What experience made you think about giving up sailing ?

[Daydream believer]

As the cost of entry to any adventure sport drops, the skill level drops too, and then it becomes less fun for the rest of us.

But like yacht chartering. Attainable to a wider audience & providing fun to all. Not just the domain of a selfish limited few, who get the hump when their space is invaded & they have to share. Those who seem to forget that they had to learn sometime & were probably just as bad- (& may be still no better from some of the things that I have seen on the water)
So really a good thing then

 

[Baggywrinkle]

But like yacht chartering. Attainable to a wider audience & providing fun to all. Not just the domain of a selfish limited few, who get the hump when their space is invaded & they have to share. Those who seem to forget that they had to learn sometime & were probably just as bad- (& may be still no better from some of the things that I have seen on the water)
So really a good thing then

I used to love snowboarding, the feeling of freedom as you carve down a freshly prepared piste first thing in the morning, then stop for a coffee, do a bit of off-piste, lunch, then a bit more in the afternoon .... I could travel at a reasonable pace and I used to enjoy it immensely. This was about 20 years ago and the pistes are a 50 minute drive from home.

In 2016 I gave up. That 50min drive is now well over an hour, with stationary traffic at all the choke points on the route. There are queues to get into the car parks, queues to get tickets (which you could avoid with a season ticket) ... and massive queues to get onto the cable cars. The sport became more and more accessible over time - but the number of pistes didn't increase. As the resorts made more and more money, they invested in more capacity for the lifts as the queueing at the bottom was really becoming a joke. All this achieved was to create overcrowded pistes - more and more people fighting for space. The cafes and bars became more crowded, often unable to find a table and huge queues or long waits for food. The fun was gone for me, I'm sure there were those there that were still enjoying themselves, but for me it was the freedom and relative solitude that I enjoyed ..... sliding down a piste at a snails pace, with hundreds of other people a few metres away was not what I enjoyed about snowboarding. There were more and more collisions, helmets became compulsory .... the fun was gone.

I did ski touring for a while with my snowboard, but spending hours yomping up a mountain for the 20 min descent didn't do it for me either, so I stopped.

Charter companies are not in the business to make sailing accessible, they are there to make money. I've no doubt the skippers who do their 2 weeks a year holiday think it is great, but when the more attractive town quays are stuffed to bursting point with boats, the anchorages are full, and there is always the one boat that blasts music out until 2 in the morning it is no longer fun. I can still find plenty of secluded spots where there are few bars and restaurants to draw in the charter boats, but it is getting more and more crowded out there.

All I am saying is that I personally prefer a bit more solitude, and the commercial exploitation of outdoor adventure sports is killing them off for me.

 

[Daydream believer]

IAll I am saying is that I personally prefer a bit more solitude, and the commercial exploitation of outdoor adventure sports is killing them off for me.

Is it really commercial exploitation? Or is it accessibility --to something that you do not like having to share?

 

[DownWest]

Is it really commercial exploitation? Or is it accessibility --to something that you do not like having to share?

We bareboated in Greece with Sunsail. The last night, back at base, the flotilla lot were partying all night, making it impossible to sleep. Chatting to some of the more reasonable next morning, seems half refused to be part of it after the first day and they had to split with another lead boat.

 

[NormanS]

Look out. There are elitists among us. Imagine letting the common herd enjoy what we enjoy.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Is it really commercial exploitation? Or is it accessibility --to something that you do not like having to share?

Every single person here complaining would be up in arms if they went to their boat expecting a relaxing time, but instead ended up in the middle of Club 18-30 debauchery, drunkenness, noise, and antisocial behaviour 24 hours a day. Of course there are some who go on holiday specifically for those things, but I personally can live without it - that's not unreasonable. and it's not elitist.

When this lot rock up in your quiet anchorage then you're not going to get any sleep, and the next day is going to be a washout as a result - who wants to be forced to endure loud music and drunken shrieking and yelling 'till the early hours of the morning?

Fortunately I know their itinerary and avoid them like the plague, but there are more and more of them as the experience gets more and more commercialised - and they are getting difficult to keep track of. Once they have found your quiet anchorage of choice, and it becomes part of their itinerary, you can forget it in future.

Here's another, 50 boats and 600 people ....

This is the sort of thing that will make me give up. I know no-one will care, and these things will become the norm for certain parts of the world - if you think it's a good thing and represents the future of sailing then you have a bright future to look forward to. Not my cup of tea at all.

If you have ever complained about someone running a loud generator in an anchorage, just wait 'till you experience one of these.

The only saving grace is that boats can move, and with a bit of planning they can currently be avoided - but there are more and more of them every year.

@Daydream believer @NormanS ... Can you honestly say you'd be fine sharing your favourite anchorages with this lot all the time? Really?

 

[NormanS]

My favourite anchorages are not like that at all. We're just back from a six week trip, and mostly ours was the only boat in the anchorage. We choose where we go.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

My favourite anchorages are not like that at all. We're just back from a six week trip, and mostly ours was the only boat in the anchorage. We choose where we go.

.. and these flotillas seek out the secluded anchorages because they can do what they want in them - you just haven't run into one yet. ... in one secluded anchorage near Pula, they decided to party on shore - you could feel the bass beat vibrating the hull and it stopped at sunrise.

 

[mjcoon]

We bareboated in Greece with Sunsail. The last night, back at base, the flotilla lot were partying all night, making it impossible to sleep. Chatting to some of the more reasonable next morning, seems half refused to be part of it after the first day and they had to split with another lead boat.

Wow, I associate that with Sailing Holidays or Neilson, as being closer to 18-30 clientele than staid old Sunsail!

 

[mjcoon]

Every single person here complaining would be up in arms if they went to their boat expecting a relaxing time, but instead ended up in the middle of Club 18-30 debauchery, drunkenness, noise, and antisocial behaviour 24 hours a day. Of course there are some who go on holiday specifically for those things, but I personally can live without it - that's not unreasonable. and it's not elitist.

When this lot rock up in your quiet anchorage then you're not going to get any sleep, and the next day is going to be a washout as a result - who wants to be forced to endure loud music and drunken shrieking and yelling 'till the early hours of the morning?

I'm baffled. We stopped going to Croatia (after years, and Yugoslavia before that) because we understood Croatia insisted on radio certification and none of us 3 pensioners has that...

 

[dunedin]

.. and these flotillas seek out the secluded anchorages because they can do what they want in them - you just haven't run into one yet. ... in one secluded anchorage near Pula, they decided to party on shore - you could feel the bass beat vibrating the hull and it stopped at sunrise.

I suspect NormanS was not referring to cruising in the Mediterranean.
As I understand it you choose to keep your boat a long way from home in another country. As you travel to another country and a known busy area to enjoy the benefits of sailing there, you can hardly complain about other sailing tourists coming there as well?

 

[Lightwave395]

My last 'why am I doing this' moment was 12 years ago,
Friday night 0100 a few miles off Portland in a RSYC double handed race with a 25-30 knot westerly which continued all night all the way to Brixham, although the urge to never do this again was quelled somewhat by hitting my best ever 18.4 knots speed surfing in huge seas and the still blowing 30 knot Westerly on the return back to the Solent Sunday morning.

Whilst I'm not yet giving up, my OH and I have modified our sailing from this year partly as we now have 14 grandchildren between us and partly because of some health challenges - It seems I have prostate cancer, which is now under treatment and the same blood test last January showed me as a type 2 diabetic, which I'm pleased to say I've beaten and overcome using the diet weapon.

We've previously had our boat in Southern Brittany for some years and loved it but we've grown away from going out there for two or three months at a time and we feel now with me at 77 and OH at 69 that whilst we can handle the boat and still enjoy sailing we just want to do it more often and for shorter periods so we've brought the boat back to Cornwall - just above St Mawes, where if the weather is good we can go for a few days or couple of weeks at short notice and I can take a couple of older grandchildren who have been desperate to go on grandad's boat for some years...

Very pleasant albeit a load more pricey than Brittany, but nice place to have a floating cottage !

 

[capnsensible]

It can be a real battle in Greece with foreigners arriving in their boats.

 

[srm]

Last year was my cancer treatment year. I had let looking after the boat slip due to lack of energy during the preceding couple of years. During chemotherapy induced delirium I started to worry about how my wife would cope with the boat when I could not. Even thought about taking the boat out and sinking it as lots of oceanic deep water around here.
Once chemo finished and my mind cleared I still had to come to terms with a lack of stamina.
I offered the boat at a near "give away" price and was fortunate to find a buyer who has put the time and effort in to bring her back to a good condition.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

I suspect NormanS was not referring to cruising in the Mediterranean.
As I understand it you choose to keep your boat a long way from home in another country. As you travel to another country and a known busy area to enjoy the benefits of sailing there, you can hardly complain about other sailing tourists coming there as well?

I'm very selective about the other sailing tourists I dislike, they are the anti-social ones. I have lived in a tourist town for almost 25 years, tourists are not a problem until they start behaving badly - and any company that bases their business model on anti-social behaviour is not going to have me as a fan either.

 

[Ray Purchase]

The loss of freedom of movement, kind of important to 24/7/365 days liveaboard.

 

[Sandy]

Arriving on a boat where they only had Yorkshire Tea. I now carry my own teabags so there is something drinkable onboard.

 

[Tomaret]

I only ask as I've had a few.
Or is it just me .
Normally after worse than expected weather.

Experiences ?

After a wet cold week in March trying to find windows in the weather to polish the topsides and anti-foul the bottom. The feeling goes away when the boat is launched.

 

[Sailing steve]

Every single person here complaining would be up in arms if they went to their boat expecting a relaxing time, but instead ended up in the middle of Club 18-30 debauchery, drunkenness, noise, and antisocial behaviour 24 hours a day. Of course there are some who go on holiday specifically for those things, but I personally can live without it - that's not unreasonable. and it's not elitist.

When this lot rock up in your quiet anchorage then you're not going to get any sleep, and the next day is going to be a washout as a result - who wants to be forced to endure loud music and drunken shrieking and yelling 'till the early hours of the morning?

Fortunately I know their itinerary and avoid them like the plague, but there are more and more of them as the experience gets more and more commercialised - and they are getting difficult to keep track of. Once they have found your quiet anchorage of choice, and it becomes part of their itinerary, you can forget it in future.

Here's another, 50 boats and 600 people ....

This is the sort of thing that will make me give up. I know no-one will care, and these things will become the norm for certain parts of the world - if you think it's a good thing and represents the future of sailing then you have a bright future to look forward to. Not my cup of tea at all.

If you have ever complained about someone running a loud generator in an anchorage, just wait 'till you experience one of these.

The only saving grace is that boats can move, and with a bit of planning they can currently be avoided - but there are more and more of them every year.

@Daydream believer @NormanS ... Can you honestly say you'd be fine sharing your favourite anchorages with this lot all the time? Really?

This in absolute spades.

A number of encounters with the obnoxiously entitled clients of Team Yacht Week was the principal reason we abandoned our annual chartering holidays in Croatia.

 

[Sailing steve]

Astonishingly overpriced chandlery and unfriendly weather and antifoul that really doesn't do anything like what is says on the tin.