Am I the only one (contentious post).

T

TheBoatman

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 Nov 2002
Messages
3,168
Location
Kent
Visit site
That thinks sailing on lakes is not "real" sailing but just bu**ering about on water!

That if you can't sail in a straight line for more than 2 hours without changing the ships heading you're not cruising, but just bu**ering about!

I don't inclued "racing sailors" in this post because we all know that they aren't "real" sailors at all, because if they have go more than 500 yards without a change of direction the Race Officer has got the course wrong!

And anyway real sailors do it in saltwater not fresh?

Peter.
 
On my first solo voyage to an actual destination (as opposed to sailing around in circles) I managed to go the whole distance (15 miles!) without tacking. It was an amazing and entirely fulfilling experience. The weather was perfect, with continous sunshine, and a force 3-4 all the way.

Coming home 2 days later the wind was non-existent, so I fired up the engine and trundled home at 3 knots. No rush, who cares? I had a can of lager, put the stereo on, and basked in the glorious sunshine, watching sea birds using ground effect to hover past (I never knew they did that). The only distraction was having to look out for lobster pots and getting honked at by passing ships.

I've never sailed in a lake, but I imagine it could get a bit tedious.
 
no different in a big lake or loch, than boating on a river, and probably more diverse, so not that tedious really. Rivers are far more boring, as you have very little choice where you go, but is still enjoyable, even if you've seen the same stretch over and over

It depends on how big the lake is. If you go to say Chicago, you can't see the other side from the top of a sky scraper, and I'd be more cautious about making the crossing there, than I would be going cross channel here
 
Absolutely true.

Also, bear in mind that racing sailors need to be told where to go, they can't decide for themselves.


(What a good wind-up. I see a few idiots have already bitten.)
 
River / Lake

We have a lot of lakes in Latvia and fantastic fishing ... but anyway - a few of the lakes have really nice islands dotted around them - Usma lake has a very active Cruiser club with micro-tonners / 1/4 tonners etc. The islands provide interesting wind shifts / sailing situations that can throw a Salt-water yottie ...
My latvian boat is based on the Venta River and that is deep, wide and I have about 40kms to use .. I can honestly say that yes it can get boring - if you stay in the same area (my house is situated at the widest part and its easy to sail a course just there ...) - but start exploring the river and again you have wind flukes, shifts etc. due to the trees / forest and bends in the river ... it can be a real exercise to get up and down the river under sail and often tax's the tacking ability of you and the boat ...

I used to watch Broads sail boats and think ... boring ! But I changed my opinion when I did it myself ... large sail area, small boat, shallow hull / keels ... wind shifts etc. - makes it an art to do well.

Conclusion ? Each has it's own appeal and special circumstances ... a person who sail the cans in the solent does not necessarily make same quality on a river / lake ... v.v. as well.
 
Certainly more to see on a river or lake. On the "milk run" crossing I sailed for a week, on the same gybe, seeing nothing other than the ocean and the sky, not even an old fish box or shampoo bottle floating past.

"Indoor sailing" is fine, just a matter of having the right boat. The Enterprise is brilliant on the Thames. My (when I find it!) offshore boat is just the job at sea. Can't understand people sailing an offshore boat on a puddle though.
 
Having spent various early summers trout fishing on the Corrib - 44,000 acres of water - I can testify it's every bit as challenging as being on salt water. Except on the Corrib you're usually out alone in an 18' traditional open boat with no buoyancy, lifejackets, flares, VHF ...or anything except a pair of oars and and your tackle. And when the weather blows up - as it can do alarmingly quickly - you'd better be quick at the rowlocks and pull for the nearest shelter. Feel much less 'challenged' a couple of miles offshore in my own boat, actually.

[ QUOTE ]
Loch Corrib, which is the second largest sheet of inland fresh water in Ireland, is about thirty-five miles in length from Galway to Mám; and varies in breadth from eight miles, as between Uachtar Ard and Cong, to one quarter of a mile, as from the Wood of Dún to Corrán Point, where it narrows between the Joyce Country and the Iar-Chonnacht hills. Its general direction is from west-north-west, in a curvature, to south-south-east. In depth it varies considerable. It is in many parts full of rocky shoals, dry in summer; and, even in the navigation course, having but six or seven feet of water in some places. In other parts it descends to one hundred and fifty-two feet, as between the island of Inis mhic a' trír and Cong, and between Dubhros Island and Fornocht Point, which portions are styled by the fishermen "The Old Loch". The accompanying map, to a scale of half an inch to the statute mile, taken from the Admiralty Chart made in 1846, and the Ordinance Survey Maps, shows the principal islands, the navigation course, the rivers, and the chief objects of interest along its shores.

[/ QUOTE ]
 
Its all a quwestion of the mind.For me the idea of a boat is that it has the potencial to go to the wildest place,whether it will is a different matter,but a boat on a lake is immediatley restricted,so it becomes just a sailing boat .On lakes with access to the sea via alock like the great lakes the option of the potenial to travel is valid.
 
I learned to sail on a lake. Once my father took us on a two-week cruise. We saw other boats and people on the first day out and the last day back. Other than that we saw no other human beings, staying in a different anchorage every night.

We got our drinking water by dipping a bucket over the side and enjoyed bonfires on the beaches at night.

What is boring or "not-real-sailing" about that?
 
You need to read this...

Sailing magazine article

Quote..."We were about 45 miles northeast of Keweenaw Point when we were hit by a big wave. The wave carried away the front of the pilothouse, both sides and the front of the texas (the large deckhouse under the pilothouse). It tore things loose in the captain's room, bent the steel deck of the compass room, wrecked the compass and swept the wheelsman out of the wheelhouse. That's what one wave did".

Probably not your average Windermere conditions.
 
I understand where Boatman is coming from when I see large yachts fully kitted up for ocean going poodling around Windermere!
 
Learned to sail on a lake near Sevenoaks while I was at school. Sailed my own first boat in salt water after which Chipstead seemed rather, well, flat and cramped. But still fun in its own way, edges and windshifts being rather more pertinent than in Stokes Bay.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I managed to go the whole distance (15 miles!) without tacking.

[/ QUOTE ]

Booooooring! You might as well buy a mobo.

My parents used to put me through this. Each year, after a week of racing it was decided we should 'go somewhere'. You might have well just stick me in a car.

I sail with my 5 year old son on a lake. It has islands, kingfishers, fishermen, bridges, reed beds... etc. And when we've done all that, we chase the seagulls.

Sailing is meant to be fun.
 
Inland sailing helps your wind awareness - hills, trees & buildings create interesting bends & shifts that you need to be alert to. I'd have thought this was a useful skill to have wherever you float your boat...
 
As I am very much the novice - what I consider real sailing would be classed as bu**ering about on the water by many here, regardless of its salt content. Still makes me smile though. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top