From a dry land sailor

[rperret]

I think there's nothing wrong with starting at ANY age. Better late than never.

You may also want to read Tom Froncek's book - A Spendid Madness. It's about a man who learned to sail in his late middle age. A wonderful read, and will give you a perspective of this "madness" we call sailing!

http://www.amazon.com/Splendid-Madne.../dp/1574091794

Originally Posted by zakynthos

As a first post, and a new member on this forum, I thought I would seek some wisdom from those who may be or have been in a similar point in their lives.
I'm approaching 60, have nourished the idea of sailing for many years yet have only managed to actually do so three times for short bursts of ten days at a time in very tame conditions (luckily) and with minimal instruction. A first cruise with skipper on a sail and learn type charter, a second with skipper for half of the period followed by my taking charge for the rest and ditto for the third time. That was more than fifteen years ago. Since then I've taken a basic keelboat course. That was four years ago. I feel nowhere near competency and think I was foolhardy to have actually twice taken charge way back then.
Since I may be free of job responsabilities in the next two years and since I still feel good when I think of sailing I've come to the conclusion that it's now or never as the song says.
My plan is to first of all test the reality of sailing at this age against my recollection of it then and bring myself to feel secure in actually being in charge of a boat with people on it. Maybe I've idealized it all, maybe I'm too old to learn properly (and safely). I plan to get RYA certification, charter next summer for two weeks (with friends who have no sailing experience but who we get along very well with), repeat the process (course and charter) the summer after and if the dream has survived, look into buying a boat once I have the time to actually sail it for a good three or four months at a time.
My hope is that those of you still reading this somewhat lengthy post might supply me with your thoughts on what I might look out for on the road to actually going from wannabe sailor to just sailor.
Thanks in advance and sorry if this isn't the type of post for this forum.

[eryka]

Welcome, Z! And go for it. If we could do it, so could you.

My husband grew up in dryland Kansas, first time EVER on a sailboat he was 50. One-week liveaboard learn-to-sail course in the Caribbean, and many books later he's developed a lot of expertise ... we've now lived aboard our 33-footer for 5 years and he coaches sailing at the U.S Naval Academy. Not bad for a farm boy!

Rememnber every year you spend sailing is a year SUBTRACTED from your calendar age.

[sailingdog]

Eryka-

Does that mean you don't age if you spend every year sailing???