The East Coast 31 yacht was doing its best to pierce a southerly buster about five nautical miles north-east of Sydney Heads. Each time the bow fell into the foaming sea a stinging blast of saltwater was whipped at 40-plus knots into our straining faces. Captain Eddie was hollering orders: "Reef the main sail - drop the jib!" The black sky above broke and rain came bucketing down, merging with the horizontal attack by wind and waves on our battered progress.

Moonraker ploughed on, keeling over towards 90 degrees - through blurred vision the tip of her mast seemed to decapitate the biggest waves as we tacked into the storm. The deck we had been standing on rolled into an almost vertical wall. We clung to it with the full length of our bodies, anchored by sodden toes and suspended from crooked fingers.

The white-horsed sea galloped past... So this was sailing? That stormy entrance to Sydney Harbour was a memorable part of my introduction to the sport that entered Australian sporting mythology when John Bertrand - bankrolled by Alan Bond - skippered Ben Lexcen's winged keel to win the America's Cup. A few hours later then Prime Minister Bob Hawke described as "a bum" any boss who sacked someone for having a celebratory sickie on that great day.

Thus enshrined in our nation's history, thousands of youngsters were enrolled in sailing schools around the country, graduating from sabots to moths and catamarans to yachts. But if you've never experienced the rush of feeling a hull or deck lift beneath you when a sail, pregnant with wind, pushes the craft you are riding across the waves - if you've never been fascinated by the umbilical-like wake that spills from a motorless stern - Sydney Harbour's many sailing schools can help you make amends.

And you don't have to harbour Bertrand-like ambitions to admire Sydney's spectacular skyline from the deck of a sleek yacht. The Sunsail Maritime Academy offers a range of Australian Yachting Federation accredited courses that begin with a one-day Introduction to Sailing.

But before you sign up for your introduction I recommend you join one of Sunsail's Wednesday evening Twilight Sailing sessions. As a bowman on Captain Eddie's Moonraker I used to enjoy Gosford Sailing Club's Twilight Series more than the serious Sunday races. No spinnakers were allowed in the twilight races so instead of being below packing the spinnaker bag (a lot like being in the kitchen at a party) I could be up on deck with the rest of the crew sipping beer on a long starboard tack.

Twilight sailing on Sydney Harbour in summer is one of those "life doesn't get any better than this" experiences and you can find out why, every Wednesday from November through March. Hop aboard one of Sunsail's Jeanneau or Farr yachts for two hours of exhilarating fun as the sun sets against Sydney Tower, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

When you've rounded the last marker and crossed the finish line you'll discover that full-blown socialising is one way the sailing fraternity recovers from grinding winches and wrestling ropes. Sunsail's Wednesday evening barbeques at the Lavender Bay boathouse are a great way to end your twilight adventure.

With your appetite whet, you'll probably want to return for the Introduction to Sailing course on the weekend. You'll be taught the basics in a hands-on, fun day out on the water. You'll learn elementary sailing terminology and principles, how to tack and gybe, sail trimming, winch operation, what safety equipment is on board - and hopefully how to avoid having to use it!

If you're hooked, Sunsail's two days and one night Preparing to Charter course could be your next challenge. This will prepare you to charter your own yacht during an idyllic escape on Sydney Harbour, or further afield at popular sailing destinations like Queensland's Whitsunday Islands. And who knows? With a bit more experience you could be crewing in the Gosford to Lord Howe Island or Sydney to Hobart Race? I'll never forget our dawn arrival at Lord Howe on Moonraker. Captain Eddie mustered the crew on deck just in time to see the sun rise over a lagoon-encircled paradise dominated by two cloud-shrouded peaks - Lydgbird and Gower.

It was quite a contrast to our stormy entrance to Sydney Harbour, but by then I'd learned that in sailing the rough passages are what makes those "smooth sailing" moments so very special.

Story by Phillip Hunter