Aviation and sailing

[Yenn]

We have an aviation and motorcycles forum and I am wondering how many of us have a background in sailing.

 

I started flying over 40 years ago then went sailing for 10 years when flying became too expensive.

 

Sailed a Hartley TS16 and also a Wright designed 28' round bilge yacht, which I built. Raced them both with moderate success, but never got the time to go far cruising.

 

 

[Barefootpilot]

Well my job kind of involves power boating.... at the start and end anyway! I do love being around the water but I don't get much time to get out on the boats anymore.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

I lived in the Whitsundays for 10 years worked on a Crowther 45' cat for 5 years. raced a fair bit on maxis and fast cats, lived on my 21ft cat for 3 years just hopping islands. Fun times.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Even I've has done some cat sailing. Self taught in a 4.3 Maricat,(with jib) and never dumped it once. Wish I still had the boat, and time to sail it. Do plan to do some more sailing in my future. OZZIE.. Trev Burns is into sailing big-time at Airlie, he races every Thursday evening. A sail is just an adjustable vertical wing afterall..................

 

 

[Guest brentc]

Had a Sparrow, Sabre, Hobie 14, Bethwaite 14 (B14) and my family had a Binks 25 (by Farr) trailer sailer, now I don't have any yachts but they have a 5.5 metre Zodiac which is pretty cool.

 

 

[BLA82]

Started sailing a Sabot when I was 7 then moved onto a Laser. Had a break for a lot of years then bought a Hobie 16. After that bought a 505 which I only sold about 8 weeks ago. Will be looking for another laser one day soon.

 

 

[winsor68]

My familys sports were gliding and sailing when I was growing up...My brother and I got a Sabot for christmas when I was four (brother was 8).

 

Sailed untill I was about 8 years old and then the gliding became a priority for the family as Dad was CFI at Leichardt Soaring Club in Mount Isa.

 

Still love sailing but have not sailed much since then.

 

 

[Guest brentc]

I used to lap Sabot's 3 times over and still got beaten by them on handicap. arrrgggh.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

I've a long association with inland water boats. All started as a part time mechanic working on house boats on the Norfolk Broards in the UK. I later helped the local school take up to 100, 9-11 year olds on broards holidays. Eventually I bought a 21 foot Roberts flush decked Debutante and sailed her on the Blackwater River in Essex. She needed new sails but I couldn't afford them.

 

Don't know why but I can't attach photo's today.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Part of the transition to the new hosting servers Doug.

 

Bear with us. There are a few problems still being worked through.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

My god, that was quick Slarti, I'd only just clicked on 'Newposts'. Makes me think you can read my messages as I type them????

 

 

[Deskpilot]

Redirection is now preventing me from returning to Newpost page.

 

 

[IanR]

I have sailed competitively since I was about 8 - VJs, 12 ft skiffs, VS, B14, etc. Went into non-spinaker boats for a while (Laser, Tasar, NS14) but our club hosted the Sharpie nationals this year so I got one of those - very nice (under-rated) boat and good fun. Sailing and flying definitely go together - I did my TIF on the same day as another sailing friend. Having sailed seriously for so long made the aerodynamics and weather subjects easy for flying !

 

 

[slartibartfast]

My god, that was quick Slarti, I'd only just clicked on 'Newposts'. Makes me think you can read my messages as I type them????

Prescience is all part of the service (I knew I was going to say that).

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

We have an aviation and motorcycles forum and I am wondering how many of us have a background in sailing.I started flying over 40 years ago then went sailing for 10 years when flying became too expensive.

Sailed a Hartley TS16 and also a Wright designed 28' round bilge yacht, which I built. Raced them both with moderate success, but never got the time to go far cruising.

G'Day Ian,

 

Was that an Alan Wright Nova? Was it the fin keel or the bilge keel version?

 

One of the boats I learned to sail on 36 years ago was a Nova. Also where I came from there was another very famous Nova - a bilge keeler called Totorore. She was used extensively in the Sub-Antartic islands and in places like Tierra Del Fuego by a guy called Gerry Clarke. Search for the Totorore Voyages and you'll probvably find something.

 

I sail still and indeed sailing and flying have a few famous people associated with them together - Ernie Gann was both a pilot and a sailor of some note, so was Nevil Shute. I'm sure there were/are others.

 

I sail a 32 foot Lyle Hess boat. The biggest issue is finding the time to do both. Work is an embuggerance to pleasure!

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[Yenn]

Deskpilot. So you lived in Norfolk. I went to school in North Walsham and lived in Trunch, Didn't get to the broads much, but had a girlfriend from somewhere that way. Old timers prevents me from remembering which village. Happy days.

 

 

[philipnz]

I've only been flying 18 months but i've sailed competitively for over 40 years. From pretty much every dinghy class in NZ to Keelboats and for the last 12 years multihulls. Here's me at 12 and my darling.

 

website - www.sundreamer.co.nz

 

 

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[Simonflyer]

Love the water..

 

Whether it be swimming/surfing/bodysurfing/windsurfing or anything else for that matter just get me in it.In fact as soon as i can il go for a waterborne endorsement.

 

I was bored one saturday afternoon when i was about 10, and i must have been giving mum the S%#ts, so she suggested i go down to the Royal Melbourne yacht Squadron.

 

I ended up sailing 12 foot Cadet Dingy's(we qualified first in victoria, and finished 3rd in the Stonehaven cup Aus Champs)/Sabre's and Elwood Junior's, then i moved onto Keel boats Working as the whippet forward hand on many a bay race.

 

I then ended up working(probably for little or no money) for a company that took business people out on J24's, and i basically sailed the things myself most of the time as many of the people just wanted to sit back and enjoy the view..

 

I loved it..I must say ive been getting the itch to get back into it of late.I havent sailed for at least ten years..probably more like fifteen.

 

Might have to have a look into it.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

Deskpilot. So you lived in Norfolk. I went to school in North Walsham and lived in Trunch, Didn't get to the broads much, but had a girlfriend from somewhere that way. Old timers prevents me from remembering which village. Happy days.

Yenn. Stationed at Coltishall, lived in Norwich and worked for the boatyard along side the bridge at Wroxham. Loved Norfolk and it's people. What were they called, Norfolk Dumplings, no that's not right. Damn, got a bit of old timers myself. I can't place Trunch either, gunna have to look that up on GoogleEarth.

 

I was living at Basildon, Essex, when I had the Debutante.

 

 

[Guest Biggles Jr]

Sailing is te most pointless thing ever........why go where the wind goes when you can have a motor. bit like flying a balloon instead of an aeroplane.

 

we water ski and have a Haines Hunter 1600so with a 200 hp mercury efi outboard, a real boat.

 

Ryan

 

 

[Deskpilot]

My Debutante

 

Triple keels, mid, self draining cockpit, hard chine with no internal frames. Bermudan sloop rig. The rear locker lid usually left off when sailing the river in case I had to start the Seagull outboard in a hurry.

 

I wish I still had all that hair.

 

 

 

 

[Guest brentc]

Biggles Jnr, you sound like a big fan of fossil fuels.

 

That's my motto, fossil fuels, using the past to power the future.

 

 

[Tomo]

Sailing and motor boating... it's a bit like ridding a horse and ridding a motor bike!

 

I'm not a great fan of boating without a motor as well, unfortunately...! Went on a catamaran with my uncle one time, and the mast wires snapped! so we were a sitting duck for a we while until we managed to raise the life guards attention on shore to come and get us... a bit daunting to a young kid...

 

Engines can play up to I suppose, but It is nice to be able to hear some power in there somewhere... I know, I'm not much fun am I! But someone's got to keep the mechanics in a job...

 

Ps. I do enjoy gliding though... probably because you've got some potential energy to play around with... unless you get to low of course, then it turns into..? kinetic?...unusable?... energy, something like that anyway...

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Well,

 

Back in the late 70's my old man went halves with my uncle and bought a maricat 4.3, sail No. 100. It had only the mainsail and was a fun boat but he sold it a year or 2 later. 1984 he bought a new Sundance 16 sloop rigged cat. Bigger and faster andwith 2 trapezes it was the boat we started racing on and had some of our best holidays racing in national titles at Adelaide (Glenelg sailing club is sadly no more and has been replaced with an apartment block), Port Phillip Bay and even at our home club at Kurnell on Botany Bay where we ended up lacing 3rd despite breaking a mast while leading the 3rd race of 7.

 

1988 we swapped the Sundance 16 for a Stingray Mk-II which was a nice, flighty responsive plywood cat but it had too much of a tendency for mast breaking, especially as spinakers on cats were coming into fashion, more like reachers really (less billowy and fltter than spinakers). Suddenly cats were flying hulls while sailing downwind as well as on the reaching and beating legs (sailing jargon) and the mono ("Half-Boat") skiffs previous downwind advantage with their acreage of sail area suddenly evaporated.

 

1992 we bought a Nacra 5.8 and raced that for a few years before I had to give it up to focus on my final years at Uni. That Nacra was phenomenal in strong winds and rough water. It's hull design allowed it to put the nose 2ft under the crest of a wave without slowing it down when beating upwind.

 

I still remember chasing a Crowther 37 cat on a beam reach with so much blinding spray that while I was clear of spray on trapeze at the windward stern, I had to direct my skipper detailed steering instructions and he was also sailing by feel.

 

The skipper of the Crowther 37 cat later told us he was doing 27 kts during the lulls when his hull dropped intot he water to give a reading. He wasn't getting away from us either.

 

Phillipnz - you know how to make an old cat sailor droooooool.:thumb_up:

 

So going to trikes was fairly natural. They're not that different to rigging a boat. Airborne keep telling that the Streak-2 wing is better than the Streak-1, but I keep telling them that, being an old sailor I can't do without the reflex trim adjustment on the right down tube.

 

Cheers,

 

Glen

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Sailing is te most pointless thing ever........why go where the wind goes when you can have a motor. bit like flying a balloon instead of an aeroplane. Ryan

Biggles Jr,

 

I can understand your thinking this if you've only ever sailed a rental cat at the local beach. They have sails that, frankly you could do better than a garbage bag and the hulls are built sooo heavy to take the kind of beating a novice sailor would dish out.

 

But, if you've ever sailed a boat with a nice new, unstretched, unfaded well-cut sail on a light and stiff hull with fine edged boards and rudders, then you would have felt a sailboat accelerate like a car and turn like a go-cart.

 

Aaarrrggghhh, trying to explan it to a non-sailor.