Re: so how many iboaters sail?
My parents tell me my first boat ride was at six weeks of age. Since then I basically spent every summer in them and still can't get enough of being on the water. We were mostly a motorboating family til my dad - wanting to rekindle his love of sailing from his camp counselor days, bought an 18 foot Sandpiper 565
It was a wonderfully stable and spacious boat for its size and we had some memorable camping trips in her. It was not, however, speedy by any means and so while my dad and I gamely put in regular Wednesday night appearances at our club races, usually were not back at our mooring til well into the second round of drink of the faster crews..
Unfortunatly my parents separated while I was in high school and she was eventually sold. One thing I definitely don't miss about her was the jack screw keel, which had to be raised and lowered into its housing each time out. Total turns on the heavy crank as I recall were 99 to fully drop or raise it. Ugh!
Fast forward a couple of decades and I realized I missed sailing and wanted to get into it again. I've also got my own son now who I'd like to introduce the sport to. So I trolled the classifieds for something ultra cheap and discovered this 12 foot Philip Rhodes-designed Petrel.
I'm having quite the time relearning how to run one of this things. I love the low key, quiet, cheap alternative to powerboating (which I still adore). Last weekend I spend a great afternoon out in a stiff breeze, boiling back and forth across the lake. Total cost was whatever I used in sunscreen, granola bars, and bottled water.
I agree boaters seem to be divided into either sailors or motorboaters but it looks like there are a few of us that like to do both. I also agree with the previous poster that being a sailor makes you a better all-round boater. There's just that much more to know about your environment and its potential effect on your journey. On my lake I've seen a spectacular ignorance of boating rules between powerboaters. I doubt very much many of them would know to give way to a sailboat.
Of course I got my smug attitude thrown in my face recently when one day a couple of weeks ago I had just set out in the Petrel, got nicely trimmed for a particular tack, looked up and saw a neighbour in his Albacore closing in on me along a similar heading. For the life I me I couldn't recall which one of us had the right of way. It didn't turn out to matter that much as he glided gracefully (and much more quickly past me), saving the need for a course correction. Ah well, some thing never change..:redface:
). In '87 he bought a very sweet SuperCat 17. The SC17 was pretty comparable to the Hobie 18 performance-wise and would really fly. FFWD 20 yrs and he wasn't using it, we were busy with our own family and he sold it. My brother and me in 1988:
