Learning to Sail

Ian's first sailing experience was as a 12 years old when his parents hired a 12 foot gaff rigged clinker built dinghy to watch wildlife on the Norfolk Broads.  He found it totally exhilarating.  Soon afterwards his father bought an old Cadet dinghy for him to sail on several holidays on the South Coast.  His father found that he was too big to crew in a Cadet, so they soon moved up to a National  Enterprise dinghy.

Later, university exams and then family commitments prevented Ian from sailing. Lesley had no ambitions to take up water sports and in particular she was not keen to sail because she was a poor traveller.  For a while they took their holidays in a caravan and Ian took a Topper dinghy on the car roof rack. 

Ian had always wanted to try sailing in a yacht.  A chance connection introduced him to a sailing school, so he booked a week sailing around the Channel Islands and North France.

Two years later Lesley and Ian had a few days to spare and the children were away, so she agreed to go sailing provided that they had a very easy trip.  One sailing school offered them four days sharing with a young family; there would definitely be no bad weather or night sailing.  They travelled to the South coast in relaxed mood.  The young family never arrived!  On Lesley's first afternoon the enthusiastic young skipper persuaded her to change the foresail in a wet force 4.  She felt the alternative of being galley slave all week was even less acceptable.  She had lots of doubts about the wisdom of sailing when one of the crew managed to take them over the Shingles Bank one dark night. She returned home with a lot more understanding about the process of sailing, but not totally convinced about how much she wanted to sail in the future.