My favorite boat turned out to be a wooden Finn belonging to the club, a lovely boat that is a singlehander on the water and needs several strong adults to move about on land. After leaving college I bought my own fiberglass Finn. This has been an Olympic boat since 1952 and is great fun to sail, but hard work to keep upright and moving. I sailed a Minisail quite a lot, too, and would probably have bought a Laser if they hadn't been so expensive.
Dinghies are fun, and about the only way to sail if you live in the English midlands without a lot of money and a lot of driving. But a friend suggested exploring some of the waterways of East Anglia. The Norfolk Broads is a collection of lakes, rivers and canals that sprawl over a low-lying part of England (so low-lying that many areas are below sea level).
This kind of sailing isn't exactly adventurous, but it was a good way to see an area that's often very hard to get around on land. Sailing skill is certainly required because you are almost always sailing in extremely restricted conditions. The boat was a very traditional type, with wood and canvas everywhere and a small 2-stroke Stuart Turner auxiliary engine, just like I was used to on other boats. The weather was pretty lousy, even for Easter, and within an hour of starting we were shaking out a reef in the snow. Not to worry, though, it was cold but it was, um... interesting. I enjoyed that trip enough that I went back that September and that was an excellent (and warmer) trip.