Men are from Neptune, women are from 34 Acasia Drive.

sarabande said:
men like caves and sheds; women don't. Their existence threatens the female hegemony over the domestic environment.
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I like caves, am a qualified cave diver & have my own shed.... I sail in winter - it was me who insisted on keeping the boat in this winter "in case the weather is nice" and have just serviced the engine :)

Di (short for Dianne)
 
Happily go down to the boat during the winter (dearest husband is significantly less happy). Winter sailing is still just sailing. And fun, challenging or whatever it wants to be. Why, oh why, do blokes who did their day skipper course with Noah, feel that they have the moral high ground? You're the people that told me I couldn't do foredeck work because it would be "scary".
People are people, gender is immaterial. Unless, of course, you're scared of women. Which some posters would appear to be. Bring it on.
 
FurryWritingDesk said:
Happily go down to the boat during the winter (dearest husband is significantly less happy). Winter sailing is still just sailing. And fun, challenging or whatever it wants to be. Why, oh why, do blokes who did their day skipper course with Noah, feel that they have the moral high ground? You're the people that told me I couldn't do foredeck work because it would be "scary".
People are people, gender is immaterial. Unless, of course, you're scared of women. Which some posters would appear to be. Bring it on.
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Well I am not scared of women per se.... But I am of you!
 
Is the OP saying that in three years in the Med he has never met any women living aboard on their own or with other women?

I was in the Canary Islands for a week in December and I met three, one woman who was a sailing instructor and whose whole life was boats, one older lady who had sailed with her husband but was now a widow and continuing the lifestyle with a female friend as crew, and one woman in a Vertue who mostly sailed in convoy with her partner and his boat.

Mind you, I always meet other female sailors, as we look out for one another and get into conversation, being a minority.
 
Merry Girl said:
Is the OP saying that in three years in the Med he has never met any women living aboard on their own or with other women?

.
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Never been in the Med on my own boat. It is just around the corner, literally but will we get there? I don't know. depends if 34 Acasica drive is up for sale at the moment.
We may be 10 minutes away but never sail there. We may just turn the other way. If I could work out a woman's mind I would be the first this man to do so this Millennium !!!!!
 
There are two boats on my river which had been family boats, were sold when the father died, and were later bought back by a daughter who had wanted the boat and had not been consulted about the sale.

Both owners' male partners were co-opted by the respective lady owners - one says that he was interviewed on his boatbuilding and sailing skills when he proposed and the other wrote a book to pay for the cost of the rebuild.

Both boats are owned long term and in both cases it is the lady owner who does the work on the boat over the winter and spring.
 
Merry Girl said:
Mind you, I always meet other female sailors, as we look out for one another and get into conversation, being a minority.
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Could it be then, that you're actually all hiding from the solo male sailors and that's why the OP never sees any of you? :D
 
lustyd said:
Could it be then, that you're actually all hiding from the solo male sailors and that's why the OP never sees any of you? :D
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Absolutely! Single handed male sailors tend to be needy, turn up at mealtimes and are just that bit too strange-don't you just love stereotypes:-)

Single handed women are extremely self-sufficient and rarely feel the need to trumpet their status around the place. There's plenty out there they are just well camouflaged!
 
Gerry said:
Single handed women are extremely self-sufficient and rarely feel the need to trumpet their status around the place. There's plenty out there they are just well camouflaged!
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One arrived here in Lagos a few weeks ago. Doing the mini - Transat was dismasted off Madeira. Turned round and sailed for three days under Jury Rig. Quiet but confident and a very tough girl.

If that had been me I would be still curled up on the saloon floor crying for mummy.
 
I'm just about to drag 'er indoors away on the boat. As is so very common, she only started sailing after we met and had I not put the idea of going away sailing then it would never have happened.
However, she has been very enthusiastic and supportive of the trip. I do believe the fact we're only going for two years and have a return date in mind is comforting to her, I doubt she would want to go away indefinitely!
 
I have plenty of friends where both husband and wife sail all year round and the wives often lead the charge to go sailing rather than sitting socialising on the pontoon..... there is a whole gang of us in my home marina.

And here in DXB the majority of our 40-odd Sailability volunteers are women - we count among our number RYA powerboat qualified/safety boat drivers, RYA AIs plus the whole gamut of RYA dinghy experience and a few Day Skippers & Yachtmasters plus a handful of boat owners.... our hubby's decided to get work in the sun so what did they expect us to do - ignore the blue seas and gentle breezes and stay indoors?

S
 
sailorgirl said:
I have plenty of friends where both husband and wife sail all year round and the wives often lead the charge to go sailing rather than sitting socialising on the pontoon..... there is a whole gang of us in my home marina.


S
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I think there is the difference. You have a home marina, and probably a home to go to if the weather is bad or at night. To live aboard full time with no home or time scale is different. Each day or week you head into the unknown. Women seem to need stability somewhere in the equation. Us men just rush headlong into the next chapter, often without finishing the first. We don't need friends or stability.. only that light to sail her by to wherever.
 
Nostrodamus said:
I think there is the difference. You have a home marina, and probably a home to go to if the weather is bad or at night. To live aboard full time with no home or time scale is different. Each day or week you head into the unknown. Women seem to need stability somewhere in the equation. Us men just rush headlong into the next chapter, often without finishing the first. We don't need friends or stability.. only that light to sail her by to wherever.
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My home is a boat... we are liveaboards though admittedly for the last three years we've been roughing it in a furnished apartment the Middle East. But like several of our friends before us we are shortly to leave our cosy south coast marina life and head to the Falklands via Scotland and the Azores. I for one wish I could set off tomorrow, instead I'm reduced to crossing off the days on the calendar til our flight leaves.

I will agree though that it isn't the life for everyone, one couple of very good friends got into the Med bought a villa, later sold the boat and then eventually set up a business in the UK. Meanwhile other female friends have been cruising the Indian Ocean, Thailand and beyond with their partners for many years - it takes all sorts to make the world go round. I'm just lucky to have met someone as boat/ocean mad as me and who is an equal partner in all this.
 
When I met swmbo I was amazed that she loved camping. We had many happy camping holidays before we got the first boat, a Vivacity 20, so the present boat, Countess 33, is sheer luxury. No hot water, showers or heating but luxury none the less.
She is the one who calls me a woosy for refusing to sail into a f6-8. She is the one who enjoys the green stuff over the decks. She's the one who enjoys cooking under way.
She's the one who can't wait to sail away.
I'm the one who retires tomorrow.
 
My own observations agree with the OP - men and women do have different attitudes to sailing. My SWMBO comes along with me in summer and has done for 20 odd years but she takes little part in sailing the boat despite doing the YM theory, and is much more interested in the destination than in the journey. Whats more the mast has to be fairly near upright and the weather quite good so the deal is that I race with the lads in winter and sail slowly in summer with her.

I half remember a lecture about the different biochemistry of the two sexes and the different chemicals our bodies released under stress. In the case of men, the result was excitement, aggression, happiness. For women the result was fear, depression, desire to flee. These are built in responses that come from our animal origins and are present to different degress in all of us. In short the thrash to windward against a nice force 4 that the men like and enjoy is misery for most women and being rational ( up to a point) they dont wish to repeat it. Has a similar effect on the roads where young men excited by speed take far more risks than young women

No doubt some medic will come along and correct the finer points of what I have written but the gist of it is as above.
 
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