...but my Dad did.
I remember going with him to buy the boat but the rest is a little misty. It was a Sea Snark from Sears. They might still make'em and you may have seen one. From a distance, it looks like a Sunfish; on closer inspection, it is a molded polyethylene foam bathtub with a pointy end and a rudder hanging off the other end. The sail is a lateen rig like the Sunfish but it was made from a single sheet of poly film--like a garbage bag but a bit thicker. Came in one color--yellow.
Where we lived, on the Ohio about sixty miles downstream from Pittsburgh, the river moves at at least three knots and five is not unusual. It is not an ideal place to go sailing. Current aside, with mountains on both sides lifting the air, what wind you get is shiftyand gusty. The history of navigation on the Ohio doesn't include a lot of sailboats. Most boats went downstream and, before the advent of power, if they had to go back up they did it with dray horses. This did not deter my dad. He was going to sail on the Ohio River even if it killed him. Then add to the mix the dam that was about two blocks downstream of our house and no matter the Sea Snark was light enough to launch below the dam, he's going in right in front of the house. He had a couple of things going for him. There was a good breeze and in his youth in New England he picked up some knowledge of sailing. He got the boat going upstream at a pretty good clip and sailed out into the middle of the river--where the current is strongest. He was sailing well and tearing it up through the water but his speed over ground was negative and he went over the dam backwards on a screaming (for a Sea Snark) reach.