My Dad was introduced to sailing by Boy Scouts in Baltimore.
During WW-II as a POW he was on many escape lists due to his sailing "experience" and training as a Navigator and B-17 Pilot.
Plans were to steal a boat and cross the Baltic... No one, not one escape from Stalag Luft One.

He came home thanks to the Russians and Patton to marry and start a family...and buy a boat, sell it, buy another...

I remenber a 30' steel sloop Steady Girl, out of Hartge's, West River YC. I was 3-4 and my sister an infant. My mother went along but must have hated it. Two kids on a small boat in the Chesapeake summers.

My first boat was a Penguin #6116, I think, at 11 and now 50 years later am still hooked. Racing, cruising, windsurfers, there is always a boat.

It may be in-the-blood as on my mother's side there were some real sailors in the early 1700s but I blame Dad.
He once regretted teaching me to sail saying "now you will be poor all your life..."
Maybe, but I can feel my blood pressure fall as I start down the dock.

Kevin