Any sailors here?

I do, but most of my sailing these days is on my Laser, mostly because the kids love it. Easy to teach sailing on it, no sweat to upright it if you capsize it (which is fun to do deliberately on really hot summer days), good speed, etc.
 
Coralkong said:
It IS a shit-ton of work, and to be honest, it isn't very comfortable.
What surprised me most was how much a sailboat keels/leans. It was kind of frightening, actually.
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I live in RI (iirc you're in NH) and my buddy is always wanting to go sailing to Block Island. That's gotta be an 8 hour trip one way!! Fuck that! Besides I have no desire to spend that much time with him ...lmao
 
Funny sailing story:

I was out on the lake sailing up a storm. I came to the shore and gf wanted to go out for a ride. I put her in a life jacket, then gave her instruction on how to move about in the boat. I stressed than one must move quickly or the boat will tip over. I told her that if the boat tips over, it is very easy to upright. We practiced uprighting close to the shore.

Out we went. It was breezy, so we were flying across the lake. All of a sudden we hit a thermal. A thermal is like a dust devil. The sail swung, I moved and yelled for gf to move. She sat. The boat tipped over. She panicked and pulled the boat on top of her. The mast was sticking straight down and her head was in the part where you put your feet. I swam under and tried to pull her out. She continued panicking. The life jacket made it impossible to pull her out from under the boat. On the shore was a peanut gallery who were howling with laughter. I finally got her out from under the boat. She was screaming and out of control. She could not swim. I swam her to what I though was the shore. I swam back to the boat and uprighted it. I went to the shore near the peanut gallery. They were rolling on the ground with laughter. They said I left gf on an island. I looked back and sure enough, she was on an little island. She was livid and screaming. The gallery gave me a couple beers. I went back to get her. She said to go to the nearest shore and let her out. She wanted to know why I put her on an island. I did not have my glasses on so the island looked like the shore.

She has not asked to go on the boat since.
 
I always wanted to learn how to sail
Looking at the sail boats on the Hudson River near the Tappan Zee bridge got my interest. It just looked so peaceful.
 
When I was a teen, a friend had an Alcort Sunfish at Lake Michigan, and anytime a storm was coming, we could be found on the water, flying over the gale-wind-whipped waves and trying to avoid the Coast Guard. Haven't sailed since then, as I figured I probably used up a lifetime's worth of sailing mojo in high school!
 
Sailed as a kid, have gone out a handful of times since then with the kids, do not currently own a boat.
 
gtrjunior said:
A friend of mine has a sailboat and he is constantly trying to get me out sailing with him.
TBH, sailing doesn't sound like much fun at all...more like a shit ton of work and very little reward. Put me in powerboat any day.
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I don't know, I find it really relaxing. Once you get the sails trimmed and get in a groove you can just relax and have fun.
 
Coralkong said:
It IS a shit-ton of work, and to be honest, it isn't very comfortable.
What surprised me most was how much a sailboat keels/leans. It was kind of frightening, actually.
Click to expand...

Depends on the wind, I like going out when its around 10 knots and just cruise. Had 3 dolphins swimming next to the boat weekend before last.
 
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Coming in to Long Beach Shoreline Marina
 
I did some sailing in college.
One of my instructors had a 30 foot Mega and needed crew every week for the club regatta.

It was fun. Lake Ontario can deliver all kinds of conditions that make sailing interesting.

The Mega was an interesting vessel. The original intent was to have a boat that you could easily trailer.
It had a retractable keel and only an 8 foot beam. So, it easily fit on to a trailer and with the mast down you didn't have to worry about most overhead obstructions like bridges and wires.
He never did trailer it though.

He had a custom sail made for it that really made the boat move in low wind conditions.
Those days were the days we always won the regatta.
The retractable keel was handy too. If we weren't keeling over enough, he'd retract it a bit at a time until we reduced the draft as much as we could without capsizing. Everyone else would be running almost flat in the water.
 
dodgechargerfan said:
I did some sailing in college.
One of my instructors had a 30 foot Mega and needed crew every week for the club regatta.

It was fun. Lake Ontario can deliver all kinds of conditions that make sailing interesting.

The Mega was an interesting vessel. The original intent was to have a boat that you could easily trailer.
It had a retractable keel and only an 8 foot beam. So, it easily fit on to a trailer and with the mast down you didn't have to worry about most overhead obstructions like bridges and wires.
He never did trailer it though.

He had a custom sail made for it that really made the boat move in low wind conditions.
Those days were the days we always won the regatta.
The retractable keel was handy too. If we weren't keeling over enough, he'd retract it a bit at a time until we reduced the draft as much as we could without capsizing. Everyone else would be running almost flat in the water.
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was the custom sail the mail sail or the jib/genoa? Just curious. I have a 150% genoa which is great in low wind, the boat really moves. But I see more racing boats with a smaller jib.
 
rickenvox said:
was the custom sail the mail sail or the jib/genoa? Just curious. I have a 150% genoa which is great in low wind, the boat really moves. But I see more racing boats with a smaller jib.
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He had both, but the main sail is what I was referring to.
If I had to put it into words, it was like a humpback shape on the trailing edge, but only slightly.
We'd use different genoa sails depending on the wind.
 
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