Friday, September 10, 2004
Sailing
I had always considered sailing to consist of rich couples with little else to do with their money than search for a new place to sip wine. Then about a year ago I went whale watching with a friend and saw the sport in a new light. There were many sailboats that could get much closer to the whales due to their lack of motors, and I imagined these families enjoying a quiet weekend on the sea - sailing around Puget Sound, whale watching, picknicking on beaches you can't access any other way. Of course I still saw it as being far out of reach, but I looked into it anyway. Turns out you can get a sailboat worthy of spending the weekend in for as low as $3,000. Not play money there, but about 1/10th of what I'd imagined.
Now curious, I looked into parking the thing. Turns out that's the pricy part. $2,000 a year - ouch. Then classes - about $2,300 to learn how to use the thing. Discouraged, I almost gave up on my new strange dream of sailing. Until I found out about this one yacht club. Yeah, sounds like people named Craig and Buffy in polo sweaters, docker shorts and vans laughing at the rundown $3,000 boats on the water. It's actually university students using donated sailboats teaching each other how to sail. Remember the John Cusack and Demi Moore 80's movie One Crazy Summer? It's perhaps what Hoop's group might have created if they were to start a club. For a few hundred a year I can use their boats, and they teach me how to sail for free.
My wife didn't share my dream, but did agree to join me in classes anyway. Our first night was in the middle of winter, with rain pouring from the sky and the sound of thunder. The class description recommended wetsuits, and said we had to be in the water as part of the class. We turned our car around on the way to class and decided to wait until summer.
Ten months and two sailing courses later, my wife and I are both certified to sail in the lake with any of the club's keelboats. We've gone on an overnight trip to one of the islands, and have mastered little sailboats and large ones. My wife still doesn't love sailing, but we're both happy to have a new place to sip wine.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/10/2004 11:32:00 AM
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Well, not yet. I still have to take a very long class that will certify me for open water like the Sound. But yeah, feels good. I find it's a good strategy to have thousands of little dreams and focus on the ones that come true.
I started sailing in when I was a teenager... my mother had fond memories of sailing on her cousin's boat way back when (in the fifties??); she decided she wanted to try it and she dragged me along. We took about 5 lessons from some old guy who had a Rhodes 19 keelboat, then we rented a few different boats for a day. Eventualy we bought a 21 footer w/ a small cabin for about $2000 (which I suppose was quite a bit of money back in the early seventies).
A few years later I discovered that people with larger racing sailboats .. 30 - 40 feet long ... were always looking for crewmembers, and so I went sailing as crew on many different boats.
Sailing with a group of half a dozen guys during a race is a great way to learn sailing, since you're with more experienced sailors, and everyone is trying to do everything *perfectly*, and is focused on the task at hand. It's not relaxing, but it is a boiling cauldron of Learning. And you're doing it on someone else's expensive boat.
Most of the sailing people I've known are not rich snobs.. many/most of them are ordinary working people; teachers, electricians, photographers, programmers, architects; there's always a few lawyers, doctors and business people too.
I suggest you go over to your local yacht club.. just walk right in,they won't bite ..and look for a bulletin board where you can post a note saying you're a newbie wanting to crew.
buddha_pest
A few years later I discovered that people with larger racing sailboats .. 30 - 40 feet long ... were always looking for crewmembers, and so I went sailing as crew on many different boats.
Sailing with a group of half a dozen guys during a race is a great way to learn sailing, since you're with more experienced sailors, and everyone is trying to do everything *perfectly*, and is focused on the task at hand. It's not relaxing, but it is a boiling cauldron of Learning. And you're doing it on someone else's expensive boat.
Most of the sailing people I've known are not rich snobs.. many/most of them are ordinary working people; teachers, electricians, photographers, programmers, architects; there's always a few lawyers, doctors and business people too.
I suggest you go over to your local yacht club.. just walk right in,they won't bite ..and look for a bulletin board where you can post a note saying you're a newbie wanting to crew.
buddha_pest
# posted by 
: 6:50 PM
: 6:50 PM
Good advice. I may do that some day, but for now I'm doing the minimum with a goal in mind. Goal: be able to take one of these things out on the sound, to whale watch, explore the coast, and drink wine.
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