# Hey from Toronto..



## TintedChrome (Jul 8, 2008)

Long time reader, first time poster.. 

After years of neglect, I've found myself overcome with the urge to start sailing again.. I used to sail with my grandfather in France at La-Trinite-Sur-Mer where he had an Edel 3 on a slip.. I never got tired of it. To nurture my love of sailing, he'd enroll me every summer in the Glenans, where I started off on dinghies and moved up to Lasers, 420's, and some small keel boat I can't remember.. At the age of 13 I was pretty much single-handing his Edel 3 while he kicked back and had a couple of beers or trawled over the side for fish.. The good ol' days.. One of my fondest memories is from back then is when he talked Eric Tabarly into letting me crew for a day on Pen Duick. What a beautiful boat that was.. 

Anyways, all that to say I used to sail. A lot. And then we moved to Canada.. first Montreal, then Toronto.. and now at the tender age of 31, I've overcome my "salt-water-snobbism" of defining lake Ontario as a "bathtub compared to the Atlantic", and realized that sailing is sailing no matter what.. So that's the point I'm at now.. reading up, learning all the terms in English (hehe.. I know them in French, but when I first started reading this site I was looking up some terms constantly), and surprisingly enough actually still understanding, for the most part, what you guys are talking about in the technical sections. 

So here I am.. no boat (booo!), but on a quest for an offshore cruiser in the 30-35ft range.. In the meantime, in the 6mo to 1year it'll take me to find that ideal watery money pit, I'll be attempting to re-adjust my life and career to accommodate as much of a life on the water as I can afford. I figure I might as well do this now, while I still have virtually no responsibilities and no dependents.

Finally, if anyone in Toronto needs help or an extra pair of hands to help fix, maintain or crew their boat, feel free to ask.. I've been out of the game a long time, and while I will be taking some refresher lessons before buying my boat, it'd be nice to get my feet wet both on a maintenance and crew level.

Ok, that was longer than expected.. for those of you who just skipped to the bottom.. the gist of it all is "hello!"

P


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## djodenda (Mar 4, 2006)

Wow, great introduction! Sounds like you've had some great sailing.

Should you be saying "Hey" or "Eh?"

Buy a Shark!

David


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## artbyjody (Jan 4, 2008)

djodenda said:


> Wow, great introduction! Sounds like you've head some great sailing.
> 
> Should you be saying "Hey" or "Eh?"
> 
> ...


Ce doit être: "Requin Weekend", sur Discovery Channel encore !

Bienvenue à bord !

Disclaimer: I know no french


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## TintedChrome (Jul 8, 2008)

Thanks for the welcome..

Regarding Sharks.. I recently became very excited when I saw a local sailing school here was selling a bunch of Sharks.. Upon researching them, I realized that they're not the "Sharks" I remembered sailing next to, and on, as a kid.. While all research seems to point to Canadian Sharks being a very fun little vessel, I'd much rather have what I remember as the original "Shark".. the "Hai" or "Requin" designed in Finland. It's not quite as safe to sail, and is surprisingly easy to knock down if you're not paying attention.. but that's half the fun and the incentive is there to hone your skills quickly.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, the Candian Shark is here:
Introduction

Finnish Hai/Requin/Shark is here: 
Construction et distribution du REQUIN, day-boat original et sans contraintes

.. Eh?


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Welcome to Sailnet and best of luck with the search.


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## Vasco (Sep 24, 2006)

If you want to sail there are many opportunities in Toronto which has more yacht clubs than most cities. The racers in the clubs are always looking for crew. Some clubs such as A.B.Y.C. have a co-op plan where you can sail on club owned boats.


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## djodenda (Mar 4, 2006)

I learn lots of stuff on Sailnet. I was aware of Shark catamarans, and the Canadian/Hinterhoeller Shark, but not the Finnish version. Looks like a fun boat!


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