sailing paper

Evan Gaskin
Intro to literature
September 11, 2007

Learning to Sail


Before climbing onto a Hobie 16 for the first time, I never thought sailing could be fun and so challenging. At first, when I started I thought I would never like it, and it was boring. I also thought that I would only like motorboats and never own a sailboat. Still, I stuck with sailing going on to the intermediate, class mostly because my parents suggested I do so. Besides, there is nothing else to do in Sherborn during the summer.
I continued to show up for lessons and eventually got more confident with the boat and was gradually found to be the best sailor in the class. When we had races I would be the only one in the boat and all other boats had two people and the jib sail, and I would still win. This is when I started to really enjoy sailing because I realized I could push the boat to the limit. I would sit on the outside edge of the gunwale and just keep sailing along. I found this to be so much fun I joined the advanced class; it was really enjoyable even though I hated the instructor do to his short temper.
I went on my annual summer trip to Belize, but it was different this time. Were building our house. Our builder Steve learned that I knew how to sail. So he said well why don’t we take my Hobie 16 down to the beach and go sailing. So we all said ok. I had never been on a Hobie cat before or gone small boat sailing on the ocean. I went thinking it could be ok. He took my mom and I first. It was so cool we took right off the beach and flew off the beach. Soon there waves washing over the trampolines and we were doing 7-8 knots. We tacked toward Dangriga. When we reached near shore we tacked again this time back to Hopkins. With the east wind we could go about ten feet from the beach and just fly along. While we were doing this I was on the trapezes for my first time. I love to run up to the front and slide down the hull all the way to the stern. We flew past all of Hopkins’s shoreline. And glided right up the beach. Sadly my first trip on the Hobie came to and end, and my brother and dad's tern began.
This one trip changed my attitude toward sailing it has made we want to go to the pond and sail for a couple of hours each day. I still do want a Hobie, but I got a better deal on a 12’ AMF Minifish. I hope to someday fix it up and sell it to get a Hobie to continue to enjoy sailing even more. This one event totally changed my attitude toward sailing, my summer plans, and made sailing a hobby of mine.