# Can Sailing be self taught like say the guitar



## Underblu (6 mo ago)

Sailing in some ways seems more like an art form than just another mode of transportation. I wonder if there is anything analogous between learning to play guitar and learning to sail. It took me years before going up and down the fretboard became second nature and relatively effortless. 

Piloting a sailboat on the seas leaves much less room for error. And the wind, the primary mode of propulsion can be more fickle than the sea. It would seem that teaching yourself how to sail could be a little perilous even with some basic sailing/boating knowledge. Would like to hear some feedback from some of the more experienced sailors.


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## joethecobbler (Apr 10, 2007)

Sure,why not !
People have been sailing for thousands of years.
Navigation, however has come a long way in the last 500 yrs.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

It's nowhere near complicated as music I taught myself to sail


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## colemj (Jul 10, 2003)

Underblu said:


> It would seem that teaching yourself how to sail could be a little perilous even with some basic sailing/boating knowledge.


I'm teaching myself guitar and that seems more perilous. At least to those around me...

Mark


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## Quickstep192 (Jan 6, 2001)

I play guitar and sail and have been doing both fir a very long time without having gotten terribly good at either!. I have to say, learning to play the guitar seemed a little less dangerous  I never got hit in the head while playing the guitar and I’ve never capsized while playing the guitar.

I think once you learn to play a guitar, you can pretty much play _any _guitar. Each sailboat has its own nuances and so in addition to learning the fundamentals of sailing, you also have to learn the boat.

In both cases, practice and repetition are key. Likewise starting slow is good. You don’t start out playing Clapton songs and you don’t try to learn sailing in a gale.

Another thing with boats and guitars is that no matter what you have, there’s always the itch to get one that’s just a little bit nicer.


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## colemj (Jul 10, 2003)

Quickstep192 said:


> I never got hit in the head while playing the guitar and I’ve never capsized while playing the guitar.


You must have nicer friends and better tolerance for drink than me...

Mark


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Learning to sail is easy.
Learning by yourself is easy.
Getting great at it is easy too... Race against other boats and copy what they do.
Navigation is now easy. Download a free phone app and learn intuitively.

Read SailNet and steal ideas and information by folks who've been doing it for yonks... For free 😊😊😊😊

Mark


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## SchockT (May 21, 2012)

I would venture to say that most people are mostly self taught. Whether it is from going out and figuring it out, or sailing with other people and learning from them.

The learning process never ends. 

Sent from my SM-G981W using Tapatalk


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

SchockT said:


> I would venture to say that most people are mostly self taught. Whether it is from going out and figuring it out, or sailing with other people and learning from them.
> 
> The learning process never ends.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G981W using Tapatalk


Someone who has never been on a sailboat... never watched them sail... would have a very steep learning curve. It may not take any formal training... but once the basic concepts are understood... the newb can proceed with self learning in the school of hard knocks.


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## Skipper Jer (Aug 26, 2008)

Of course you can teach yourself to sail. Who do you think taught the first sailor?


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## Quickstep192 (Jan 6, 2001)

colemj said:


> You must have nicer friends and better tolerance for drink than me...
> 
> Mark


LOL! It could be because I don’t play for audiences!


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## Underblu (6 mo ago)

I appreciate the feedback and the humor. 

It’s heartening to know sailing can also be self taught. My experience with sailing is very basic: small boats, Summers on the lake, where capsizing was half the fun. Certainly not something you’d want to do with an ocean cruiser. I‘m unfamiliar with some of the teminology on this forum so I think I will need to aquire some additional knowledge and skills before going down the self taught route. Fortunately, there are several sailing ”schools” nearby.


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

Sailing can be self taught, but why would you want to? There are lots of inexpensive sailing courses offered by the YMCA, US Power Squadron, Coast Guard Auxiliary, some municipal parks and recreation departments, community colleges and others. Taking even one of those courses will give you a solid base of information that you can build upon through self study and trial and error. I suspect a lot of the people who claim to be self taught had a friend who showed them the basics or learned the basics by crewing.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

Mankind has been sailing for eons. The actual act of learning to sail is very easy. It's all the other parts of the equation are more difficult and take much longer to learn. Things like anchoring, docking and maintaining the boat, unless you are pretty rich.
Most of the successful professional sailors are self taught, starting their sailing in small boats, generally less than 15 feet and alone.


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## Skipper Jer (Aug 26, 2008)

Trust your instincts. If you survive the first few mistakes you will do ok.


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

One hurdle is the jargon... understanding uses words.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

Of course you can teach yourself to sail. In fact, sailing is the easiest part about boating and boat ownership. It's all the other stuff that is hard(er).


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## FLFrers36 (Feb 13, 2016)

Read how to, then do. I did this with Time Life books and a Sunfish. That was 48 years ago. Now have C&C MKII. Also taught my girlfriend, now wife to sail; still together after 39 yrs


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

Yes, you can learn to sail by reading and doing. That is how my family and I learned to sail back in the 1960's. But depending on you own native talents and your own objectives for how skilled a sailor you want to be, taking lessons and sailing with experienced sailors will greatly shorten the learning curve. 

To explain, we all set our own expectations for how skilled and knowledgeable we each want to be. Like playing the guitar, some of us only want to be able to plink out a recognizable tune, while others aspire to be virtuosos. There is nothing wrong with either standard as long as you can safely leave the dock, sail to where you want to sail, and safely get back into your slip.

In the extreme, I have known people who successfully sailed around the world but who really didn't understand sail trim or boat handling strategies under sail.

So as others have noted, if you read a little, watch a few videos, and buy a smallish and responsive boat and sail the living daylights out of it, you can become a moderately proficient sailor pretty easily. 

But sailing is one of those activities where no matter how much you know, there is always something new to learn. For people like me, that is not a bug, but a feature. For others that sense that there is more to know is a nuisance, and still yet for some other folks, whatever they don't know about sailing is irrelevant since they can do what they want to do without knowing any more than they already know.

On the flip side while a rudimentary set of sailing skills are easy to obtain, becoming a skilled and knowledgeable sailor takes a concerted effort over a moderately long period of time. How much effort and time you put in is your call. The only downside to stopping your education at a superficial skill level is that you never know what you don't know, and may not realize you lack that knowledge until you desperately need to know what you didn't know you didn't know.

Jeff


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

Sailing knowledge and skill covers a lot of territory. You need to build on you basic knowledge... many skills are like that. You can learn a lot intellectually from reading and or perhaps watching videos/YTs. But the skill really inhabits your body and consciousness when you become a sailor.
I am a strong advocate of a basic structured course with "classroom" and on water instruction. That should give you a foundation to become an actual sailor. There is an enormous amount to know/learn... way beyond tying knots and trimming sails.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

This is one of them discussions where everybody's answering except the OP


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## danvon (Dec 10, 2012)

Having tried both, basic sailing is way easier to learn.


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## capttb (Dec 13, 2003)

Yep, most never get past "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore".


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

It's why I play the ukulele. Only four strings, and it's way easier to store on board.


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## 22catcapri (Feb 21, 2017)

Underblu said:


> Sailing in some ways seems more like an art form than just another mode of transportation. I wonder if there is anything analogous between learning to play guitar and learning to sail. It took me years before going up and down the fretboard became second nature and relatively effortless.
> 
> Piloting a sailboat on the seas leaves much less room for error. And the wind, the primary mode of propulsion can be more fickle than the sea. It would seem that teaching yourself how to sail could be a little perilous even with some basic sailing/boating knowledge. Would like to hear some feedback from some of the more experienced sailors.


Morning!

From strictly a learning standpoint, it will be easier to learn to sail well than to learn to play the guitar well. On our first ever sail in a 12' sloop, Maggie and I sailed right away from the shore in a beam reach. We were giddy those first five minutes before we nearly capsized and swamped her. That should have been a great learning experience, but it happened SO fast, we couldn't begin to comprehend what we did wrong. The few times I've picked the guitar were never that scary and threatening. 

Get some instruction. Wear your pfd. Then enjoy the art of sailing!


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## itsaguything (7 mo ago)

Yes, I concur; the basics are easily self taught.
Its what to do when it doesn't go text book that matters. And it rarely goes text book.
Every dime I've spent on instruction and every class I've attended, even as a youth, were very helpful. (Even in those very few times where I thought I knew more than the instructor.)
Its those with the most experience I purposely source.

Even that Sea Safety course I took with Yachtmaster, in Melbourne was loaded with practical exercises. (Yes, the easy part was jumping into the sea, to say the least) Absolutely worth it.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

I view sailing like chess. It's not hard to learn how to sail, or to play. But it takes a lifetime to become a master. 

Truly, as long as you have some understanding of the way the world works, and how sails operate, then sailing is not hard. Now, sailing really well... that is something that always improves with experience and training. But once you have an understanding of wind and what your sails can do, it's not particularly hard to move around.

For a new sailor, I recommend picking a day with light but solid winds (not gusty, not flaky). Take your boat out a few miles offshore, and away from all hazards, and just play. Best if you can go with a sailor, but just sail around. Most people figure it out the basics pretty fast.

BTW, I'm all for taking courses. I did, and I think they were very helpful. But it's not necessary for simple sailing.

It's all the other stuff around boat ownership that is hard. Sailing... easy.


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## SHNOOL (Jun 7, 2007)

I play guitar poorly, started when I was 11. I sail just slightly above average, started at the same time. If I was any kind of indication I'd say in another lifetime or two I should be good at one or the other.
If you understand basic boating, you have a good starting point to learning to sail. It does help to read as much as you can. There are several threads on here about learning to sail, and what books to read, I won't rehash them. I will say this though, there is no better way to learn than to just get started.

If you read, just remember these kinds of blogs are likely only gonna confuse you since most of these threads boil down to "how long is a piece of string," or "who has the best boat" kinds of nonsensical discussions over preference/bias.

That being said, the bunch here I can unequivocally say can answer any questions you bring up, and help get you on the right track. The knowledge base from the frequent posters brings expertise from all angles of sailing.


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

Much of the classroom portion of ASA 101, or US/Sailing Basic Keelboat, is terminology/vocabulary or language. It becomes important if you sail with other people that you are able to communicate in the same language. You don't want to be telling crew to grab the "thingy" or the "doo-hickey" when trying to bring the boat into the slip.


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## Mr B (Dec 23, 2011)

I did just that, Stepped onto my new to me second hand Cat in Fiji, The PO was supposed to stay with me for a week to show me how every thing worked and how to sail my new boat, 
A day and a half later he flew out to Hawai, Leaving me on my own, 
I could not sail to save myself and all the Electronics on board, I didnt even know how to turn them on or what they did, 
I sailed the boat from Mololo Island to Fiji every day, I asked in the pub at night what this did or what that did, 
I just practised every day for six weeks, Till I thought I had it down pat, 
Then I upped the anchor and sailed it to Australia, That took 21 days, But I got it there, 
Ive since done 7000 Nmiles, All offshore and Single Handed, 
Ive been thru more Gales than you can poke a stick at, 
Pacific Ocean, Coral Sea, Tasman Sea, Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean, 
Bass Strait is my home waters,
I consider myself a sailor, But I still call them ropes, A mast and a Genoa, 
The stick with a rag on it that makes it go, 
I dont associate with sailors on board, So all the boating terms are not required, or necessary, 

But I did have 50 years of motor boat experience behind me, 
Plan B, Was hire a Captain and learn on the way if I couldnt learn to sail it myself,
Plan C, Was drive my boat home on the diesel, Island hopping for diesel, 
Australia is 3000 miles long, So If I head West, I cant miss it, 

But I ended up sailing it home on my own, It was a great trip and I learned a lot on the way, 
We were all learners once,


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## SHNOOL (Jun 7, 2007)

now that is an impressive way to start sailing.


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## Jim Bob (6 mo ago)

My wife and I are learning to sail. We bought an 18’ homemade wooden cabin boat. I am really happy we took a 3 day basic keelboat course first. It gave us the confidence to sail our boat on the Rocky Mountain lakes where we live. I watched lots of YouTube and we did pre class work. Bang for the buck that class was well worth it in my opinion. Could we have self taught? I think so, but with the 3 days of instruction and over 20 hours of water time we felt so much more confident. We are hooked now.


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## comodore1 (5 mo ago)

Quickstep192 said:


> I play guitar and sail and have been doing both fir a very long time without having gotten terribly good at either!. I have to say, learning to play the guitar seemed a little less dangerous  I never got hit in the head while playing the guitar and I’ve never capsized while playing the guitar.
> 
> I think once you learn to play a guitar, you can pretty much play _any _guitar. Each sailboat has its own nuances and so in addition to learning the fundamentals of sailing, you also have to learn the boat.
> 
> ...


Best teacher use a boat...you must be near water then CREW...moat owners are happy to have a deckhand. Just ask if anyone needs a hand....good luck ... ...


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## mal5033 (Apr 3, 2001)

Of course, both guitar and sailing can be self-taught. It's getting really good at either that is hard! 
I have been sailing for over 45 years and played guitar for over 55. I haven't been killed due to my stupid mistakes on sailboats, so I guess I figured that out somewhat. 
In both cases I have had some level of success and in both cases I got as good as I wanted to be. I will no longer do long offshore races and I will never play in a band again. I sail and play within my comfort zones now.
I play guitar occasionally (no practice schedule) and am always learning. I feel that way about sailing as well.

Learning guitar may be safer if you don't stand in a full bathtub with your plugged-in Les Paul...


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## Bothy Loon (5 mo ago)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Learning to sail is easy.
> Learning by yourself is easy.
> Getting great at it is easy too... Race against other boats and copy what they do.
> Navigation is now easy. Download a free phone app and learn intuitively.
> ...


Thanks for validating my strategy Mark !! 🤣🤣🤣


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