury Skiff with a tiller steered Johnson 25 horse motor. At 11 I could not start it reliably so had to add electric start a real "luxury"... Again this was over the gunnel fishin'.

I found out quickly that this boat really was not well suited for pulling traps. She was flat bottomed and quite un-seaworthy with little to no safety flotation. I began romancing a local boat builder who was building a Royal Lowell designed down east style hull. Back then they were called Norton's but today many know them as the Eastern 18. Eastern wound up with the molds after Dick passed away. Dick, a cantankerous old dude, built them behind his house and I would ride my BMX bike up there every week and pester him about building me a boat. At first he just though I was an annoying little punk but then one day he could smell the stench of bait on me and realized I was dead serious.

"You really haul traps?" "You think want to buy one of my boats?" "How are you gonna pay for it?".......

In my best 11 year old "business voice".

"Oh, I've got money, I sell lobsters, lots of lobsters plus I can help you build it!"

He finally relented and let me help earn some $$ towards my new boat by waxing the molds, cutting cloth, shaving stringers, wetting out lamination's and general gophering. At the end of the season he slowed down and we built my boat out of what ever he had lying around including the ugliest color blue gelcoat you've ever seen. She was, thick, heavy and a tank but I fished her every day and she never once let me down despite the "good deal" I got by building her with left overs!

Age 12 hauling traps off Rye NH:

Bringing the old Rhodes into the mooring, perhaps 8 or 9 years old..

From there on there was lots more boats of both power and sail, jobs in boat yards, lots more fishing including 6 years of fishing for Blue Fin Tuna. I also detailed boats and worked on some mega yachts and very large sport fishing yachts as a mate or first mate. In between I would do deliveries and race. Winters I usually worked in bike/ski shops and skied. At 25 I bought my first cruising boat that I could call my own, a 27 footer. Today I am content cruising with the family and still do some work on boats on the side because I always enjoy it.

 

[Mindscape]

It's not a great family story but it's all I got...

I got into sailing with a good friend of mine about 20 years ago. What led my friend and I to sailing was a bad step while backpacking in the Smokey Mountains. We walked all over the Blues and Smokey Mountains every year starting in college and afterwards. Every year we would plan an adventure into the mountains and carry everything we needed with us. What you ask does this have to do with sailing? Well.....while walking downhill off of a ridge in the Smokey's my friend took a bad step and his knee swelled up like a big grapefruit. There were four of us, my friend without his pack and another buddy walked out to the nearest access road, about 2 miles fortunately. Myself and another buddy walked back to our car (20 miles, arrrggghhh) carrying our packs and my friends. The doctor told my friend he was thru backpacking, his knee was in bad shape. Soooo....while sitting, in of all places a bar we lamented the loss of our adventures into the mountains and what we could do now. Many beers into the evening it came to us.....sailing! Why or how we came up with it, no idea. But it seemed like a good idea at the time, and for me it still seems like a good idea. We learned to sail racing J/24's as crew. Bought a boat together, and a second boat together. He met someone that thought there might be better pursuits than sailing, I married the Admiral and she told me to get a nicer boat.
I bought that boat and found this site.

 

[Jeff Asbury]

Not sure what the average age of those on this board is yet, but I am sure if we all keep at it long enough we will end up looking like this Guy.

 

[paul culver]

Not sure what the average age of those on this board is yet, but I am sure if we all keep at it long enough we will end up looking like this Guy.

Okay Jeff, where can I get the Popeye. Got the perfect spot to hang it on my bulkhead. Gotta have it.

--Paul
E29 "Bear"