How long before you're bored on a saily boat

[Ru88ell]

I liken sailing to cycle touring. I've done plenty of the latter and thoroughly enjoyed pootling along through the UK and France enjoying the journey, the scenery, the people. I once cycled from home near Brum to La Rochelle - with my father. We argued the whole way about the route; I was keen to pick a quiet, backroads, route whilst he wanted to get onto the straight main roads and cover the distance as fast as possible; he used to be a time triallist. We ended up doing both. He met up with my mother nr Limoge and I then spent a fabulous couple of days doing my thing to the coast.

The whole week of memories will remain with until I snuff it. I've also driven to and through the same area many times and can barely remember any of those journeys. That was way back when getting there was the important point.

My sailing is about the preparation and the journey. As soon as I've arrived somewhere I want the experience of planning and enjoying another journey to somewhere else.

 

[fireball]

I liken sailing to cycle touring. I've done plenty of the latter and thoroughly enjoyed pootling along through the UK and France enjoying the journey, the scenery, the people. I once cycled from home near Brum to La Rochelle - with my father. We argued the whole way about the route; I was keen to pick a quiet, backroads, route whilst he wanted to get onto the straight main roads and cover the distance as fast as possible; he used to be a time triallist. We ended up doing both. He met up with my mother nr Limoge and I then spent a fabulous couple of days doing my thing to the coast.

The problem I have with cycle touring is that I can't ride slowly !! Ok - I can physically ride slowly - if I concentrate - but if I just relax then I'm backup to a speed that SWMBO can't keep up with for too long ...
It is nice just having a ride out and enjoy the scenery - plenty of it to see and it changes quite often ... also, not having done a lot of it, it is a different experience ..
Sailing around the same area week in/week out - you know the scenery so it's more like the commute to work where you just want to get there (so you can leave sooner!) or open water there isn't much to see ...

 

[Ru88ell]

Sailing around the same area week in/week out - you know the scenery so it's more like the commute to work where you just want to get there (so you can leave sooner!) or open water there isn't much to see ...

That's not a problem I have. I take my boat all over the place on the trailer.

 

[Greenheart]

dancrane's quote: But that's the point, isn't it? The motorboat makes sense only because it shortens journey times...

...but if (as with a sailing boat) the journey itself was the reason for going, why would you want to cut it short?

So, you motor everwhere to slow down a bit more and savour the journey , I guess? Wouldnt want the wind or tide to hasten the arrival.
Or is it that travelling at 1 knot wouldnt mean a better journey, and yet 15 knots would spoil the day...
No.. it just has to be 6 knots.. it is the only acceptable speed for a boat.

Really thought I'd addressed that, back in post 50...

...whatever speed is possible in a sailing boat, (which requires the skipper's attention and use of natural forces to give it thrust), is the 'right' speed; and according to conventional notions of progress, the faster that is, the greater the accomplishment...

...but it's the mental & physical input which makes the accomplishment pleasurable...so, slowing down a motorboat won't help much, it'll just extend the tedium, because the mobo's use of internal combustion makes the sailing man's power to use the elements, redundant.

Under sail, speed is good. But it's being under sail that you go out there for. So if it's a slow day, it's still good!

I've been tempted by tales of cruising cats which manage fifteen, twenty knots under sail in gales. Very exciting, I'm sure...

...but the same boat without a mast, given a damned great diesel in each hull, has no appeal at all - it'd just be a ferry...

...the mast & sails require a little analysis and physical effort to use; and on a good day, the output is repaid many times, as the yacht travels willingly using only the thrust which the crew's manipulation of the rig, captures.

That's a big kick - there's a lot of free, invisible, ubiquitous power in the air, which sailing men rely upon and learn to enjoy.

If - for reasons of their own - motor-boatists don't have the time or interest in experiencing that power, it is their loss.

(By the way, gjgm, if you want to quote an earlier post, click on the 'Quote' mark, lower right on each post. Much easier than unravelling your own quotes from the person's that you've quoted, as I had to! )

 

[gjgm]

Thought I did use the quote...sorry !
Anyway.. I think you assume that mobos just trundle along with no input. Maybe some do, but trim tabs,outdrive trims and throttles can/will all need adjusting depending on wind direction,wave direction and wave height.Add in 25-45knots of speed and it certainly isnt a question of sitting back and stirring the martini. Get something wrong and you are going to have a pretty nasty time very quickly.
Now I fully accept that might not appeal to you, but the suggestion it wont ever be challenging simply isnt correct.
Given the Uk isnt renown for F1-2 summers, it is usually demanding on any longer passage (longer = miles, not time )

 

[Greenheart]

I take my boat all over the place on the trailer.

Using the busy main roads, or the scenic back routes?

I love cycling along back roads - the less traffic, the better. I even drive along back roads too, for the same reason: if you only see another vehicle every ten minutes, it feels how I imagine the 1930s might have done, and the pleasure of the trip is very great.

Driving in France with my old dad is fairly nightmarish - he picks a straight A-road, then regards the traffic as a competition. It turned out that an A-road full of trucks and vans was no faster than a well-chosen, ably-navigated D-road where there was virtually NO traffic.

Cycling hard on busy roads may get you there sooner, but what pleasure is there in that? All day (fast or slow) on an empty country road in a picturesque area, is really a great feeling.

Do motor-boatists feel constant, urgent compulsion? Gotta get there, gotta get there soon...? I have to imagine they do, because why else would they deprive themselves of the pleasure and intense reward & sense of fulfilment, of taking a sailing yacht from place to place?

 

[fireball]

Do motor-boatists feel constant, urgent compulsion? Gotta get there, gotta get there soon...? I have to imagine they do, because why else would they deprive themselves of the pleasure and intense reward & sense of fulfilment, of taking a sailing yacht from place to place?

Well -if there's a compulsion in going quickly then I think many sailors have it - the need to constantly trim the sails and sails to best VMG ... why not just leave the sails and get there when you get there ?

 

[fireball]

U
Cycling hard on busy roads may get you there sooner, but what pleasure is there in that? All day (fast or slow) on an empty country road in a picturesque area, is really a great feeling.

I dunno - a hard cycle can be as pleasurable as an easy one ...

The last 5.5 miles of my commute is a busy road - I usually ride "hard" over most of it ...
I quite like arriving home completely knackered knowing I've just topped my best time..

 

[Greenheart]

I dunno - a hard cycle can be as pleasurable as an easy one ...

The last 5.5 miles of my commute is a busy road - I usually ride "hard" over most of it ...
I quite like arriving home completely knackered knowing I've just topped my best time..

Ah. If commuting, then your choice of cycle-route is probably considered, rather than preferred? I mean, if you were cycling each day, by choice not necessity, wouldn't you prefer a nice hard hill-climb in the Malvern hills with awesome views and a minimum of traffic?

I cycled to work from Putney to Knightsbridge, every day for years. Loved the ride, didn't love the traffic. Exhilarating, returning home after cold beers on hot July evenings, but pretty dismal in grim weather...

...but (providing it's not cold) I prefer a tough hill climb in glorious country, much better than flats or downhills in town. Hugely rewarding, especially when no-one else seems to be able to ride up the same hills! Sad, aren't I? But it is a good feeling.

 

[fireball]

It's a limited choice unless I double the mileage ...

It's in the countryside though - very dark on the trips home now ... but I've got a nice headlight!

Oh - it's got a sodding 9% climb too ... well, it used to be a sodding climb, it's just a climb now ... at least it's 1/2way through the ride so I get most of the latter half being downhill!

 

[Greenheart]

Oh - it's got a sodding 9% climb too ... well, it used to be a sodding climb, it's just a climb now ... at least it's 1/2way through the ride so I get most of the latter half being downhill!

I found a half-mile road to run, with the stopwatch, just to enhance my endurance...

...first 400m are 1 in 20...so, I know I've been running a bit...

...then I turn a corner and it gets tougher, steeper, so no point trying to speed through the start to get ahead...

...then there's a nightmarish one-in-five for the last 200 meters. It's utterly devastating, but doing it gives me hope that I'm not gradually turning into a sad old blubbery mass. I ought to get out there today, I only seem to have derailed this thread so far...

 

[Ru88ell]

Using the busy main roads, or the scenic back routes?

Using motorways and main roads wherever possible - I just want to get there and finish the journey as soon as I can, so that I can rig, launch and bimble along enjoying the last few miles on the sea to the first anchorage.

 

[epervier]

Driving in France with my old dad is fairly nightmarish - he picks a straight A-road, then regards the traffic as a competition. It turned out that an A-road full of trucks and vans was no faster than a well-chosen, ably-navigated D-road where there was virtually NO traffic.

Cycling hard on busy roads may get you there sooner, but what pleasure is there in that? All day (fast or slow) on an empty country road in a picturesque area, is really a great feeling.

Do motor-boatists feel constant, urgent compulsion? Gotta get there, gotta get there soon...? I have to imagine they do, because why else would they deprive themselves of the pleasure and intense reward & sense of fulfilment, of taking a sailing yacht from place to place?

I don't think these guys would agree with you

Being that I'm a motorboatist, I do get urgent compulsions to get out of the Solent and bugger off up a river for peace and quite away from the racing fleets that believe it's their god given right to chase about the cans with scant regard for any other users out there, with their constant mantra of "we're racing" but to be fair, this time of year the majority of them are now on the hard out of the way. I think insurance constraints being the reason,but not sure of that.

 

[Greenheart]

...peace and quite away from the racing fleets that believe it's their god given right to chase about the cans with scant regard for any other users out there, with their constant mantra of "we're racing"...

For the record, I never race, and I reckon racers who take liberties on the basis of the race's importance, are just begging to be made examples of. Motor yachts, all is forgiven! Crush those discourteous sailing dogs, (but make sure you had right of way as you do it).




Let the court's record show that this remark was intended as a practical pleasantry, or "jape".

 

[fireball]

I found a half-mile road to run, with the stopwatch, just to enhance my endurance...

...first 400m are 1 in 20...so, I know I've been running a bit...

...then I turn a corner and it gets tougher, steeper, so no point trying to speed through the start to get ahead...

...then there's a nightmarish one-in-five for the last 200 meters. It's utterly devastating, but doing it gives me hope that I'm not gradually turning into a sad old blubbery mass. I ought to get out there today, I only seem to have derailed this thread so far...

yer - well that's nuts! ... I've got an option of a hill that runs up to 17% along a 1.3mile rise ... Ive done it twice so far ... that's enough!

 

[Nico]

...this time of year the majority of them are now on the hard out of the way. I think insurance constraints being the reason,but not sure of that.

Eh? Surely in the Solent they are all out in the Hamble River Winter Series? Giving themselves a bit of a challenge to take the boredom out of sailing presumably.

 

[epervier]

Eh? Surely in the Solent they are all out in the Hamble River Winter Series? Giving themselves a bit of a challenge to take the boredom out of sailing presumably.

Well, just came back from the boat and the Solent is very flat and clear, not much leisure boat activity other than a few motor boats including ferry traffic, oil spill response ribs practising, a couple of box ships with their pilot escorts one in one out,and a friend of mine giving his trimaran dragon a blast in light winds allinall a beautiful winters day.