My sailing journey began during family summer holidays at Rosebud. My family were the stink boat types but luckily friends had sailboats. My first sail was on a Griffin 12 catamaran soon followed by crewing on a Mirror and Hobie 14. Luckily my cousins were wiser being members of the Safety Beach Sailing Club. Dad bought an Elwood Junior catamaran and I spent the summer of 1984 nose diving it around Safety Beach.

Circumstances prevented regular sailing until a work posting to Wagga Wagga in 2007 saw me living next to a refreshed Lake Albert. I was amazed one Sunday to watch a fleet of Paper Tiger Catamarans float around the lake and hastily introduced myself to class stalwart Garry Williams. Garry didn’t muck around in getting me involved and the very next Sunday I was racing an old Paper Tiger around the lake. Soon after this I moved to St Leonards near Geelong and bought an old slow Paper Tiger followed soon after by a mark 3 A Class catamaran. The A Class was thrilling however it was beyond my fledgling skills so I did what anyone in such circumstances does and sold it for a Sabre.

By this time I had relocated to my current home in Bittern and joined the Westernport Yacht Club. Sailing the Sabre taught valuable skills but catamarans is where I wanted to be so I bought another Paper Tiger. This far better boat performed well in heavy conditions, possibly due to crew weight. Having out grown Paper Tigers I sold it intending to buy a Mosquito but fate presented a Sparrow dinghy instead. My daughters Isabella and Matilda named the Sparrow Tubby as they thought it looked a lot like a bath tab and nothing like their father.

The girls won’t allow Tubby to be sold and tell me they intend to sail her during the sailing season. Having recently turned the wrong side of 45 I bought a Taipan 4.9 catamaran named Lithe and am so far very impressed if not slightly concerned with its flighty performance.