Sailing appeals to all ages. At 11 I had my first boat, Blue Bottle, a Minnow sailed out of the Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron in Port Philip Bay, Victoria Australia. At 27 I bought Flora Ella, a Moody 33 Mk1, which my wife and I owned outright within a year. An achievement we are quite proud of as it will make a nice little deposit on our first house in Australia when we finally get there. Of course we will re-mortgage for the new boat!
My son Oscar at 4 months is beginning his sailing education slightly earlier. Though of course he will not remember any of it, the salt will be in his veins and the passion for travel will be instinctive. If he wants to beat Jessie Martin’s record of the youngest Aussie to sail single-handed around the world, I will buy him the boat to do it in.
My father in-law Patrick at 57 has also just bought his first boat, an Endurance 35 and has spend the season in Zeeland, Holland, learning the ropes. It’s never too late but just a little harder to teach an “older” gentleman new tricks than Oscar who just sits and smiles. Zeeland is a fantastic learning ground with hundreds of miles of protected waterways and rivers. It’s like sailing on a lake as even with the wind above 25 knots the sea hardly raises a bump. Not quite like the English Channel where my wife and I were schooled. Probably also why Oscar has been on board quite a bit this summer, we feel pretty safe in the area and the shore is always in sight. Hopefully for Patrick it will not give false impressions of what sailing is really like once the shore is out of sight and the sun dips below the horizon. Zeeland though is a fantastic place to learn to handle your boat as there are plenty of locks and tight spaces to challenge anyone, and sailing in close quarters with hundreds of boats around thoroughly tests your sailing skills not to mention the collision reg’s.
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