My other love is sailing and being in Herts gives me lots of options. I can pop to the Essex coast, Grafham water or Rutland. I keep my boaty boat at Stewartby sailing lake near Bedford which is a nice sailing area and close to me plus it is big enough to get some rip roaring speed out of my rocket without an engine.
She is a Prindle 16 (our American friends will probably know this class) and she is a catamaran. She is as fast as a small speed boat even though she is 27 years old (I like the younger woman!!!)
Everyone remarks on the colourful sail.
It wasn't very windy on this outing.
I have been sailing since I was 9 yrs old. I am now nearly 40 and still cannot get enough of that speed without an engine type thing.
Sailing brought me into contact with youth groups and schools as I am a qualified dinghy instructor so I have been able to be part of a lot of young persons lives and know that some of them have gone on to great things in the sailing world.
My friends in St. Ives, Cornwall bought a little boat and asked me to teach them. One of them is now the 2009 Vago national champion. That makes it all worth while for me and one of the reasons to carry on.
Best wishes to all here.
Ollie
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