I lived sailing for many years, still have a great love for the whole
sailing life.   Just yesterday I was surfing around for tri designs on the
net, toying with maybe buiding one for myself now that I am getting a bit
older.
  I grew up sailing dingys and crewing on racing sailboats around Southern
Cal.  My first wife was a sailor from back east, spent a few seasons working
the Carribean charter trade on the famous Hereshoff ketch Ticonderoga.  One
fall I got a gig delivering a little 36' sloop (fiberglass) from Cambden,
Maine to Buzzard's Bay and Big Ti (as Ticonderoga was called by the
eastcoast yachties) happened to be in the harbor in Cambden...Beth, my
former wife, wanted to hide below so McKenzie (Ti's owner) would not see her
aboard a "Ping pong ball".....I made here take us aboard to get a look at
that spectacular yacht...
   When she decided to get her degree we moved to Puget Sound and while she
went to school I got my dream job working as a  boatbuilder.  I found a yard
where the owner just happened to be a great sailor and quite well  off
(Albertson's Markets)  He was just starting a 46' Doug Peterson design IOR
race boat, so I got to build that and then became one of the (paid) crew
when I wasn't building boats in the yard.  We became one of the scratch
boats in the fleet, often sailing for first to finish in the races around
the NW.  Weekends when we weren't racing the Big Boat, me and a few others
were often "Rock-Jocks" on other big boats who's owners needed expert (semi)
professional crew to win races..SC 50s, 40s, custom IOR boats, etc.
  I also learned traditional wooden boat construction from a master
Norwegian  builder who'd apprenticed in Norway and was willing to apprentice
me at the shop in exchange for me teaching him cold moulding and Epoxy/wood
construction techniques.
  Working for 5 years in that full service boatyard gave me a great
understanding of all aspects of sailing and powerboating..I certainly know
that it is not as romantic as it sounds when you read all the sailing
magazines.  And boats are similar to live creatures....Unlike a vanagon that
you can't just run it into a garage somewhere and let it sit.  And you don't
get to just pull over to the curb and figure out some problem or get on the
Vanagon list and ask for help....many sailing crisis are life endangering or
at least risking the loss of the whole boat if you mess up some seemingly
minor way..
  pretty fun struff though, ramming along under the spinniker in the middle
of the night in an ULDB at 20knots, surfing a 60' Sled full of people down
huge invisible waves...Yahoo!
  Don Hanson

On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 6:34 PM, craig cowan <phishman068@gmail.com> wrote:

> As the title says,
> Who on here is an avid boater (in any discipline)?
>
> Its friday.
> Why not?
>
> -Craig
>