Why Do You Sail?

by Alex
(London, UK)

The reason I sail is to relieve my self of stress and I know many people do the same. If I don't go to sailing one week, I am usually moody and unresponsive for the rest of the week. Sailing is my dose of medecine that gets me through the week and looking forward to the Saturday when I can experience natural movement and the feeling of flying.

The emotions are incomprehensible and are difficult to describe. I suppose one might be exhilaration and the feeling of freedom (even though a lake can be quite constricting, so I am refering more towards ocean sailing).

I don't think yachting comes close to the feelings one experiences on a small 14 foot dinghy sailboat travelling at around 5-6 knots if not more. The movements and judders of the boat moving over a particularly large crest or hitting a patch of strong wind are so totally different to what happens on a yacht.

Yachting is for older people who have slower reactions as it is inadvisable on a yacht to be continually changing the mainsheet or gibsheet, but on a dinghy it is absolutely essential. A yacht cannot take advantage of small piece of strong wind whilst the agile dinghy can.

This is not meant to be an attack on yachts, but it is meant to be the reason why I sail dinghies and prefer dinghies.

So now I turn the tables over to you. Why do you sail?