What Drives You to Sail ?

[BlueSeas]

Boats have always been a vehicle to me to get to a great swimming area or to find the fish. Getting older now and in many parts of my life I am starting to understand the importance of enjoying the journey as much as the destination.

I am enjoying the sailing portion of it and am driven to try the liveaboard and cruising lifestyle.
Sailing is a very new adventure for me and I am looking forward to learning more. Still much of the time my thought drifts back to the places I will be able to sail to as I graduate to larger vessels and swim and dive, or how I can troll a lure behind me while I am underway.

Just curious what other’s attraction is to sailing. Is it purely for the sailing and the challenges associated with that? Is it more where you can go and what you can do? Is it because operation is cheaper than motoring? Is it just generally a lifestyle? Or is it something else?

[maxingout]

For me it's all about freedom.

WWSD

Once you have a taste of freedom and live your dreams, you are hooked for life, and nothing else will do.

[daddle]

Just freedom. I have no dreams.

[Bash]

Wind.

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by BlueSeas

Sailing is a very new adventure for me and I am looking forward to learning more.

This is exactly it.

The cruising life is an adventure. After a while it may not feel so adventurous, it might even seem to slow. But try going back to work after you've been away for a year or so.

Learning more - you could spend a lifetime and not know the half of it

[pjop]

Just the very idea that with enough money and enough boat one can disconnect from many societal restraints and connect with the wind, water, wildlife and all the wonders of the universe, from the vastness of the night sky to the phosflorecent jellies, is incredibly powerful. Even a small taste of the freedom is inhebriating. For all the folks who are already out there and are drunk on life, here's to ya!

[shadow]

I'm with maxingout!! The freedom to do what we want, when we want, without having to justify it to anyone!! Being nearly totally off the grid, so you don't have to be a slave to anyone or anything anymore (except boat chores and fixes..) I read a quote on this forum a long time ago that I love:

"my worst day on the boat is far better then the best day on land"

[beau]

As usual, Dave from "maxing out" is spot on.
I want to leave the bull **** behind,
I want the freedom of following the weather pattern rather than what some bureaucrat thinks is best for me.

I want to leave the "getting more money to show off" syndrome when in reality nobody else really cares,
thank god I learnt that a long time ago.( i am an athesist)

I enjoy other cultures and absorbing the way they live and their food.
Years ago i was lucky to do a trip through India, and i was so impressed at how happy they were on a day to day basis (in the countryside)
It shocked me.
For weeks I had to reaccess my bearings on how could this be.

[UWOA]

For me it's the sound of the wind in the rigging, the waves beating on the hull and the absence of motor noise. Having spent thirty plus years of working the Indianapolis 500 and other racing events, the "roar of the engines" is a sound stage that turns me off as a necessary evil in the absence of wind.

[Doodles]

Hanging with all the "rich people", both on the water and here.

[sestina]

My Landrover Discovery is my normal means of drive to the boat. Alas, the poor MGF, savagely assulted by a hit 'n run....

[sailorboy1]

For me it was always about traveling. I only started sailing to be able to cruise later. But it turns out that I like sailing and enjoy the challege to getting a big boat to do what seems impossible of moving from place to place with just the wind. When the conditions are good it is just a peaceful thing.

[trinescape]

The freedom of being on the water listening to the boat talking to me ,the wind in the sails and rigging the sound of the water flowing past my hull ......... shear magic!

cheers andy

[Hudson Force]

Sure I like the freedom, the cruise, the destination, the wildlife, the beauty of nature, but the drive to sail is the glide on the interface. It's the same mastery of skill that is exhilerating when carving out a turn on the ski slope or a glide on the skating rink. Take care and joy, Aythya crew

[Sandero]

Interesting discussion point and for many sailors I suspect the motivation then is different from now and is directly related to factors such as work, family, domicile and so forth.

When I was first exposed to sailboats I marveled at how clever the whole concept of a modern sailboat was. It borrowed age old technology, coupled it to high tech engineering and offered an individual enormous "freedom" to play (sport), get away from the hum drum, learn oddles of interesting "things" from plumbing to electronics, to navigation to cooking and so forth, or the ability to get off the grid and travel the world. What you learn is that the more ambitious your motivations the more "hatting" you need to go for them.

So to just enjoy the wind on the water, you can do it with small sailboats and avoid all the systems' knowledge etc. And the cost is more manageable.

The more you reach for the more investment is required in money and time and knowledge. And this is a process that takes time. The most highly motivated well off person cannot but the dream and step off the dock onto a yacht and go. So lots of sailing must take a time investment.

It's also a journey of personal responsibility and "competence". While dockside we can have others service our boats once we leave the dock we need to be in control and deal with it all with little help. This suits many who want to escape the mommy nature of society which makes us all so dependent on others for so many things.

Having worked at sailing offshore to new places and lived aboard in my mid 40s my attraction to boats and sailing has never left me. I scratched an itch, but the itch is still there. Now I find myself with a different relationship to my sailing because of my circumstances. Less money, less time, less need to go over thew horizon and it's now more of a comfort zone of escape and relaxation and a zen like process of caring for my boat.

I am not totally into "messing about on (my) boats. The only thing which bothers me about "fixing" things is the expense. The actual "zen" of doing it right is richly rewarding. My sailing is mostly fair weather in optimal conditions, the type I can reach for in a day dream (I've sailed in every condition, met the challenges and so I don't need to prove anything to myself or anyone else for that matter) I've sailed solo for a week's offshore passage, or in the snow, in raging gales, motored through a sea of glass for days. Now I like a gorgeous day with stunning blue sky and dry crisp air 15 - 20 where I can sail a reach at hull speed with the sounds of the sea and no deadlines hovering over me.

When life conditions change (win the lottery), off I'll go to sail to some exotic destination over the horizon. There's so many reasons to sail and circumstances determine what drives me to find the one that fits.