Pardon the liberal use of cliches, but as somebody once said, ‘Sailing equates to standing in a cold shower tearing up £10 notes.’ If it’s racing, it will be £50 notes you’re shredding! And as a wise soul further commented, ‘The two happiest days in a sailor’s life are when one buys a yacht and then, when one sells it!’
That may not be strictly true, but even running a small cruising yacht on a modest budget is unlikely to count as ‘cheap’.
Sailing itself needn’t be expensive, however. My own route into sailing came after I gave up mountaineering, when, hitting my late 50s, my joints started complaining. I had sailed in my youth and in the Army, but boots and crampons were more affordable once I’d left the military. Having swallowed the ice axe – so to speak – like many I set out on the RYA programme, starting off with Competent Crew and then working my way through Day and Coastal Skipper. This undoubtedly gives a good grounding, but the issue then emerges, what to do when you have these tickets, but no boat?
As with driving a car, you only really learn to drive once you’ve got your licence, and I needed some experience to actually know what I was doing. I certainly wouldn’t disparage the RYA training programme and doing the tickets opened up my first affordable access to yachting.
I must have appeared reasonably competent when doing both my Day Skipper and Coastal Skipper, as both instructors suggested a solution.
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Esta historia es de la edición June 2024 de Yachting Monthly UK.
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How to rig preventers and boom brakes
Rigging a preventer or using a boom brake is just good seamanship when sailing downwind, but doing so badly is asking for trouble, says Rachael Sprot
Don't let Thames sewage kill off this lovely boat
Samuel Pepys mentions oysters in his diaries 68 times, but that was when they were as common as winkles along the banks of the Thames and when they were a source of cheap protein for the masses.
I finally found the magic of the sea
I won’t be in theatres with a notebook as much as usual this month – time for some wider, wetter horizons – but may be musing, as I often do, on how rare it is for theatre to express a convincing reality about the oceans and the trade or pursuit of seafaring.
TECHNICAL GOLDEN OLDIES
Ken Endean looks back on the boats he has owned over 50 years and explains why the hull lines of older yachts continue to offer first-class handling
HOW IT WORKS MARKING
Many cruising yacht skippers mark very little on board their boats.
TECHNICAL INSTALLING A NEW ENGINE
When a mysterious loss of coolant jeopardised his sailing, Andy Du Port knew the time had tome to replace his yacht’s:veteran Volvo Penta
NEW GEAR
Dennis O’Neill rounds up the latest marine innovations, including developments in women’s sailing jackets
MARIE TABARLY HONOURING HER FATHER
Marie Tabarly took line honours in the Ocean Globe Race, surpassing her father’s record while racing aboard his famous 73ft ketch Pen Duick VI
HEATHER THOMAS SMASHING RECORDS
In leading her all-female crew to victory in the OGR, Heather Thomas has broken records and taken women's sailing into the stratosphere
MAIDEN MAKES HISTORY AGAIN
Being the first all-female crew to win a round-the-world race is seismic in itself, but the diverse nationalities of the crew are just as significant for the future of sailing