SAILING…

SAILING….

Pushing the Edge of the Envelope…

It is part of who I have always been.

Christmas of 1954 at age ten my present was a large bag under the tree.  In the bag was a sail to a ‘Moth Class Sailboat’.  The boat was in the garage.  It was beautiful. It had a mahogany veneered hull hand built by Fenton who was about to beginning medical school at Emory ironically more than a decade before I went.  Fent had just won the Florida State Title for the Moth Class.  It was fast as the sailing students at Rollins College would attest.  They sailed ‘Lightening Class Sailboats’ which were about five feet longer.  My friends and I sailed Lake Virginia regularly.  

Sailing reflects life.  There are times running with the wind that are peaceful and serene.  Then there is the thrill of sailing ‘close hauled’ when the sails are vibrating, the metal stays are humming and water is lapping over the edge of the decks.  Like most sailors I love that feeling when everything is taut and humming.  

A few years later when Jan and I got married we honeymooned in the Bahamas.  We had the use of a Hobie Sailboat.  That is when I taught Jan to sail.  I dropped a secured line off the stern.  “Jan I want you to drag me,” I said.  “If I drop off just let go of everything: the rudder and the sheet (which controls the sail).  The boat will stop.”  She hauled me around until I had enough.  JAN WAS A SPORT.

When we moved back to Florida, I bought a 24 foot San Juan Sloop.  Amy and Erin both sailed on Lake Harris when they were toddlers.  We even sailed in the Atlantic  Ocean at New Smyrna Beach.  I realized that sailing was not going to be a family hobby. Eventually we owned ‘power boats’.  Which to a ‘sailor’ was almost an apostasy.  About the same time I was into soaring (sailplanes).  They ultimately would join me snow skiing.  That pushed the edge of ‘their envelopes.’ 

The Canvas Can Do Miracles….

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