I’m a sailing addict and after some looking, I wasn’t able to find any threads about either recreational sailing or racing. So to kick things off… I’ve been sailing since before I could ride a bike. My best friend’s father had a Sunfish in the early 70s and taught us both to sail when we were about 4 or 5. In high school we started racing a Hobie 16 and while I was in the Navy I raced 470s and frequently made use of the Catalina 22s MWR had for adventures in and around southern Spain. I’ve owned a pretty wide variety of boats over the years from little styrofoam Snarks to 23 foot crouisers. These days I live in a lake community in northern NJ and sail a variety of dinghies. I even have a 1969 project Sunfish just like the one I learned on. My HOA has organized racing from July to September and I’ve been racing my Sunfish here for a few years. I’m also a fan of watching SailGP - especially in the off season when the lake is a bit too solid for sailing.
How about you? Tell us what you sail and where…
For decades I was sailing on Wooden Boats that I also worked on. But with Covid and few other things I stopped.
I mainly sailed on a small Skipjack and a Tuckerton Sailing Garvey that is now at the Tuckerton Seaport Museum. It is a 1730s design IIRC.
A picture of The Adam Hyler under sail here:
I ran the maintenance program for the Hyler for decades. I helped build the replacement called Pete’s Banjo, this one is wooden but Fiberglassed to reduce maintenance.
I mainly sailed on the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers and occasionally out onto Sandy Hook Bay.
I spent a week and then maybe a dozen other sails on the Clearwater.
I’ve done some fiberglass sailboat sailing and enjoyed catamarans. But as stated above mostly wooden sailboats.
In the Navy I did no sailing, I was an Electrician Mate on the USS Ranger, CV61. A carrier is pretty far from a wooden sailboat.
That is absolutely awesome. It sounds like you’re a fair bit south of me, but if you get the urge during warm weather you’re welcome to splash around in one of my lateen boats (1969 Sunfish, 2021 Fulcrum Rocket)
I was very fortunate in being stationed in Rota Spain in the early 90s to deploy to submarines as a Cryptologic Technician. They held the 470 Worlds in Rota in 1992 and I got to train with Jordi Calafat - who not only won the Worlds, but went on to win the gold medal in the Barcelona Olympics that summer. I got out in June, so I didn’t get to compete for the base trophy that summer, but if I had reenlisted I probably would have been back at sea anyway.
I grew up on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA. I learned to sail when I was ten after my dad picked up a Super Sabot (longer than a normal Sabot with a centerboard). It was sail number 15; I have no idea how many were made. I sailed it all over Newport Bay by myself and with friends, often needing a tow when I got blown into the inner harbor. Since then, I lived on and sailed my dad’s Newport 30; perfect for trips to Catalina, and while living in Port Townsend, WA had a nifty sailboat one step up from a Lido 14 called a Quarter Master 15.
Actually, I’m on the Bay Shore. Exit 117 GSP.
Tuckerton was just the place that wanted the boat when we deemed it done. The Hyler had a good run, but we kept getting older and the boat needed a major rebuild to keep going.
We were still calking it old school with cotton. A fiberglass glass covered wooden boat was buildable for only a little more than a rebuild and a lot easier to maintain.
I learned to sail in high school when a neighbor and his wife needed a third to race their Lightning. Crewed for them what seemed like every summer weekend through college. I do miss little sailboats…
I don’t have an exit - too far north and west. You can use 142B, 144B or 153B but you still have a 45 minute ride from any of them 
Lightnings scare me. Breaking anything on that boat costs at least a mortgage payment.
I’m glad to see another sailing fanatic here, and as you’re a relatively new join, let me say “welcome aboard”!
My favoured sailing area has always been in the incredibly beautiful Georgian Bay and North Channel area, but when I owned a sailboat it was moored in the southern part of Lake Huron for practical reasons.
I became interested in sailing because of going sailing with some of my friends who had beautiful big sailboats in the 29 and 32 foot range. So I took a sailing course, and there was one occasion when I was at the helm and we were tacking against strong winds and heavy waves and I could literally feel the power of the wind and the power of the boat responding like a live thing, soaring through the waves as spray dashed over the bow. At that moment I fell in love with sailing.
When I bought my own boat it was a Tanzer 7.5 – a very modest craft, as in the picture. I always aspired to a larger boat with an inboard diesel and wheel steering but, alas, other life priorities intervened. Although it turned out that the Tanzer 7.5 was a very popular boat in certain racing circles, so after owning it for a number of years I ended up selling it for more than I had originally paid for it.
My most adventurous sailing stories are all around purchasing the boat from its location in the southern part of Georgian Bay, and sailing it over the course of a week over the northern peninsula between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron to its home port in southern Lake Huron. My only sailing experience of note until then had been that one sailing course, and my friend who was with me had no sailing experience at all!
We made it, and had lots of fun, along with some scary experiences like getting lost and almost getting grounded on rocks in a small inlet when the anchor dragged in a strong wind!
When I was a kid, my best friend and I weren’t allowed to solo the Sunfish because it took both of us to right it after a capsize (which we did often and on purpose - getting wet was half the fun). When we got heavy enough, probably around age 10, we were allowed to solo. I remember thinking “holy shit, I’m a pirate!” and that was the moment that I fell in love with sailing. Even today I see racing as just a more structured way of “playing pirate”.
When I was in my 30s I bought a Precision 21 that I kept on Greenwood Lake (half in NJ, half in NY). I still consider that the best all around sailboat I’ve ever owned. I convinced my wife at the time that all I wanted for my birthday was to have a weekend on the boat by myself. I had a Jolly Roger that I hoisted up to the spreaders and I’d go anchor out on the NY side of the lake and spend the weekend drinking dark rum and chasing down anything with a sail for an impromptu race.
You put me on a sailboat and I instantly become a 10 yr old boy again.