Is sailing difficult?

[oreo5665]

I would say sailing maybe something like rideing a motorcycle.....they both can kill ya...and they both require allot of common sense...But i have laid over my Bike and i have laid over my sailboat....It hurts more on the bike.

[Dirtboy]

I've raced sailboats and motorcycles, both are difficult and both are dangerous. With sailboats you've got more time to react to developing situations, sometimes even a few minutes. With motorcycles two or three seconds can be a loooooooong time.

But both activities involve balancing forces with you (the sailor or rider) making it all happen. Motorcycle racing isn't as dangerous as it looks, sailing may be more dangerous than it looks.

I'm addicted to both but the beauty of motorcycling is I can ride just about every day and it provides my daily transportation. The boat, on the other hand; pure toy.

As to the sport vs. game thing. It's a common joke around the m/c shop that nothing is "sport" if it can't kill ya.

I'm not sayin golf isn't difficult, it's just pretty tame compaired to ........ say a BFS.

DB

[lapworth]

So Dirt is sailing a contact sport or noncontact.

[smackdaddy]

Boom? Contact.

Sailing is like Extreme Needlepoint.

[MazeRat7]

Ok, since we have this whole "sport" thing going...

Yup, been there got the shirt. Whitewater rafting, moto-cross, and free climbing... all damn near "kilt me dead". Now I'm back to sailing. All require planning, execution, and technique. All (including sailing) will "kill you dead" if you fail at any of those three. Granted the time frame to the event horizon is radically different, but the end worst case result is the same.

So is sailing hard ? Not really. To do it well and live to tell the tale, that is another story. Climbing a vertical face with no tether isn't all that hard either, lord help you if something goes wrong and you plunge 50' to the rocks below. I did.

As most us musicians say... same song... different verse.

Peace,
MZr7

[scuppers]

Thanks for the nice shot of Holland, Michigan, from Spyglass. Lake Michigan looks, um,...unpleasant and cold...in that shot. I tune in to that webcam on a fairly regular basis. I'm guessing it was gusting 40 kts, with 12-14/16 foot seas offshore.

Originally Posted by cormeum

Sometimes.



Sometimes not.

[MazeRat7]

Originally Posted by paulk

Sailing's difficulty depends upon which way the wind is blowing and which way you want to go.

+100
You nailed it. Bravo.

Peace,
MZr7

[NICHOLSON58]

Buy a used Tornado. Cheap - especially since it was uncerimoniously eliminated from Olympic standing. - One of the fastest things on water. No place for electronics & other toys so expenses stay low. I also like Highlander as a nice starter. Lots of clubs; good performance; resale is good; can be sedately sailed for family outings or pushed hard to race. Both boats are fun toys and carry enough sail to make speed & both have spinnakers when you are ready to play.

[wind_magic]

I think part of the trouble with sailing is that it can lure you into feeling you are safe, when the reality is that one false step can put you in the drink waving bye-bye to your boat. Sailing also seems impossible until you do it, then you find out that 99% of the time it is so simple anybody can do it, and the other 1% of the time almost nobody can do it. Unfortunately since the wind and waves change all the time you never can guess which day will be a 1% day. All of this can lead a rational person to believe that there is no way that you can possibly know you are going to be safe, which is why it helps to be a little irrational when you are doing it.

[mussnot]

Originally Posted by wind_magic

Sailing also seems impossible until you do it, then you find out that 99% of the time it is so simple anybody can do it, and the other 1% of the time almost nobody can do it. Unfortunately since the wind and waves change all the time you never can guess which day will be a 1% day.

So now it seems the difficulty with sailing comes down to chance. Be unlucky and you find yourself battling a waterspout and calling upon every skill you can muster to survive, while Joe Lucky gets bragging rights for traveling the same route and it was a cinch.
99% of the time you get to be Joe Lucky...