The joy of the Solent

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They are just full of hooray henrys, chinless wonders, and folk that want to coo-ee and wave to each other....

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Well I went to Cowes, Newtown, Yarmouth, Lymington, Beaulieu and the Hamble this weekend and didn't see anyone resembling that description.

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Obviously you missed me when you got to the Hamble then!
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I'd reather sail almost every W/E in the season, and a few W/Es out of season, than 5 or 6 times a year because it's a 5 or 6 hour drive to my boat. So I choose to sail 2 hours from where I live.

Those folk who either live close enough to their chosen sailing area or can move to be close are very lucky IMO.

Of course when I retire it won't matter that it's a 6 hour drive, the 6 visits can be a month or more each.
 
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didn't see anyone resembling that description.

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That's because I didn't get down to the boat this weekend. All those plebs at the Boat Jumble, y'know.......... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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I wondered who was buying all the bent gear! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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Those folk who either live close enough to their chosen sailing area or can move to be close are very lucky IMO.



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Many of us have made the decision to live on the coast rather than take better paid jobs elsewhere, in my case several times during my 'career'. Why anyone would live hours away from where they want to be for a few extra quid I don't know!
 
Ended up here by accident about 25 years ago miles from either of our families. But now we're two miles from the mooring and I have been known to cycle to the boatyard with a pair of oars tied to the crossbar. Wouldn't want to live anywhere else at the moment.
 
This anti-Solent snobbery is starting to get on my tits. Okay, it gets busy and could save money by being elsewhere but frankly, why would I want to? For those of us in the unfortuinate position of needing to be gainfully employed to fund ones boating, the Solent is perfect as it offersplenty of variety in terms of cruising destination and racing competition and there is somewhere to go wheter I have just the day, a weekend or a week.

Dont get me wrong, I can think of plentyof other places I would love to explore, but this attitude of 'you can't be a real sailor unless...' is bollocks. A recent thread bought up many different facetts of sailing in the Solent that you are highly unlikely to experience virtually anywhere else.

Half the time this attitude is simply just a d*#k waving contest for the socially dysfunctional.
 
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This anti-Solent snobbery is starting to get on my tits. Okay, it gets busy and could save money by being elsewhere but frankly, why would I want to? For those of us in the unfortuinate position of needing to be gainfully employed to fund ones boating, the Solent is perfect as it offersplenty of variety in terms of cruising destination and racing competition and there is somewhere to go wheter I have just the day, a weekend or a week.

Dont get me wrong, I can think of plentyof other places I would love to explore, but this attitude of 'you can't be a real sailor unless...' is bollocks. A recent thread bought up many different facetts of sailing in the Solent that you are highly unlikely to experience virtually anywhere else.

Half the time this attitude is simply just a d*#k waving contest for the socially dysfunctional.

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I can understand you feeling that way, because speaking for myself, though I think there are probably others that feel the same, I get a bit tired of the Solent is the center of the universe kind of posts. I think any "anti Solent" comments have just been a reaction to that.

There is as I am sure you are aware a whole world of sailing opportunities out there, the Solent is just a very small part of that.
 
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There is as I am sure you are aware a whole world of sailing opportunities out there, the Solent is just a very small part of that.

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And everyone should be allowed to make their own choice without other people tutting or giving 'advice'.

Most people who make comments about the Solent have probably never even sailed here!
 
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There is as I am sure you are aware a whole world of sailing opportunities out there, the Solent is just a very small part of that.

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And everyone should be allowed to make their own choice without other people tutting or giving 'advice'.

Most people who make comments about the Solent have probably never even sailed here!

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Who's tutting?? If people want to sail in the Solent, and pay the silly fees for mooring there, that's up to them, I take the view that it's a blessing really, at least they aren't were I am!

Lighten up a bit, some of us have just been pulling a few legs, or is that not allowed in Solent circles? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

For myself, I like to sail as far from the madding crowd as I can get, maybe I am socially disfunctional as Judders suggested some of us might be, but I can assure him that my dick is not long enough to be waving it around! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Been to the Solent umpteen times, I find I'm always glad to get away. I have had the same thing about Blackpool for donkeys years. Used to think I should go. Then when I got there, just drove round wondering why I'd come. OK it's easy and there are a few nice places. But it's all a bit stage managed like Blackpool.
 
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maybe I am socially disfunctional

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I am socially dysfunctional too but I still manage to have a great time sailing in the Solent. I cringe at the thought of standing in the anchor in my sailing shorts and Dubarrys or of swanning down Shooters Hill with waterproofs and lifejacket on.

So you'd be more than welcome to come and sail here. Once you're out on the water there are many less crowded places than the Sunlent-bashers would have you believe.
 
Snobbery with a slight hint of envy by some perhaps. I was in Chichester for two seasons before ending up in Brighton. I can honestly say that I miss the solent. I was bringing a boat back to Chi from Eastbourne and decided to look in at Brighton as the weather was fantastic. I was solo on board so had no ties. Ended up bar hopping and got rather drunk. Was only going to stop for an evening, now its been 4 years. I insisted the family came and saw the marina, perhaps this was a mistake but what it had to offer a young family was all it took. Cant beat the Solent however for day sailing and diversity no matter what some may say.
 
I have sailed in the Solent a couple of times, it's not for me, to much of a perishing circus, each to their own though.

Places such as the Western Isles are more to my preference, in fact anywhere that is remote from the hurly-burly of modern living.
 
"Snobbery with a slight hint of envy by some perhaps."

Yeah right!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

It's that attitude that has caused some of us to take the piss!

Silly bugger! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
The Solent is only busy on mid year weekends, especially bank holidays and sunny weekends. The rest of the year, if you go out in winter, or weekday evenings, you may not see another boat out between say Lymington and Cowes and back.

When it is busy, it's actually great fun to see so many boats out.
 
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I sailed through the Solent once with an overnight at Yarmouth. We only saw about three other boats - but it was in mid-March.

I think I will just remember it like that . . . .

- W
 
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And everyone should be allowed to make their own choice without other people tutting or giving 'advice'.


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Amen to that.
 
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When it is busy, it's actually great fun to see so many boats out.

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I think that is one of the main reasons why I like it so much here. I am a bit of a boat voyeur and love watching other craft under sail on the water and in the Solent you really get some beautiful boats to look at.
 
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