Sailing Is Fun!: A Beginners Manual For Young Sailors (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781438247663)

Charles D. "Chuck" Dawson is a retired Michigan lawyer and California real estate broker. Chuck's earliest memories include sailing on Stony Lake in Oceana County on Michigan's west coast. He had his own boat at age 16, which proved both blessing and a curse. The 16 foot all-wood scow proved profoundly labor absorbing, and had an annoying tendency to leak rather badly. He named his boat the "Cannon Ball" because both the boat and the iron round ball seemed to have similar propensities upon contacting water - both tended to go to the bottom. Chuck continued to sail long after the "Cannon Ball" contracted terminal dry-rot and went to sailboat Valhalla. Over the years, he has sailed many boats, Interlakes, Hobie Cats, Porpoises, and Butterflys to name a few. When Chuck thought about teaching his grandson, Caleb, how to sail, he looked about carefully for an instruction book for the boy as an aid to learning, but found nothing suitable in book stores or on line. When told of the dilemma, Caleb responded, "Well, Grandpa, you know how to sail, so you could write a book like that yourself". "Out of the mouths of babes", as it were, this book was born. In its original form, the books pages were housed in plastic sleeves in a 3-ring notebook, and were rather student-specific. On the advice of friends, and with the strong encouragement of his wife, Linda, Chuck re-wrote the work as a commercial offering, renaming the volume "Sailing is Fun - A Beginners Manual for Young Sailors", in hopes that other young people may learn about sailing, and come to love it as he does.