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Getting Started
A guide to getting involved in sailing in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel
Hill area.
This section has two parts: the first gives you some background
on sailing and racing, and the second gives you a roadmap
for getting into the sport, with different paths depending
on your starting knowledge and interest.
Background on Sailing and Racing
About Sailing: To understand whether local sailing or sailboat
racing is attractive to you, it helps to understand four elements:
Sailing: Sailing is a really unique sport, unique
in the combination of the following characteristics:
- It can, under your control be as laid-back, relaxing as you
want, or as intense as you want. In can be just a pastime, or
a competitive sport. In many senses, it is really two different
sports: day-sailing or cruising, and sailboat racing.
- It is gender-blind: men compete against women, boys against
girls. Many crews are mixed gender. Except in some roles on some
boats where having some heavy people with lots of brute strength,
generally gender does not matter.
- It is as green, environmentally friendly, and nature-immersed
as you could imagine. Out on the water, with the breeze, no engine
(or no engine running).
- It can be either an individual activity, or a group activity.
One day you take the boat out alone and commune with nature -
or race "single handed", another day you sail with a
group or race with a team. Pick to suit your interests. (All the
boats in the club can easily be sailed alone; some are normally
raced with one person, others are normally raced with two or three.)
- It is a full life sport: kids learn as young as 6, and seniors
race through their 70's and sail in their 80's. Some people don't
pick the sport up until their 50's or 60's. Once you pick the
sport up, it is fun for life. If you race, you can be competitive
with the adults from mid teens to well into the 70's. Many crews
or teams have an age range from 30 to 60 years. The key reason
it is a full-life sport, by the way, is as you become less agile
- and less interested in a real physical workout - you have more
knowledge and experience to apply to the sailing and racing.
- Sailing skill is transferable between boats of radically different
sizes. The" problem" is the same, whether you are sailing
a small sunfish, or a 40' cruising "yacht". Some different
things need to be learned, for sure, but most of what you need
for the big boat you already know if you are a good Sunfish sailor.
The rest is easy to pick up.
- Because of most of the prior characteristics, it is a great
family sport. Spouses enjoy sailing or racing together, kids like
racing or sailing with their parents. Note: during the worst teenage
years, when your kids don't want to be seen within half a mile
of you, there is a good chance that they will still be glad to
sail or race with you. That alone is worth the price of admission….
- Lastly, novice company: unless it is really a one-person boat,
you always can take along someone who knows absolutely nothing
about sailing, and they can both contribute and have a great time.
Racing: Sailboat racing, always an option, adds
a lot and also has some interesting, not widely recognized characteristics.
- It obviously is a competitive sport, and can be as competitive
as you want it to be.
- It is a vehicle for adding more camaraderie to the sailing,
with the other boats and crew that you are now involved with.
Much of this is before or after the racing, both purely socially
and diagnosing what really went on. Many sailors' best friends
are the people they race against.
- Most important, racing is perhaps the fastest way to learn
to really sail well. Going the same direction with several other
identical boats, you rapidly discover what works, and what works
better.
- As you wish, it adds structure to your sailing schedule. Instead
of each Saturday morning wondering if conditions are perfect for
you to sail - and then finding out that the others (family) already
have plans, with racing there is a set schedule, you know what
weekends have racing, when it starts, etc. You can plan ahead,
and then really make it happen.
- Unrecognized by non-sailors, racing is essentially entirely
an amateur sport. There is no professional circuit. You can sail
against (and learn from) the best; for a very few of the top regattas
there is some qualifying to get in, but that is just skill based.
In golf terms, all regattas are 'opens'.
- Races are self run without referees or judges; all self policed,
with the people running the race essentially just firing the starting
gun and recording the order of finish. In contrast, in basketball
it's not a foul unless the ref blows the whistle; in sailing,
you know the rules and take a penalty if you violate them. (OK,
it's a little more complicated than that, but you got the basic
idea. And the America's Cup uses on-the-water refs; but that is
very unusual, and you won't be in the America's Cup anyway. )
One-Design Racing. The basic idea behind one-design
racing is that all the boats in a given class are identical, and
significant enhancements are not allowed ("one design").
Why?
- The boats in the class being identical limits what the boats
initially cost, and what enhancing you can do to them. This in
turn prevents it being a contest of who can spend the most, and
instead makes it a contest of who can sail better. Racing One-design
boats holds down the cost of being competitive.
- Having identical boats maximizes the knowledge sharing between
boat owners, and also allows spare part sharing. To help newcomers,
members of the class know what boats are available for sale, how
to judge a good one, what the cost should be, etc. The existence
of an active class also makes it easier to sell your boat when
that time comes.
- One design classes usually have many regattas within traveling
distance throughout the season. There are places to go (Wrightsville,
Charleston, Charlotte, etc.) with ready-made events to participate
in.
- The larger one-design classes have national or international
organizations, newsletters, national Championships, etc.
Carolina Sailing Club: The club is an "off
the beach" club, with no real estate. We run events in state
facilities. We race 5 one-design classes, plus an open fleet of
any other kind of boat. We race year round, mostly on Kerr Lake
or Jordan Lake. What does the club provide?
- We run races. This is possible because
- we own the power boats, buoys, flags, radios needed to do so
- we share the work needed to run them
- We provide the opportunity meet other people interested in
sailing; there is plenty of socializing, partially just chewing
the fat about sailing and racing, partially just having a good
time.
- We provide the setting for lots of peer help. The club has been
around since 1956. US Sailing, the national governing body of
the sport, recognized the club as the One-Design Club of the Year
in 1987, the first year the award was given.
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