Where is the Appeal in Boat Owning/Skippering?

[aod]

I am sure I will get slaughtered for posting this on a sailing forum but there you go!

I have been sailing for 25 years including amongst other things racing Around Britain and Ireland twice. Two handed race to Iceland. One and a bit AZAB's. 6 Biscay crossings more RORC and JOG races than I can remember and this year will be my seventh Fastnet. I am a yachtmaster with commercial endorsement and also a cruising instructor, and this year I have started to believe that pleasure sailing in this Country is firmly on the road to ruination.

When I started sailing I used to concern myself with simple things like weather and navigation, good seamanship, the excitement of racing and the simple pleasure of a special sunrise.

These days I am concerned about and fed up with being ripped off at every turn (including extortionate marina costs), running the dangerous and illegal lobster pot gauntlet every time I go off sailing, and the stress of managing a crew who you know could sue you for every bruise and rope burn, indeed not forgetting the drunken idiot who negotiates their way across a raft of boats and happens to trip over your springs or spinnaker pole at 4am in the morning.

I am sure it's an age/experience thing but I have decided to sell my boat and pack it. Whilst I am certain that fortunately for the industry that there are more people starting sailing than hanging up their oilies, I am equaly sure that there are a fair number who like me have had enough.

It's completely beyond me now why anyone on a budget in the UK would want the responsibility and costs of owning and skippering their own boat especially if they race.

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[steve_cronin]

Betcha....

...betcha don't stay away long!

Two neighbours of mine tried it and lasted two seasons and five respectively!

Agree on the lobster pots though. If they aren't properly marked and I foul them then if there is no other way I cuts 'em and some idiot fisherman is the wiser & poorer. I don't give a damn, that's HIS lookout! - there should be some universal, international marking system so that we stand a much reduced chance of coming into conflict with them and if we did then it would be our fault for ignoring an accredited navigational mark or if they weren't marked in accordance with the Col Regs (ammended) then the fisherman concerned would be liable to prosecution. The current situation is no good to anyone.

Marinas? Well they've always seen "rich yotties" as fair game - vote with your feet!

Steve Cronin

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[nicho]

Mmmmm! I packed up boating in January 2002 - it lasted 12 months, new boat was delivered in February 2003. Hope you do better than me IF you REALLY want to pack it in!!

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[Evadne]

The Appeal in Boat Owning/Skippering is still here

I'm sad you're giving it up. A word of advice I heard from someone else who did just that: don't sell the boat straight away, you'll want to be back on the water inside a year.

After 18 years with my own boat (always cruising, never racing) I find that the things I like about sailing haven't changed, but I'm blowed if I'm going to let the folk who are out to rip you off, cut you up or otherwise behave unsociably wind me up and spoil it for me. So I shall try and enjoy the sunsets, the sea and the scenery while avoiding crowded marinas at weekends wherever possible. It is possible, even down here in the Solent. I hope you have a change of heart and do the same.

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[aod]

Re: Betcha....

Came through the Needles Channel on Tuesday and counted 7 lobster pots ALL in the main channel and ALL 5 blue gallon chemical drums still with their chemical labels on them!

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[Badger]

A man who is tired of sailing....

is tired of life. Oscar Wilde RYA Cruising Manager.

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[sailbadthesinner]

Re: A man who is tired of sailing....

wasn't that Samuel Johnson?

Oscar Wilde was
I have nothing to declare but my Genny RYA Racing compliance officer


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[jhr]

Chemical Drums

Makes you wonder what was in them. And how well they were washed out before being slung in the briny...............

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[aod]

Re: A man who is tired of sailing....

Those who quote dead mens comments relevent to their time need to remove their blinkers and realise it's a new day.

Talking Boll_x (Sioux Chief)

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[Mirelle]

Re: A man who is tired of sailing....

Actually it was Samuel Johnson, not Oscar Wilde, and he said something that you will agree with:

"No man will go to sea who has enough contrivance to get himself into a jail, for to be in a ship is but to be in jail, with the additional chance of being drowned."

Anyway, p*** off out of it, and help to reduce the marina charges and other ripoffs for those of us who remain! Please encourage as many as possible to go too, and discourage anyone else from starting. When we get back down to 2,000 yachts around the nation's coasts it will be delightful once more. You're alovely fellow but we're glad to see the back of you!

NB -What's so special about a sous-chef?

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[Mirelle]

Re: The Appeal in Boat Owning/Skippering is still here

Hear Hear,

Tempted as I am to say "OK, shove off then! Mors space for the rest of us!" to aod, I know that I can never give it up.

I keep an elderly boat on a swinging mooring; she does not look particularly smart at the moment but she does look well used! Have not been into a marina this year, unless you count four hours on the RHYC hammerhead attending the Nancy Blackett Trust AGM.

Apart from the hours spent physically on the boat, there are the hours spent daydreaming about her on crowded trains and planes....

Counted seven herons standing on a bend, fishing, the other day - they had spaced their pitches out just like human fishermen....and then there was the seal, who had obviously been in the pub when we were talking about the ideal spot for getting seabass on the early ebb, because there he was!


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[Peppermint]

Re: Sailing is

Wet, cold, scary, expensive, time consuming, frustrating, a stupid way to get anywhere, insanitary, sickmaking, onerous and quite quite satisfying.

Near the outset of this board I posted "Why risk everything you own to go sailing"
because with litigation rising thats what your doing. I took a lot of stick but nobody found the answer to the question.

The answer is because you might as well.

Whatever you do, ashore or afloat, at home or at work you are liable if your negligent. Giving up sailing won't save you from litigation, your experienced and qualified and might even be quite good at sailing which reduces your risk.

Overcrowding and pots are localized they can be avoided by changing area or time of sailing or with pots by getting a shaft cutting gadget.

By all means give up, sailing is just a pastime, so why not chuck it in and try something else. I know if I give it up I won't come back to it.

But the reasons to keep going are real. You might feel you've seen it all but I doubt if you have. You might think that the cost isn't worth the hassle but the drawbacks can be overcome.

Even trips surrounded by nitwits, to nasty harbours, in weather that makes you pine for a game of bowls in Derbyshire can look good in retrospect. In fact most of my sailing looks better in retrospect.

Anyway sell the boat you can always charter.

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[aod]

Re: A man who is tired of sailing....

Cheeky bar steward.

There were probably two Herons and you were p*ss*d and saw seven and the seal was probably a lobster pot.

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[Dominic]

Sail Somewhere Else

You are obviously trying to sail in the wrong place.

Why not Patagonia or NZ or anywhere but the Solent.

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[Jacket]

Re: Sail Somewhere Else

<Why not Patagonia or NZ or anywhere but the Solent.>

Bit far to travel for the weekend!

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[Aja]

So how are you going to fill the void? Dont tell me that golf is preferable.

Specially up here with all these links courses by the sea - you would never get round the course as you stand and watch all these yachts with brilliant white sails highlighted against a bright blue sky....

When I was boatless for a year I had nothing less than a deep yearning to be 'out' there.

Regards

Donald

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[themount2]

Don't sell it - lend it to me for a year and then decide if you want it back!!

I promise to look after her for you.

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[Evadne]

Why not Patagonia or NZ or anywhere but the Solent

Pah! The myth that the solent is overcrowded beyond standing is put about by folk who can only go sailing on weekends between 1 June and 31 August. A good half of the tens of thousands of boats that live there leave their moorings perhaps 4 or 5 times per year, and it is usually the same 4 or 5 weekends for most of them.

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[Dominic]

Re: Why not Patagonia or NZ or anywhere but the Solent

I am very ignorant when it comes to the solent. My limited knowledge comes mainly from this forum and its many comments about crowding and fools.

I did once sail there for a week in January - delightful apart from the guy who grumbled about letting us raft up to him in Yarmouth.

I took the original post/complaint to be a comment on the current state of the solent.

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[Twister_Ken]

> especially if they race<

Ah. Give up the racing. Buy a small, solid boat that you can crew solo or 2-up. Cruise. Mid-week as well.

Only buying a new sail every 10 years or so helps. So does not having to organise a crew evey weekend. So does paying mooring fees on a smaller boat. Nice to be sailing within 5 minutes of stepping aboard, instead of waiting for the last silly bugger stuck on the motorway to turn up.

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