What's all this about being one with the boat!

[Nostrodamus]

I confess I am not the best sailor in the world but I hear so many people saying something about "Being one with the boat"

Is it something people have read on the back of a lolly pop stick or does it really exist.

Give me a little breeze, flat calm, sun and no tides and I still won't be as one with her

We fight, she kicks,screams and spits (and that is only the wife when we go out).

With the boat it is a constant battle of wills and she really does scare the **** out of me on occasions.

I don't think I will ever be at one with her... It is more a mutual understanding that I want her to do something and she begrudgingly obliges.... sometimes.

Unless we are going backwards into a marina on a windy day... they she does something and I begrudgingly oblige.

 

[Seajet]

It does exist, but I've had my boat for a long time and am only just beginning to really feel in the groove or ' at one ' by the end of a decent holiday cruise.

 

[Nostrodamus]

It does exist, but I've had my boat for a long time and am only just beginning to really feel in the groove or ' at one ' by the end of a decent holiday cruise.

We have been three years continuously sailing and she still beats me in an arm wresting competition every time.

 

[maby]

They really are stupid things, though, aren't they? They seem continually to want to run aground or hit things that will damage them and it's a constant battle to convince them to do otherwise.

 

[Searush]

We have been three years continuously sailing and she still beats me in an arm wresting competition every time.

Maybe you have the wrong boat, or she is badly balanced. Have you tried adjusting the sails (even a bit of judicious reefing to reduce the weather helm)? On the wind she should sail herself without any need for even a tie on the tiller.

 

[Nostrodamus]

Maybe you have the wrong boat, or she is badly balanced. Have you tried adjusting the sails (even a bit of judicious reefing to reduce the weather helm)? On the wind she should sail herself without any need for even a tie on the tiller.

No she is beautifully balanced but the winds and seas have not been. I have my way for a few hours then the seas and winds get up and she spits out her dummy and we fight for a few hours.
Come on, I have 16 tonnes of plastic and wood hurtling along at six or seven knots with no handbrake. I am just along for the ride.

 

[Sandy]

You need to learn to feel the Force, as Yodi would say.

 

[CoVianna]

You need to learn to feel the Force, as Yodi would say.

Or even Yoda!

 

[maby]

....
Come on, I have 16 tonnes of plastic and wood hurtling along at six or seven knots with no handbrake. I am just along for the ride.

I recognise that!

 

[Sandy]

Or even Yoda!

It has been a long day, but

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yodi

Might inspire Nostro..

 

[Nostrodamus]

It has been a long day, but

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yodi

Might inspire Nostro..

Yodi
Very inspiring & beautiful woman. Has a smile that can brighten a room & stop any man in his tracks. She has an unusual gift of always helping others & putting their needs first. This person is a rare gem to have and never let go. Besides being giving person she is also forgiving which makes her nieve.
Yodi (inspiring), Yodi (Beautiful), Yodi (Kind), Yodi (thoughtful), Yodi (happy)

I am lucky in that I have one aboard which makes my life so worth living. It is me who is the prat.

 

[chinita]

Nowt to do with boats but the question reminded me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlIrI80og8c

 

[Searush]

No she is beautifully balanced but the winds and seas have not been. I have my way for a few hours then the seas and winds get up and she spits out her dummy and we fight for a few hours.
Come on, I have 16 tonnes of plastic and wood hurtling along at six or seven knots with no handbrake. I am just along for the ride.

Get a smaller, more easily managed vessel?

 

[Nostrodamus]

Get a smaller, more easily managed vessel?

I take it you would offer to swap a topper for my boat.

It is not how big it is.. it is the idiot trying to sail it

 

[dancrane]

Yodi...inspiring & beautiful woman. Has a smile that can brighten a room & stop any man in his tracks. Yodi (inspiring), Yodi (Beautiful), Yodi (Kind), Yodi (thoughtful), Yodi (happy)

...AND a great little pickernick basket, Booboo! (Surely you all know Yodi Bear?)

View attachment 40745

Hmm. I reckon in a few weeks (or more likely months, at my rate of readying) I'll be agreeing with Nostro here. In my mid-winter mind's eye, the reaches are thrilling and the beats are purposeful & controllable. In reality, I know the beats are endless hard work & frightening, the downwind-runs are uncomfortably uncertain and the reaches are sadly brief.

For me, reducing sail for the conditions, is key. I don't care how compromised the Osprey's rig is, by my clumsily-sewn reef...if it's easy to control, I'll feel "at one" with the boat.

 

[Polux]

I guess that it means you fell the boat as an extension of you, meaning you don't think what you have to do, you just do it. Everybody that made sports involving a machine, a car, a motorcycle or an airplane knows what that is about: the rare moments a pilot feels he is the car, the bike or the airplane and that those machines are just an extension of his body. Great sensation, huge power...I am still working on it in what regards the boat ;-)

 

[Nostrodamus]

I will admit there are many times when I feel happy and at ease when we are sailing and life could not be better. This is probably the norm. It is not because I am at one with the boat, more that they are conditions that are unlikely to throw up any googlies.
But I still feel and am constantly aware and reminded of the huge power a boat has in the wind. We do sail in all sorts of conditions (usually the bad ones are never planned) and then I sometimes feel it becomes a battle of wits.
Over time I have come to realise just how much a boat can look after you in bad conditions and how forgiving they can be but that is not because I am one with her. It is because I respect her and the power she has and try not to let it get out of control.
We have come to a sort of compromise but occasionally she will give me a good kick to remind me who's boss if I don't treat her right.

 

[Tomahawk]

To feel at one with the boat you have to feel her through the seat of your pants. The difference between being in the groove and simply lolloping along is very difficult to detect in a very big and powerful yacht like a Swan.

I suspect the problem lies with not having learned to sail in a dingy... and done a fair share of getting wet.

 

[Nostrodamus]

To feel at one with the boat you have to feel her through the seat of your pants. The difference between being in the groove and simply lolloping along is very difficult to detect in a very big and powerful yacht like a Swan.

I suspect the problem lies with not having learned to sail in a dingy... and done a fair share of getting wet.

I started off dinghy sailing and owned a "Firefly" for many years. It won many competition (I hasten to add by the previous owners). I spent many a day bobbing around in the water looking at it laying sidewards... Skittish little beggars those firefly's but amazing fun. A bit like old mini's.

Now that boat I could throw around everywhere and although you learn a lot there is a huge amount of difference between the power of a big boat in rough seas miles from land and a dinghy on a lake.

I know others will disagree but in bad conditions you cannot afford to lay a big boat on its side.

It would be a nightmare trying to stand on my keel and pull 16 tonnes upright!!!!

 

[Dave-Shafa]

I believe I was At One with my boat in 2009 when I spent 6 months aboard on the West Coast of Scotland.
One particular time when I was at Lismore lighthouse, sailing with one hand and taking photographs of
the West Highland Week Race with the other hand.

This year stepped on my new wee boat and nearly fell off as I am not at one with it yet and not used to the wobblys.