Sailing? On a ship? Didn’t someone invent a motor boat? Why would I learn to sail?
Yes, sailing still exists. And it lies in that perfect space between artform and technical skill. Sailing is like golf, you can become great but you’ll always be challenged to be more perfect. Learning to read the wind and waves requires concentrated effort and an attention to detail. Time enables you to adjust the sails a little better each year. So why should you learn to sail? Mainly because it’s fun, challenging and teaches you a ton of life skills. Sailing is the perfect hobby that involves beautiful water, skill, competition and a chance to get away from your normal grind. It also has a deep history and lessons that impact your entire life. Let’s talk about why adults should learn to sail.
How many sailors are out there?
In the US, estimates say that 3.5 to 4 million people a year sail at least once a year. 1.2 million people sail at least seven times a year (more than once every other month). There are almost 2 million professional sailors (on sailing vessels) worldwide. The sport – possibly due to Covid – has started to pick up again. Sailing schools are reporting higher interest in learning to sail than in past years. It’s a way to exercise, enjoy the outdoors and learn all at the same time.
It is estimated that more than 2.5 million people take a chartered or bareboat sailing vacation each year. Without sailing experience, you also pay for a captain on rented sailboats. However, once you learn to sail and gain experience, you can rent your own sailboat without a captain; this is called bareboat sailing. In 2017, my wife and I with another couple rented a boat in the British Virgin Islands and sailed around enjoying snorkeling, hiking the islands, swimming in the ocean and perfect weather. It’s hard to imagine a more amazing vacation than a bareboat cruise where you wake up each day and decide which island to sail towards.
What are the benefits of sailing?
Sailing is the perfect hobby. It allows you to escape to water and learn a skill while getting exercise. Sailing does require concentration, so it takes your mind off the problems and issues in your life. And it can be done solo or as a team. Once you learn to sail you can bring along friends, family, kids, or anyone else. They won’t need experience to help you on the boat. You can teach as you skipper your sailboat across the water and use your companions as deck hands to help get tasks completed.
By being outside, you’re exposed to the sun and get that critical vitamin D. The physical aspects of raising the main sail or tacking the sailboat or docking will keep you moving around. And the sway of the ocean will relax your body and mind in a way few other hobbies or sports can do.
Finally, sailing focuses your mind and senses on the water and the waves. Learning to adjust to wind and maximize the speed or tack into the wind to get to a destination challenges your mind and skills. Every time you step foot on a sailboat you’re likely to learn something that improves your skills and understanding of the world. Little details like the luffing of a jib can tell an experienced sailor exactly how to adjust his sailboat. It’s an amazing thing to be able to guide a ship with nothing but the wind.
Skills you learn from sailing
In addition to reading the wind, sailors learn a ton of other useful life skills. The first one tends to be knots. Understanding how to tie a bowline and when to use a reef knot can be useful even off of your sailboat. Learning the confidence to deal with real challenges on the water: what happens with the canvas on your ship when an unexpected squall pops up? Can you reef your sails quickly while maintaining control of the sailboat?
As you advance you learn how to fix an engine while on the water. How to perfectly dock a boat solo. And over time you’ll become better and better at reading the wind and water to understand how it will impact your boat.
Where do you learn to sail?
Are you landlocked? So am I. But it turns out that lakes are an excellent place to learn to sail. They enable you to start by learning the wind without the waves. As you move up in your sailing education, you’ll move on to ocean sailing at some point. But you can learn a lot from a twenty foot schooner on a lake. To start, find a sailing school near you. Without exception there is a sailing school within an hour of your location. You might be surprised. Even in landlocked places: Atlanta, Georgia sailing schools. Even Phoenix, Arizona has sailing schools. But others (like San Diego) do have more.
A lot of these sailing schools use the American Sailing Association’s sailing curriculum. So as you take classes, you’ll get certified from the ASA. These certifications, along with general sailing experience, allow you to rent boats anywhere in the world. ASA classes start with ASA 101: Basic sailing curriculum and move into more advanced classes like navigation or advanced coastal cruising. These schools are very used to teaching landlubbers who have never tried to sail before. It’s usually easier to teach a future sailor if they have not already learned bad habits. So find a school near you and give them a call. Sailing can change your life.
Sailing schools can start young. We've seen everyone from high school or college kids through adults get the sailing bug. Younger kids can learn to sail, but usually won't take a boat out alone.
By the way, we created Sailor’s Salt as a digital resource to track your sailing experience and share it over time. So as you start, be sure to create your free sailing account and simply add the details each time you sail. You can also connect with your sailing buddies and track their sailing adventures over time.
How can sailing improve my life?
In addition to teaching your amazing skills from knots to reading the wind, sailing opens up an entirely new set of vacation opportunities for you and the family. Remember my trip to the British Virgin Islands? Once you get some other couples onboard your sailboat with you, it’s about the same price as renting a decent hotel room. For a few grand, you can rent a sailboat for a week and take it from beach to beach, snorkeling all the way. Much better than dragging a cooler out to a beach, this is living on the water for a week and changing your plans based on how you feel that day.
Sailing adds confidence, knowledge and a skill to you. And it’s pretty impressive to tell friends and family that you’re a Salty Sailor (“Salty” means good/experienced). And that you can rent a million dollar boat on the cheap and take them to some of the most gorgeous places on earth just using the wind. My personal goal is to rent a sailboat in Greece with friends and sail around the Greek islands like a billionaire.
Join the club. Sailing club, I mean
Sailors are their own tribe and have the own language and customs. Being a Salty Sailor isn’t about your age, it’s about your skill. You have to know a lifeline from a keel. Starboard from Port. A mainsail from a genoa. But once you start learning, you are participating in an artform that enabled the discovery of America. Success comes from the effort. Sailors have been on the water since about 3500 BC. And the earth is covered in water. Don’t just explore the land, learn to master the seas by raising the sails on your own vessel. Learn to sail.
