I've also done some sailing, Catalina racing. It's wonderfully romantic, tied up to a pier. Out on the water, broiling in the sun, riding with the breeze so you're in stagnant air, it's not so fun. Maybe it's nicer in the ocean, never sailed there. But I doubt it.
As much as I do like the notion of the quietness of sailing, it's tedious, demanding, and remarkably difficult to do well.
Then I found a stupid little sunfish boat. Just like kids played with in summer camp. Surely this would be easy. Not. I don't know that I ever got that thing to go where I actually wanted to go. Generally speaking, for me to get to where I wanted to go with the thing involved me walking while dragging it.
There is something to be said for a motor that will take you where you want to go, when you want to go. They come with breezes to.
PHeller wrote:
Do boat owners or sailing crews ever need/want people to help them fund a trip?
For example, lets say I own a huge 40' yacht, but its getting to be a bit much for me to pay a crew to help me sail around the Caribbean. My boat can easily house 8 people, but I can't pay them.
Does anyone ever say "3 month excursion to caribbean, 6 spots open to non-crew at $2000 per person."
Yes, yes they do go looking for crew. Good crew is hard to find. I personally used the GRM board back in 2010 to find 3 additional crew for SoCal Yacht Assoc Midwinters. Given the size of the event, anyone in SoCal who wanted to be sailing that weekend...was.
I had to seek no-sailors which quite honestly are often better than some "expert" who want to "tell" you what he knows (and often are not good at actually "doing".)
In that thread from 2010, I wrote a book about getting involved with sailing and racing specifically.
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/sailboat-race-crew-need-long-beach-ca-feb-2021/18947/page1/
