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

Aardee

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I think it's more about your expectations of "being at one with the boat" - it does happen, but it's not a constant. Those moments you mention when you feel happy and at ease with the boat, they are the moments of "oneness" (blimey, I've gone all hippy!) the rest of us rattle on about. I'm also a lifelong cyclist and that's exactly the same; there are days when it all feels like a strange disjointed effort and there are days when you just feel epic and able to do anything.

The trick is to enjoy the great days and not beat yourself up about the no-so-great ones.

Ommmmmm...
 

Romeo

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Well, I do feel at one with the boat, and I know exactly how she will react when I have her tiller in my hand. That however comes from having sailed the same boat all my life, and also from painting her every year and doing all the other necessary maintenance on her. Some people think that having a wooden boat is too much hassle, but for me it is an essential part of the pleasure that I get from boat ownership and use, and gives her character that I have never found in any of the plastic boats that I have enjoyed sailing. (Just me, not meant as a criticism of anyone else!)
 

Kelpie

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Night sailing is what does it for me. Trucking along in almost pitch black with just the tricolour above you, a distant lighthouse to guide you, and being able to tell how happy the boat is just by the feel of the tiller and that subtle background soundtrack of little noises from the rig. Sailing by sensation, rather than information.
 

dylanwinter

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If I had the sort of love hate relationship some of you blokes have expressed on this thread I would have swallowed the anchor years ago.

I am seldom happier than when I am standing in the hatchway of a small well balanced boat such as Katie L when the bungeeomatic is doing the steering with just the occasional nudge or sail tweak from me. A cup of coffee close at hand and a squadron of gannets skimming the waves towards us just adds to the pleasure.

there are times when I feel as though I am almost wearing the boat

I have been a horse rider all my life - and the unhappy owners are those who are over-horsed - it also does not make the horses very happy.

I would suggest trading down to something smaller, slower and more bomb-proof.

D
 
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Greenheart

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...unhappy owners are those who are over-horsed...I would suggest trading down to something smaller, slower and more bomb-proof.

That's what I meant by enjoying the option to reef, without downsizing the boat. It's natural to feel intimidated by very tender boats because their motion is unpredictable or extremely responsive. But putting in a reef or two is like dropping a gear or two - whatever the RPM (wind strength), the machine's output is reduced - the feeling of control returns.

I had the option of various lightweight singlehanders which would have fitted me like a glove. But their limitations were less attractive than the difficulties of taming a bigger beast.
 

Nostrodamus

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Well, the one good thing is that I am always trying to be aware of everything, always checking and reefing probably more than I should. If there is a noise that is wrong or I have never heard before I want to know why. I take note of the sea continually and the weather ahead.
I does not stop me occasionally being caught out but anyone in the Med will tell you how localised and how quickly weather can change completely.
I still have respect for the boat but I doubt she has the same respect for me.
 

JumbleDuck

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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 ;-)

I used to fly gliders, and after three or so hours in the air I really did feel as if it was just me flying. The aircraft was irrelevant. It's one of the most wonderful sensations I know.
 

johnalison

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I used to fly gliders, and after three or so hours in the air I really did feel as if it was just me flying. The aircraft was irrelevant. It's one of the most wonderful sensations I know.

I think time comes into it. My first sail of the year always feels strange and my brain is still on land time, so I am always impatient just to do the 20 minutes before we get to open water. After a while, my automatic responses come into play and I stop trying to "steer" the boat and realise that I am just there to balance the helm. Time then passes without my being aware of it.

I have sailed with numbers of sailors, many of them very experienced, but very few of them have acquired a dinghy-sailor's ability to feel the boat's forces working without having to think about it. It is easy to identify these people as they claw away at the helm continuously, the result being an unsettling motion for the crew. If you can sail in a fresh wind with a quartering sea without fiddling with the helm all the time you are probably doing it right and know what it means to feel at one with your boat.
 

chinita

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Well, I do feel at one with the boat, and I know exactly how she will react when I have her tiller in my hand. That however comes from having sailed the same boat all my life, and also from painting her every year and doing all the other necessary maintenance on her. Some people think that having a wooden boat is too much hassle, but for me it is an essential part of the pleasure that I get from boat ownership and use, and gives her character that I have never found in any of the plastic boats that I have enjoyed sailing. (Just me, not meant as a criticism of anyone else!)

+1
 

JumbleDuck

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Night sailing is what does it for me. Trucking along in almost pitch black with just the tricolour above you, a distant lighthouse to guide you, and being able to tell how happy the boat is just by the feel of the tiller and that subtle background soundtrack of little noises from the rig. Sailing by sensation, rather than information.

Oh yes oh yes oh yes. I was thinking the same myself - I feel much more connected to the boat at night.
 

JumbleDuck

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I think time comes into it. My first sail of the year always feels strange and my brain is still on land time, so I am always impatient just to do the 20 minutes before we get to open water. After a while, my automatic responses come into play and I stop trying to "steer" the boat and realise that I am just there to balance the helm. Time then passes without my being aware of it.

Same with flying. After a while away I always needed to do a good long flight - five hours or more - for it to start feeling really natural again.
 

Polux

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I used to fly gliders, and after three or so hours in the air I really did feel as if it was just me flying. The aircraft was irrelevant. It's one of the most wonderful sensations I know.

When I was a kid I used to pilot airplanes and most of the time I was doing aerobatics and yes after a while I was the airplane. Raced motorcycles for many years and when things just clicked together, sometimes I was the motorcycle and when that happened everything was easy and natural, the brain seemed to be completely blank, no thought no nothing just the track and absolute concentration. In fact I believe that this state of absolute bliss has some similitude with yoga.

On the boat I am not so good as on the motorcycle or even on the airplane but I can remember those moments where that happen with delight and I want more: On that passage between Minorca and Sardinia on a full moon night, 30k winds going between 10 and 11K surfing 2 or 3 meters waves all night long, on that other passage between Ponza and Fiumicino doing interminable surfs at 13/14K, on a passage between Greek islands going at 27º of the apparent wind at over 7K on a nasty sea...yes, after all it seems that i can remember several times where I fell the boat as an extension of myself...and I want more. I am learning to sail and I love to learn. The objective of learning for me is that: to be able to be one with the boat more frequently.
 
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dimdav

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when things just clicked together, sometimes I was the motorcycle and when that happened everything was easy and natural, the brain seemed to be completely blank, no thought no nothing just the track and absolute concentration. In fact I believe that this state of absolute bliss has some similitude with yoga... after all it seems that i can remember several times where I fell the boat as an extension of myself...and I want more. I am learning to sail and I love to learn. The objective of learning for me is that: to be able to be one with the boat more frequently.

Therein lies the rub for me. Its not about surroundings or any particular situation its simply about the moment and almost an entire lack of thought. I've had it in cars (both tarmac and gravel). Time almost stands still and the car "dances". I dont have to think (or even have the inclination to), I just am. Only had it once on a boat, need to find a method of inducing it more often.
 

Polux

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.. Time almost stands still and the car "dances". I dont have to think (or even have the inclination to), I just am. ...

Funny you say that. when things were perfect one way I had to describe it for myself was dancing with the motorcycle, you know, perfect timing, easy, perfect rhythm, the machine and my body moving in synchronism without any thought, just feeling the music or the twisting track, feeling the girl or the machine. Never heard nobody but me referring to it like "dancing". Happy to know that I am not the only one even if your "girl" (car) is a bit heavier than mine (motorcycle):cool:

Maybe that's why we use to say that a fast machine is a sexy one, one that we would like to take for a "dance":D
 

obmij

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Sometimes you feel at one with your boat. Sometimes it's challenging. Sometimes it's terrifying!

It's easy to feel at one with your rowing boat, asleep on a duckpond in the sun. Doesn't really have any relevance to the fear you feel when conditions overwhelm your experience offshore.

I think most sailors would admit to having felt that knot in the stomach.
 
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