Posted by Jon on November 15, 2005 at 18:17:33 from 199.159.117.62 user Jon.
In Reply to: Re: Learning to sail - cold water posted by Jock on November 06, 2005 at 11:17:26:
Afraid I really can't say . . . Before I could read, anyway. We went back to Rhode Island (Dad's birthplace) for summer vacation with a cottage and boat on Green Hill or Charlestown Pond. We were sailing around there as far back as I can remember. Somewhere along the way (must have been about '59) we got a Wood Pussy (13'6" partially-decked Cat, wood carvel-planked construction and centerboard, Phil Rhodes design) which we trailed up there, sailed on the Delaware, and later on the Chesapeake. A few years later, Dad was looking (optimistically) at a 28 or so footer when he and Mom had gone up to RI for a class reunion. She (unwisely) directed his attention to a Rhodes 19 (19'2" sloop,fibreglass construction w/ cuddy cabin, steel plate centerboard, although there are also keel versions), saying that was a more reasonable size for our family. The next weekend (Mom's birthday!),he went back and bought her (Little Rhody, that is). From then on, weekends and vacations were on the Chesapeake, cruising the Eastern Shore with one or two Guppies (6' cat boats, one centerboard and one daggerboard) as tenders, with the occasional road trip (Nova Scotia, Narragansett Bay for Op Sail '76). Then while I was in high school, he and I built a sailboard which I still have.