# Is sailing difficult?



## mussnot (Mar 12, 2009)

I was recently asked this question over dinner with friends and I'm not sure they appreciated my answer.

I told them that for me “the most difficult part of sailing was earning the money to buy, equip and maintain my boat.”

I'm curious to hear what other members of this forum would have answered.

:thewave:


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## PalmettoSailor (Mar 7, 2006)

mussnot said:


> I was recently asked this question over dinner with friends and I'm not sure they appreciated my answer.
> 
> I told them that for me "the most difficult part of sailing was earning the money to buy, equip and maintain my boat."
> 
> ...


Yes, it is difficult, but fortunately its like sex, you don't have to be good at it to enjoy it. :laugher


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

My opinion...basic sailing is really pretty easy.

Great sailing is infinitely hard.

(I'm still suck on basic right now.)


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## Mechsmith (Jun 7, 2009)

Yoy're right, It's just like sex. Any kid can do it but it takes an old man to do it really well


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

+1 porc.


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## Yamsailor (Jun 7, 2006)

smackdaddy said:


> +1 porc.


+2 Porc

Learning sailing is easy, doing it well--takes a life time to master.

Cost---It is expensive BUT there is a boat or sailing club for any budget.

Skipper membership at my club is $1100/year. Liberty Sailing Club Racing and Cruising J/Boats on the Delaware River Waterfront in Center City Philadelphia


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## sailtimeci (Dec 10, 2006)

My answer is that it is no harder than Golf! And for the time impoverished a lot of fun can be had in less time than a round of 18 holes!


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## 2Gringos (Jan 4, 2008)

read these forums. Read the responses, and thoughts, and ideas, and opinions of these people. Think carefully about the people on here who are doing it (sailing).

Now.

Do you REALLY think it could be very difficult?


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## lapworth (Dec 19, 2008)

Yep you can do anything cheap but once you get the bug your in trouble.

First year sailing less then 3,000.00 buying boat included.
Next year over 4,000.00 new sail,gps,hatch,fishing poles and holders.

First year Golf 500.00 used clubs and low budget courses.
Now I pay $ 600.00 per year just being part of a club.

Everthing is easy to do its when you want to do somthing well is when it becomes hard.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Muss, judging by this story on your blog...I wanna party with you!

"Kicked out of Palma de Mallorca"

I've been hoping to get kicked out of killer places like that for years!

PS - you seem to be in much better position to tell us. You actually sailed that 23 footer across the pond? Wow!


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## Faster (Sep 13, 2005)

Any hobby gets expensive when you jump in with both feet... ask anyone who keeps horses....

I'm with most of the rest... easy to get started, easy to fumble along and get by, a lifetime to try to perfect things without success.....


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## johnshasteen (Aug 9, 2002)

Yep, sailing is like golf. Golf is a simple game, but it's not easy. 
It's also like tennis, it takes a year to learn how to play tennis and another five years to become a tennis player.


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## jaschrumpf (Jun 22, 2002)

This doesn't really address the question of "How difficult is sailing," but it expresses what is to me its fundamental connection to another fun sport that is easy to learn, difficult to master and can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be: 

Skiing.

In both sports one uses the forces of nature and the "lay of the land" to get from point A to point B, usually not for any pressing reason but more often to enjoy the trip and meet up with friends, or just to enjoy a new view.

In skiing, it's gravity; in sailing it's the wind and currents. Both are quiet and use no fuel -- except for taking your car to the ski lift or motoring out to open water, and then back again. One can keep to the bunny slopes (protected waters) or venture out onto the black diamond trails (big water), and anything in between.

The most important difference is that it MUST be cold to ski, while sailing is best enjoyed in balmy temps with nice breezes. This is why sailing is better than skiing!


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Good analogy shcrumpf. I'll take skiing and sailing over golf any day. And I like golf....when I don't hate it.


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## lapworth (Dec 19, 2008)

Sking isn't as good as sailing because they don't have cup holders for my beer.


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## lapworth (Dec 19, 2008)

By the way golf carts have cup holders too so golf trumps skiing.


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## cormeum (Aug 17, 2009)

*Is Sailing difficult?*

Sometimes.










Sometimes not.


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## midnightsailor (May 23, 2003)

Ah, yes, once again a picture is worth a thousand words! Nice answer Cormeum. ....Now if I could just learn how to post pictures!


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

midnight - 

If it's a pic that you find somewhere on the internet, right click on it and copy the link. Then click on the little yellow icon with the mountain in the toolbar above the post window and past that link into the pop up window. Done.

That's the easiest.


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## mussnot (Mar 12, 2009)

Ah... but how many sports allow you to make cups of tea while you're doing them, or take a nap for that matter...

hmmm... aside from cricket.


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## AKscooter (Jan 18, 2009)

Sailing is very tricky and difficult. You always have to be on the alert so that you do not sail off the edge of the earth.


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## 2Gringos (Jan 4, 2008)

AKscooter said:


> Sailing is very tricky and difficult. You always have to be on the alert so that you do not sail off the edge of the earth.


no kidding, man, I HATE it when that happens.


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## GreatWhite (Jan 30, 2007)

Although I liked the skiing/sail analogy....there is a theory that most things (from sport to playing an instrument to a career) take 10,000 hours to master.

My 4 year old is an awesome skier and he has done become good by watching...he is already half way to being a master and will probably never read a single book on the subject Where as he will start sailing his opti this summer he has a much different road ahead with sailing than skiing (if he chooses to master that). Much more intellectual IMHO

I have been skiing for 37 years and I only get a tiny bit better year over year but not much as my body aging limits things (although the enjoyment never leaves)...there is a real limit to what you can learn skiing and there is very little intellectual aspect to it... basically 95% of the sport and its perfection rarely moves out above the neo-cortex! Although there is a bit of coaching usually required for skiiers in order to improve.

With sailing I find the learning curve much longer (not neccissarily steeper)... as there is so much you can improve on and learn about.

anchoring
sail trim
mechanics
navigation
history
new and different equipment
weather

all of these subjects are very big individually but added together gives a life time of learning and perfecting. I 
I personally love the vastness of all there is to learn about sailing...


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Actually, that's a great point GW. There is a huge analytical side to sailing that's not there in other sports. Maybe mountaineering would be a closer parallel?


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## Dirtboy (Jul 13, 2009)

Like most things in life, basic sailing is simple and easy to learn. If it strikes that chord and becomes important to you, you will spend most of the rest of your sailing life learning. If you're lucky enough to sail often and live a long life you may master the art.

Golf and tennis are not sports, they are games. Sailing can be a sport if you're into racing but it doesn't need to be, there are other reasons to sail.

What sets sporting activities like sailing apart from games is; you can get hurt or killed. Sailing, skiing, rock climbing, etc. all present you with deadly situations and you rely on your skill and knowledge to safely participate. Many of us (sailing types) are attracted by the danger and wouldn't enjoy it quite so much if it didn't have it's difficult side.

DB


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## rdstanley (Sep 23, 2006)

Dirtboy said:


> Like most things in life, basic sailing is simple and easy to learn. If it strikes that chord and becomes important to you, you will spend most of the rest of your sailing life learning. If you're lucky enough to sail often and live a long life you may master the art.
> 
> Golf and tennis are not sports, they are games. Sailing can be a sport if you're into racing but it doesn't need to be, there are other reasons to sail.
> 
> ...


Dirtboy I don't think your definition would hold up....

sport - 7 dictionary results 
-noun 1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.


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## paulk (Jun 2, 2000)

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


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## 2Gringos (Jan 4, 2008)

Sailing is a lot like flying small airplanes, except it's not betting the entire pot on every hand and things happen slower.

But the mechanical and analytical aspects of it all remind me of small airplanes in some ways. aerodynamics, lift, drag, ...all that stuff


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## TQA (Apr 4, 2009)

IMHO sailing is some where between 95 and 99 % common sense.

Mind you the other few % of the time you need to know what to do and do it PDQ. Like when you spot a green light with three white lights above it but realise you can pass safely astern of the boat. 

PS This is a baaaaaaaad thing to do!


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

rdstanley said:


> Dirtboy I don't think your definition would hold up....
> 
> sport - 7 dictionary results
> -noun 1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.


Actually, I'd say it holds up pretty well. If you get killed doing the above list - you're either tremendously unlucky or hunting with Dick Cheney.

Now the stuff on Dirt's list? You're always on that edge - unless you're puffing around in 5 knots or "climbing" a mellow switchback.

TQ - would that have anything to do with a 9' wake?


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## oreo5665 (Nov 6, 2009)

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.


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## Dirtboy (Jul 13, 2009)

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


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## lapworth (Dec 19, 2008)

So Dirt is sailing a contact sport or noncontact.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Boom? Contact.

Sailing is like Extreme Needlepoint.


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## MazeRat7 (Aug 20, 2009)

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


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## scuppers (Feb 20, 2000)

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.



cormeum said:


> Sometimes.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## MazeRat7 (Aug 20, 2009)

paulk said:


> 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


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## NICHOLSON58 (Feb 22, 2009)

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.


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## wind_magic (Jun 6, 2006)

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.


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## mussnot (Mar 12, 2009)

wind_magic said:


> 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...


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## CoastalEddie (Dec 15, 2009)

midlifesailor said:


> Yes, it is difficult, but fortunately its like sex, you don't have to be good at it to enjoy it. :laugher


The difference being that if one doesn't take the proper precautions while sailing the result can be a knock-_*down.*_


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## MiVelero (Oct 30, 2007)

CoastalEddie said:


> The difference being that if one doesn't take the proper precautions while sailing the result can be a knock-_*down.*_


 Sailing without proper precautions =knock down

Sex without proper precautions =knock up:laugher :laugher :laugher


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## canadianseamonkey (Sep 4, 2006)

Sailing is quite simple....but I can't dock worth crap.


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## captainmike99 (Jul 15, 2000)

*Difficult¿*

My reply is, "Anybody can take a boat out sailing, the difficult part is sailing back." For people that ask that question, it makes sense to them.


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