Why do so many Brits go sailing.

Sea Devil

Sea Devil

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I get the feeling that a higher proportion of Brits go to sea - sailing/moboating than in other countries - I wonder why?

Is it because it is impossible to be more than 60 miles from the sea in GB?

Is it because it is so easy to 'go foreign' from GB?
(20 miles to Calais - or 60 to Cherbourg. Belgium, Netherlands both within 24 hours. Spain, Portugal and the Med all possible without having to spend a night at sea)

Is it because we are very successful as a nation and a high proportion can afford boats?

I know the proportion of boat owners to population is higher in the Netherlands but that is because they mainly operate on all the inland waters - very few sea marinas.

So why do the British - go to sea?

Michael
 
[ QUOTE ]
I get the feeling that a higher proportion of Brits go to sea - sailing/moboating than in other countries - I wonder why?


[/ QUOTE ]

Get yourself over to Scandinavia and you'll soon be wondering why so few Brits go to sea!
 
History dear boy, History /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Seriously, we are an island nation of seafarers, and while its heyday is long gone in the mists of time, I am sure that the legacy is still seen today....

PS, don't think you are wrong about the economic wealth of the country either though......
 
Immigrants DON\'T

A neighbour of mine thinks that " a boat as small as 44ft surely isn't big enough to live on"

He's from the Asian continent where to be a "boat person" is to be poor, uneducated and impoverished and living on a boat for pleasure just isn't done. Maharajahs have yachts but they're big beggers like - did you see it - Alan Sugar's last night?

Steve Cronin
 
History

Exactly. It's in our genes, ever since the Roman, Viking and Norman invasions: Only the nutcase boaty types fancied leaving the sophisticated dolce vita on continental europe, sailing the channel/N sea with no sodding charts in exchange for a free farm, and of those only those who were handy in a fight survived to carry out the all-important post-battle raping and pillaging.

Their descendents themselves had the same behavious in their blood - build boat, roam the seas looking for fights, and hence we had the British Empire.

Also accounts for us having politicians like Blair who handles the overseas unwarranted warmongering side of things these days, Brown who does the pillaging of the population, and Prescott in charge of stupidity and shagging. Obvious really.
 
[ QUOTE ]

Is it because it is so easy to 'go foreign' from GB?
(20 miles to Calais - or 60 to Cherbourg. Belgium, Netherlands both within 24 hours. Spain, Portugal and the Med all possible without having to spend a night at sea)


[/ QUOTE ]

Fortunately we dont all live on the South coast /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif and so for a percentage of the sailing population then trips abroad are a bit further. So can probably count that one out. I think it must be the call of the sea, inherantly built into us.
 
The Spanish would also enjoy sailing if only the government didnt have swinging taxes,compulsory testing and boats where priced in relation to income,there would be less room for rich British withBravarias blocking up the marinas!
 
Dunno about that!

My wife has messed about in boats all her life. But she comes from an Asian country where it is easy to do so - the Koreans, Taiwanese, etc cannot for military reasons, and many Asian countries have vast hinterlands and little seacoast.

I've a Japanese friend who has sailed for most of her life, and she's not much younger than I. Mind you, she has to commute more than sixty miles to the boat from Tokyo.
 
Re: History

I love the imagery that Tony is Blair is a modern day version of Sir Francis Drake or Walter Raleigh - a brave buccaneer - fighting bravely for his country.. Thanks for the thought...

on a similar note with reference to the brits: [ QUOTE ]
Their descendants themselves had the same behaviors in their blood - build boat, roam the seas looking for fights, and hence we had the British Empire.

[/ QUOTE ]

I mean the Spanish did much better than us - ended up with a lot of South America and all lands from Panama to Mexico to Texas to Florida and all the valuable islands - Cuba, d republic, Puerto Rico + a lot of the Pacific etc etc just left the rubbish places for us Brits.. The Portuguese did as well if not better than us and the French ended up with almost all of North Africa - most of the pacific worth having and indonesia and etc . But none of these very successful ex world powers have this huge proportion of people owning boats - well I can only speak for the French and the Spanish - I think!

Michael
 
Re: History

[ QUOTE ]
I love the imagery that Tony is Blair is a modern day version of Sir Francis Drake or Walter Raleigh - a brave buccaneer - fighting bravely for his country.. Thanks for the thought...

[/ QUOTE ]

err, I think the reference to T.Bliar was that he was more of a murdering pirate than any other romantic notion you may have of a national hero type. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Think more Barbossa than Jack Sparrow.
 
Re: History

I think so...
Lots more of them go amateur fishing in their own little boats than we do - certainly on the Atlantic coast.... more fish... the tradition??? But there are far fewer marinas in the country than the UK.. but then they are not an island and possibly the majority live over a hundred miles from the sea...
Michael
 
Re: History

[ QUOTE ]
he(T Blair)was more of a murdering pirate

[/ QUOTE ]

But so were Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh and they got knighted for it - and became national heroes - as indeed they should.. Just keeping my fingers crossed that Tony does not become a Sir too soon! Nothing wrong with a bit of swashbuckling - remember the TV series the Buccaneers? Wonderful stuff.. Beats Swallows and Amazons any day...

Michael
 
Re: History

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
he(T Blair)was more of a murdering pirate

[/ QUOTE ]

But so were Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh and they got knighted for it - and became national heroes - as indeed they should.. Just keeping my fingers crossed that Tony does not become a Sir too soon!

[/ QUOTE ]

but they also brought us things like potatoes so we could have famines and tobacco so we could get lung cancer etc, and lots of lovely Spanish gold. All we get from the incumbent is mad terrorists wanting to blow us all up or live here for free. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

I do remember the Buccaneers being rather good at the time though. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Re: History

[ QUOTE ]

I mean the Spanish did much better than us - ended up with a lot of South America and all lands from Panama to Mexico to Texas to Florida and all the valuable islands

[/ QUOTE ]

I blame 'enery the 8th. If only he hadn't pi$$ed off the Pope .
 
Dunno, but I wish they wouldn\'t!

Just think how nice it would be if 90% of those who go sailing, didn't!

Do your bit to improve sailing for everyone - encourage a yacht owner to take up golf, fishing, bird watching, curling, hang gliding, scuba diving, rock climbing, gardening - anything except messing about in boats!
 
Re: History

um, well, not actually fighhting for his country, but fighting a misguided war for *another* country, and one which didn't back us up until attacked themselves.

Daft blair unfortunately got his history all wrong - immediately after 9/11 he decalred he was shoulder to shoulder "just as the uS did when we were under attck in the Blitz". But of course, no such shouldering support was forthcoming in 1940, nor in 1941, and only in November 42 did US troops arive in the uk and hang about waiting for the russians to fully thrash the main german armies in the east.

However, i agree with the general sentiment that seems popular from afar that he has a nice smile and is a pleasant enough chap.

Frenchies don't have boats cos they're skint, likewise spaniards, all having had leftish governments for ages - no Thatcher economic realism for them yet - according to the bloke interviewed on radio 4 from the IMF.
 
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