Day Sailing

Snowgoose-1 · 1 Apr 2024

I seem to do more day sailing than trips in recent years. Without making a conscious effort to do so.

Is this a natural progression when starting to become ancient ?

Ironically, day sailing takes more out of me with all those jobs to do .

wombat88 · 1 Apr 2024

It is obvious but to get the most out of day sailing you need to reduce the time taken to get the boat ready and later to put it to bed.

The objective is to be able to step on board with a bag full of food etc and just go. Hours taken sorting out covers etc are wasted sailing hours.

Then you start to ask yourself whether you have the right boat for day sailing.

johnalison · 1 Apr 2024

Due to age and my wife’s health problems we haven’t been off on cruises for some years now. I miss the way the boats jobs, such as getting ready to leave or bringing the boat into a berth became part of the daily routine instead of needing my attention now.

neil_s · 1 Apr 2024

70 year old day sailer, here. I also seem to do more boat handling now - close quarters sailing in the harbour, spinnakering on my own, navigating shallow creeks and such like. No more full power motor to the bar beacon then sails up and set course for distant lands!

Wansworth · 1 Apr 2024

)

neil_s said:
70 year old day sailer, here. I also seem to do more boat handling now - close quarters sailing in the harbour, spinnakering on my own, navigating shallow creeks and such like. No more full power motor to the bar beacon then sails up and set course for distant lands!

Chichester is the perfect harbour for day sailing

wombat88 · 1 Apr 2024

Wansworth said:
)

Chichester is the perfect harbour for day sailing

Which is what I do but you need a boat small enough to easily beach outside clubs and pubs.

B27 · 1 Apr 2024

Wansworth said:
)

Chichester is the perfect harbour for day sailing

Only on the days when high tide is at the right time!

neil_s · 1 Apr 2024

Wansworth said:
)

Chichester is the perfect harbour for day sailing

Also pretty good for sitting in the sun, and drinking tea!

Biggles Wader · 1 Apr 2024

I like day sailing-----going out just to sail the boat without actually going anywhere else and paying for mooring, meals out which I don't really want and other tourist delights. It must be an age thing!

Wansworth · 1 Apr 2024

neil_s said:
Also pretty good for sitting in the sun, and drinking tea!

And watching the boats go by

MontyMariner · 2 Apr 2024

A day sail from my mooring isn't worth the effort. If I only have a day onboard I would just go and 'do jobs'.
I want a minimum of three days away to make it worth dropping the mooring lines.
Since retirement, I've been spoiled by going away for months at a time.

onesea · 2 Apr 2024

wombat88 said:
It is obvious but to get the most out of day sailing you need to reduce the time taken to get the boat ready and later to put it to bed.

As a slave to that thing called work, I often day sail. The costs of stops in the Solent means stoping is a rare thing.

Hard to justify a £15 lunch stop plus food, plus I day sail to enjoy my sail.

Part of my sailing is counted as time from house to boat 30 minutes. Mooring to sailing 30 minutes.

Keep things simple,

I also go through Phases:
Fair weather sailor,
Any weather sailor, fog, wind, calm etc

Although generally I don't do cold, wet and windy combined, 2 out of 3 is fine.

xyachtdave · 2 Apr 2024

There’s a lot of fun to be had bombing about in familiar waters for a few hours, no passage planning, or agonising over the following days weather, tides etc.

We launched on Thursday and obviously the weather hasn’t been great over the weekend so didn’t actually go anywhere but still got out for a couple of hours Saturday and Sunday grabbing the brief periods of nice breeze and no rain.

DanTribe · 2 Apr 2024

It's a phenomena I've noted.
Young people do adventurous trips in small cheap boats.
As they become more affluent their boats get bigger with more gadgets and they do fewer long trips.
Eventually they effectively have a country cottage which seldom leaves the boat park.
I'm guilty, though I do try to fight it.

Stemar · 2 Apr 2024

Even though we're well past our best before date (well, I am, Madame is maturing like a fine wine), we love going off for a few days at a time. Head out, lunch anchored in Osbourne Bay, then on to Newtown Creek or up the Medina. Or we'll turn left and head for Chichester. There are few things better in life than sitting at anchor on a sunny afternoon, sipping a chilled rosé

I won't say we never use marinas but, as a good Yorkshire lad, I avoid them when possible. There are lots of places to go that don't require the sale of a kidney, even in Lake Solent. Having a good anchor and a rough idea how to use it helps! Since we've had Jazzcat, refurbishment and dealing with "deferred maintenance" have prevented us going further afield, but this year we have plans for a daring blue water cruise to Weymouth.

DanTribe said:
Eventually they effectively have a country cottage which seldom leaves the boat park.

We do this too. If we're too tired or just plain lazy to go somewhere, a weekend on the club pontoon, or just on the mooring can be most enjoyable. There's nothing wrong with boat as weekend cottage, but it would appeal a lot less in a marina. A quiet mooring is so much nicer for that

benjenbav · 2 Apr 2024

I thought it was just me… My solution was to sell up. But perhaps a small, low maintenance day boat might be a good alternative?

ProDave · 2 Apr 2024

We day sail a lot. We can have the sails up 5 minutes after leaving the harbour. Harbour with parking on site and a short walk along the pontoon to get to the boat. Far better than a previous place we had a boat where you had 30 minutes of motoring in a narrow channel before you can put the sails up, and even to get to the boat was a 20 minute walk then a short row in a tender to a mooring.

I would not want an open day boat. The cabin of even the smallest cruiser is wonderful when it rains.

Snowgoose-1 · 2 Apr 2024

DanTribe said:
It's a phenomena I've noted.
Young people do adventurous trips in small cheap boats.
As they become more affluent their boats get bigger with more gadgets and they do fewer long trips.
Eventually they effectively have a country cottage which seldom leaves the boat park.
I'm guilty, though I do try to fight it.

I think lots of us are fighting it.

wombat88 · 2 Apr 2024

There are certain dinghies that appeal to the aged mariner. Gulls, scows, Tideways etc. Boats you sit in and not on. Boats that are unlikely to get you wet. Anything bigger can be hernia territory in a dinghy park.

oldmanofthehills · 2 Apr 2024

Snowgoose-1 said:
I think lots of us are fighting it.

Maybe some of you are fighting the tendency to have the boat as a country cottage, but I am not. In winter it makes a most excellent alternative residence in the yard - no need to fight that. In summer we voyage.

As now i am one third retired the temptation to extend the weekend both sides and go some where down channel is become irresistable, and having chosen to go zero hours no one can stop me from taking as long as I like. We spend between seven weeks and 14 weeks afloat a year recently. Moving the boat to a better cruising ground two and a half hours from home does restrict day sailing, but that is a small price to pay, though we may go for a day sail when mainly in cornwall for some YC event, or a quick shakedown cruise after some modification or other.

Perhaps I might buy a day boat for the Bristol Channel but the Navigator maintains that owning 2 rowing dinghies, 2 inflatables and 2 canoes, is quite sufficient

Day Sailing

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