Should Sailing Involve Physical Effort and some Discomfort?

[Concerto]

The modern sailors answer to the original question.

What physical effort?
Winching and pulling an anchor up on many boats has been electrified.
The furling genoa and roller mainsail are hoisted by staff at the beginning of the season, we only unfurl them.
Steering has been taken over by the autopilot.
Getting the bottom scrubbed only costs me £........ and its no effort at all.

What discomfort?
We only sail in light winds as we do not like the boat to heel.
The white flappy things do make a lot of noise as we motor into wind, is there anything we can do to stop that?
We never go out when we have to put on our designer waterproofs and leather sailing boots.
Getting salt water on the decks means I will have to get the yacht valeted again.

Oh, I nearly forgot. The chartplotter is linked to the autopilot, so whilst sailing under autopilot we can all read our favourite books, watch DVD's, search the Internet, and update our Facebook on being out in the fresh air sailing. On a few time a year we can even gently relax with a G&T and top up our tan whilst sailing.

DJE you know all of the above is true, but not on your boat or mine.

 

[Tomahawk]

The modern sailors answer to the original question.



Oh, I nearly forgot. The chartplotter is linked to the autopilot, so whilst sailing under autopilot we can all read our favourite books, watch DVD's, search the Internet, and update our Facebook on being out in the fresh air sailing. On a few time a year we can even gently relax with a G&T and top up our tan whilst sailing.
.

The first ever GMDSS activated Mayday was indeed initiated by someone in a brand new Oyster on delivery doing just that.. It was blowing a gale so everyone went below leaving the autopilot to do the hard work. Unfortunately the delivery skipper haddn't looked at the chart and was pointing from Felixstowe straight to South Foreland.. He T boned the North Sand Head which had no effect whatsoever on the sand... but bought the mast down on top of the hatch trapping everyone inside. Unable to get on deck they set off the GMDSS.

Ron Cannon was awarded a Silver Medal by the RNLI for going out and towing them back..

Tech is great stuff these days.

 

[RupertW]

The modern sailors answer to the original question.

What physical effort?
Winching and pulling an anchor up on many boats has been electrified.
The furling genoa and roller mainsail are hoisted by staff at the beginning of the season, we only unfurl them.
Steering has been taken over by the autopilot.
Getting the bottom scrubbed only costs me £........ and its no effort at all.

What discomfort?
We only sail in light winds as we do not like the boat to heel.
The white flappy things do make a lot of noise as we motor into wind, is there anything we can do to stop that?
We never go out when we have to put on our designer waterproofs and leather sailing boots.
Getting salt water on the decks means I will have to get the yacht valeted again.

Oh, I nearly forgot. The chartplotter is linked to the autopilot, so whilst sailing under autopilot we can all read our favourite books, watch DVD's, search the Internet, and update our Facebook on being out in the fresh air sailing. On a few time a year we can even gently relax with a G&T and top up our tan whilst sailing.

DJE you know all of the above is true, but not on your boat or mine.

That's pretty much it for us after we made the decision to move from decades of UK discomfort to the Med. The only things that are even a bit different from your description are - the staff put on the sails years ago as it seems a bit of a faff to take them on and off every single year, the hot tanning days are frequent, and of course we often sail in strong winds compared to the UK as 40 plus knots is common but who cares if you are in a T shirt.

I like modern sailing, but modern maintenance is much worse than old fashioned maintenance as there are so many more bathrooms and electrics.

 

[GHA]

The (/cut - modern) cruising sailors answer to the original question.

Wait a week or 2 for some decent wind, sails up, windvane on, kindle/podcast on. All good for a few days/weeks