Why don't you race - honest?

[Interloper]

Originally Posted by CarolinaCalm

New to forum but I am not familiar with the term 'slow capsize' that you mentioned in post. Is this a typo or something new to understand?
Walt

Made up term, it happens slowly and it's not really a capsize as their back upright and sailing within 5 minutes. If there is a proper term, I don't know it.

https://youtu.be/oUJPWe61nGc

[Junk Viking]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Good try.

After a guy gets his fill of racing, he can make an excellent cruiser.

You seem a bit upset toward the race scene........for most it's just a phase. That is as long as another cruising sailor doesn't get close to an old racer on the water on his boat

If so, IT"S ON!

Not upset at all, I'm trying to truthfully answer the OP's question.
Note that I did match racing myself and enjoyed it.


But you prove my point for me:

So while your cruising racer "get's it on" he is likely to forget:

- Safety of his inexperienced crew, requiring spinnaker or other fore deck work.
- Structural integrity of his yacht, pushing it harder than reasonable
- Well being of his crew, as he sails the boats "on the ear"
- Maintaining a pleasant atmosphere, resorting to aggression internally and externally.
- Cruising is more enjoyable if your family doesn't hate it


Does your wife hate sailing?
Can you truthfully say that you never fell into the above traps and that your boat have kind motions and reasonable cruising comfort?

[donradcliffe]

One of the things that racing teaches you is how hard you can safely push your boat, and when you are getting near the edge. These lessons in seamanship will help you cruise.

My wife enjoys sailing, but I learned long ago that it is not a good idea to bring wives as race crew. If they want to race, have them race with someone else.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Junk Viking

Not upset at all, I'm trying to truthfully answer the OP's question.
Note that I did match racing myself and enjoyed it.


But you prove my point for me:

So while your cruising racer "get's it on" he is likely to forget:

- Safety of his inexperienced crew, requiring spinnaker or other fore deck work.
- Structural integrity of his yacht, pushing it harder than reasonable
- Well being of his crew, as he sails the boats "on the ear"
- Maintaining a pleasant atmosphere, resorting to aggression internally and externally.
- Cruising is more enjoyable if your family doesn't hate it


Does your wife hate sailing?
Can you truthfully say that you never fell into the above traps and that your boat have kind motions and reasonable cruising comfort?

Many times I am joking a bit or overemphasizing in my posts.

When I said "it's on" when cruisers get somewhat close on the water, I meant the old racer and possibly the guy on the other boat will start paying a bit more attention to the wind, check his telltales and sail trim, maybe come off autopilot and start steering for speed

That's about it. No big changes

I sail single handed. The wife (exwife) and sometimes my son will visit when I sail across to their side of the bay to walk the trails and allow the dog to retrieve balls etc from the salt water. He loves it!

The exwife had enough of being on the water with me when she was in her teens off the North Carolina Coast on small power boats. That and after a few flips and pitchpoles on beach cats, she'd had enough

Btw, my boat seems to be on it's ear a lot. It's only 8' wide and I rarely reef unless it's over 20 knots or so and I'm trying to sail upwind. Plus, my "cruises" are relatively short 20-75 miles. (weekend warrior - vacationer) I will ease off the main and change direction a bit though if I'm trying to read, etc

As long as I can find a decent anchorage before dark I can deal with it. I have rarely sailed over night unless I was racing and even then we'd usually be in by 3am or so (during 100 mile beach cat distance races where the wind didn't cooperate)

[Interloper]

Both forums have pretty much run out of steam, so here's a final recap. I apologize for how busy it is, but I wanted to fit a lot on one page.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this thread!

[belizesailor]

Interesting that both the "Racers" and "Cruisers" reasons overlap significantly.

[Interloper]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Interesting that both the "Racers" and "Cruisers" reasons overlap significantly.

Yes it is. On the sail race forum, instead of just asking outright, I asked everyone to think back to before they started racing, and remember what was holding them back. Who knows if that helped or not. I know I can still remember my reasons for staying away years ago.

[belizesailor]

For me, I never gave those reasons much thought...it was another opportunity to sail and learn...so I took it.

Never had an Ahole skipper. In my experience the boats with a lot of yelling going on were usually not in the top of the fleet...and the last place we heard them was at the start. Its a pleasure to sail with a very competent race crew...almost silent aboard...except for the noise of running rigging and sails during a maneuver...hardly a word needs to be spoken.

I raced on a regular basis over a number of years with the same very competent captain and crew. Never any yelling aboard because everyone knew exactly what to do. We regularly finished in the top of the fleet. I never heard yelling from our top competitors either.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Interloper

On the sail race forum, instead of just asking outright, I asked everyone to think back to before they started racing, and remember what was holding them back. Who knows if that helped or not. I know I can still remember my reasons for staying away years ago.

Interesting.

I bought a sailboat then went directly into racing (as Skipper) after sailing it a couple times.........

This in the early 90's

[Sailmonkey]

This video always makes me laugh, it's the foredeck view of the world.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...pAXZfDBcUmdT4A

[Interloper]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

This video always makes me laugh, it's the foredeck view of the world.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...pAXZfDBcUmdT4A

Yeah, if that doesn't put you off racing...jeeeeeeez. Imagine if that was your first (and last) experience on a race boat!

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

This video always makes me laugh, it's the foredeck view of the world.

Bin there, done that, got the teeshirt!
And I still race regularly.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Interloper

Yeah, if that doesn't put you off racing...jeeeeeeez. Imagine if that was your first (and last) experience on a race boat!

Just remember the title of the video " if I'm yelling at you it's just for clarity"

I've been that guy.

[hoppy]

When I first started sailing keel boats, I raced on my uncles and then fathers cruising yachts in a club for the same manufacturer. There were race fleets of 30+ yachts at times made up of only 3 different model yachts. It was social and fun, both on the water and in the marina after.

I have not raced my boat as it has been in Greece for cruising, but soon she will be home in Melbourne early next year and I will start racing for a bit of fun and to be social around the club I just joined.

You can take racing a seriously as you want. If you don't want to stress your boat or take risks with safety that are beyond your comfort zone, you don't have to. If you don't want to risk collisions at the start line or course buoys you can sail those conservatively.

For cruising type yachts and novice crews, pursuit races with white sails only is a fun way to race. You have the start line pretty much to yourself and it is fun trying to hunt down the supposedly slower yachts in front of you.

[Captndave1]

Our club has encountered the same issue, very few racers anymore, We still race all our club races on a 45 year old boat and our crew average age is 70 years old and we still fly a spinnaker. Our philosophy is to go out and have a great day of sailing where nobody yells at anyone and if something breaks we accept that as part of racing. By the way, we have won club championship a lot of years and many in the last few years. We race for camaraderie and fun.
We keep trying to get some competition, but hard to do these days, disappointing.