F-Ribs And Sibs - Inflatable Boat Community

Ok folksies... it's time to embarrass yourself by posting up a picture of yourself as a kid with your first boat or on your first boat ride...
Any craft, Any age....
Lets just have a laugh.

My dad always had a love of boats and always promised to get one but 4 kids and a house took the money..
His bribe to my mother was "I'll name it after you"
Well that day came, after 2 yrs of being divorced he went and bought the beast, and always being a man of his word... He presented "The Dragon"
That's another tale for another day...

This is me at the age of 11 (I think) next to my Dad's newly purchased shed....lol.
Lots of scrubbing and cleaning went on that weekend, The boat was in a horrendous state.
It was a four birth cabin cruiser of some variety, can't remember for the life in me what it was though....
We used it on the local canals & rivers around Yorkshire, Many hours of calamities/fun

Check out the dude with admiral trainers, a watch on a sweat band and a basin haircut
You can even make out the Ford Capri in the background...

I see your sense of fashion hasn't changed much, thank god your hairline has some what changed

Paul B wrote:I see your sense of fashion hasn't changed much, thank god your hairline has some what changed

Be afraid, Be very afraid.... One quick call to Mr B Senior and i'll have your pictures all over the internet

Martin wrote:

Paul B wrote:I see your sense of fashion hasn't changed much, thank god your hairline has some what changed

Be afraid, Be very afraid.... One quick call to Mr B Senior and i'll have your pictures all over the internet

Haha. He won't have any pics, my sister has them all, I do have one of me somewhere when I was about 6-7 getting ready to go boating, similar haircut to yours, but the fashion sense is even worse lol, will post it up when I find it

Alas I'm unable to post any old photos due to family/marriage break-ups etc however for anyone interested
This thread brought back some fond memories though .......................................................................
my very flamboyant uncle Peter introduced me to fast cars, fast women and boats in 1969 ...... I was 11 years old
He owned a weekend getaway 'pad' in Saltdean near Brighton and he'd take me down to the coast for the weekends in his Reliant Scimitar 3 litre V6 GTE like this one, he drove it like he'd stolen it, everywhere He honestly lived life in the fast lane and as if every day was his last folks thought he was mad putting a tow ball on an expensive sports car at the time I did ask him why and he simply replied "babe magnet son, watch and learn" I was
We'd get to Saltdean late Friday night have a few beers (another learning curve) and be up bright and breezy to hitch up the speed boat from the garage to head on down to Brighton slipway.
At that time there were white chalk cliffs and a tight road down to the water, once launched we'd thrash up and down the coast at maximum speed because he didn't know 'slow or cruise' until some very attractive female waving arms were spotted on the beach when we'd head in and beach ...... this is where I came in ...... holding the boat steady whilst he'd chat up the 'babes' to come along for the ride in more ways than one
However his 'glory days' were numbered because in 1971 they decided to construct Brighton Marina and our slipway disappeared, so our last trip out together was to watch one of the 600 ton foundations put into place Without a local and easy launch site the trips to Saltdean ceased and the boat and 'pad' were sold
Uncle Pete unfortunately died a couple of years later of prostrate cancer, which in those days was always fatal
One thing's for sure he made good use of it while it still worked
God bless him, he lived life to the full

Brilliant Paul....

Come on guys, lets have it... you know you want to share

Cannot find the pics of me as a youngster sailing, but when I do I will post up. This will have too do for,the time being, think I was about 22 at the time

And you took the piish out of me

"I wanna be Rick Astley"

How about this then. Me twenty something, sat on one of my dads hulks!

Andy B wrote:How about this then. Me twenty something, sat on one of my dads hulks!

I had the same leather jacket and cut down Levi jacket at that time so I'm saying nothing