Different Cultures of Sailing

[Perfect Ride]

Originally Posted by bluenomads

Jimmy's done lots of hard work on how many are circumnavigating... about 8,000 at any one time across the world

Thank you. The chart offers some great trends and area detail.

So... at 8,000 world cruisers and 7.6 billion people in the world.

That makes those of doing the long hauls, at the very least, almost one in a million.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

It's so very fascinating to read the threads on this forum because I've never realized sailing can be such a different concept depending on where you live. (Or is it really? Are we all still basically chasing the same dream, though in different environments?)

I think a lot of participants here are US based so both sailing grounds/destinations and boats are very exotic to me (living in Finland, EU), and that's peculiarly gratifying

Here in Finland I think most people want boats that are conservatively sized and have quite a shallow draft (mostly below two meters) because a lot of us just zigzag across our immense archipelago, which is very beautiful but filled with rocks and usually quite shallow.

We have excellent markers and charted routes, though, so it's not very difficult although it might look difficult at first.

So, here's a toast to sailing!

It's wonderful to read about all of your small and big adventures, and I guess although we have different cultures we do have a lot in common.

Attachment: part of Finland's most beautiful sailing grounds on a chart.

To me that chart is a beautiful thing. From what little I have seen of that area it looks like a really beautiful area to sail. More photos please! To some of us YOUR area is very exotic!

[bluenomads]

Originally Posted by Perfect Ride

Thank you. The chart offers some great trends and area detail.

So... at 8,000 world cruisers and 7.6 billion people in the world.

That makes those of doing the long hauls, at the very least, almost one in a million.

Well, at (an increasing) 2 people/couple aboard, it's more like 1 in 500,000. Still pretty good

Some other examples of 1:500,000 (some old):

• becoming a mum to three sets of twins (US specific)
• being in a railway accident in Europe
• perhaps not entirely coincidentally, about the same as being struck by lightning within a year (US specific)
• lifetime odds of dying from fireworks discharge (probably country specific!)

Note I did no checking on the above, only a quick search. Don't blame me

[Captain Bucknut]

I've been sailing since I was 10.

I helped my Dad build our first boat in the basement. She was San Francisco Pelican. We joined a sailing club (across the creek from the Yacht Club) on Lake Ontario, the Pultneyville Mariners. On her maiden voyage we were coming back in and tossed a line to a gentleman in a wet suit getting ready to head out on his Prindle. He introduced himself and looked at me and asked me if I wanted to sail fast. 20 minutes later I was in a wetsuit and learning the art of the sailing trapeze. I was hooked. For the next 8 years I spent nearly all of my summers at the club in a tent on the point. I had my own Sunfish and sailed with the Hobie fleet as well. We built a daysailor in the garage and he had a Catalina 22 as well. I truly loved sailing on the big lake.

Fast forward a few years and I currently share Haven, a Catalina 25, with my partner in crime on a reservoir in Columbus, OH. She is a few minutes from home and we can be out on the water in no time. We have 5 girls between us and they all love being out on the water. Yes I miss the days of setting the sails and going for miles without tacking, but even a couple hours on the water is good for the soul. I still have a Sunfish on the beach too. We have taken Haven to Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes of NY and plan to trailer her to Lake Erie next year and then....... I truly enjoy this forum and all it has to offer. I dream of the day when we get to do more, but for now we will enjoy our little pond and our Haven as well.

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by les22

What nonsense!
If it is a "scientific fact" that circumnavigating boats have an average of 2.3 people per boat onboard then somebody calculated that from the number of people and the number of boats so you shouldn't have to "assume" anything.
If about 1,000 yachts go through the Panama Canal each year (best number I've found) and most of them are circumnavigating, that would be a lot more than 1,000 people at that stage of the trip. Add on those that are going round Cape Horn and the dozens/hundreds of boats in any of 50-100 cruising stops on the way and the number of people quickly adds up.

The 'scientific fact' was written in sarcasm font but it is probably not too far off the real number when you consider that most boats there have a couple on them and then you add in the single handers and boats with larger crews. When we did it no one was going the Red Sea route so rtw meant South Africa and a tiny, tiny number of boats doing a rtw (east or west) and not stopping in Cape Town, Richards Bay or Durban. There may well be 1000 boats doing the Panama Canal but that does not mean that all or even the majority are circumnavigating. We went through the canal twice, once on our boat (three boat raft) and once line handling for friends (two boat raft). Of the five boats only two were planning to do a loop and the other one may or may not have done it. Two were ending their journey in Oz and one in French Polynesia.

Perhaps with the Red Sea open again the numbers are up because the SA route does have a daunting reputation, not altogether without reason. When we did it quite a number of boats were waiting in SE Asia for the RS situation to improve. Some had been there for 3+ years. Not a bad spot to stay for an extended time but we really enjoyed the places going the SA route gave us - Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, and St Helena (Ascension not so much). I read somewhere, before the pirates, that 90% of westabout boats chose the Red Sea - too bad in a way.

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by Don C L

To me that chart is a beautiful thing. From what little I have seen of that area it looks like a really beautiful area to sail. More photos please! To some of us YOUR area is very exotic!

More chart photos or more photos of our exotic area?

[Don C L]

Well the chart would be a pretty picture for the wall, but I'd rather see some local landscapes and seascapes!

[fxykty]

Agree - more photos of Finland cruising grounds.

[mglonnro]

Nice. I sold my previous boat in 2015 and I don't seem to have many photos from back then, but I will surely post new ones when/if hopefully we will get our new boat next spring.

I've seen a few other people from Finland here, though! Juho?

First picture is from Lovisa, right next to one of our few nuclear power plants. There is a small harbour there (60°22'19.00"N, 26°20'8.69"E)

Second picture is of my previous boat but actually taken by the previous owner. It's from the southernmost populated area of Finland, a small island called Utö. A strongly recommended "first port of call" to anyone sailing here

[mglonnro]

Here are some sailing postcards from Finland

https://nakedsailor.blog/2018/10/13/...-from-finland/

[mglonnro]

Just returned from a short walk.

Here's a couple of pictures from a Finland preparing for cold and winter
Now is a good time to envy those of you who can keep your boats in water all year long!

[redhead]

Now that's just lovely - looks cold, but lovely.

How long are your days now? I'm at 49N and still not used to the shorter days, your's must be much shorter.

[mglonnro]

60.45N here. Today sunrise 8:10 am and set at 4:18 pm, so day today was 8 hours 8 minutes. One month forward it will be about 6 hours

[redhead]

We will have 9 hours 33 minutes today. On the shortest day it will be just less than 8 hours. Because I grew up further south, I have a hard time with the dark...

[mglonnro]

It's very rare to see winter liveaboards here in Finland (at least that's what I thought before yesterday).

Outside temperature was -18C (-0.4F) last night. Pretty cool, literally!