Lost Mojo..

It's just the Winter blues.  Short days & sh!te weather.    I don't bother anymore with Winter sailing as it's often too cold.  And if it's not cold it's blowing gale with horizontal rain.  That's not enjoyable.  So, I write off Winter as a time for sailing and try and get the garden done, mend fences, dig the veg patch, fix the house, go somewhere warm for a holiday, walk, have friends round for supper, see family etc.    I do nothing to the boat; I don't even look at it.  

Then when Spring comes, I nip off down to the club, get the cover off the boat, put the sail up and I'm sailing in 10 minutes.   I try and do the Wed evening series and a Sunday  race series.  That's it.   And the odd OD duty.   I know I'm not a good club social member but nor would I be if I just drove to opens every w/e.    But it works for me and I feel I get good value from the club.  This sort of sailing  doesn't mess with my family life and nor did it when my kids were young.  I just sailed a boat we could sail together; N12s, a Firefly, a Tasar (great boat !) and latterly a B14.  If the kids were doing something else, I just found another crew.   Sure, the results were a bit patchy but it was fun.

I choose to sail in the handicap series because I can sail the boat I want.   Thinking back, I almost always have done this.   Perhaps I'm not right in the head but I like h/c racing.  I find it far more interesting than processional class racing.   I like racing against different boats that all have their on preferred mode of sailing and being able to exploit this.    The fleets are often bigger and as for not knowing where you finish, I think that's rot.   I generally know where I finish within a place or two and that gets confirmed online a little while later. 

Sure, wind strength can turn things on their head a bit in h/c racing but it's all part of the mix I enjoy.  The main thing is I get to complete  a couple of race series in the season and that's good enough for me.    The thought of having to drive hundreds of miles every w/e to get a sail is, to me, utterly absurd.   I want to be in the boat not the car.

Originally posted by craiggo Jeez, you lot are bloody morose! Instead of spending your whole lives looking for some unachievable panacea of sailing, just get a boat, any boat and just sail it and sail it lots. Stop moaning about being at the back of the fleet, stop moaning that the boat was made for people 1/2oz lighter than you and just sail and enjoy the sailing. If you spend more than one weekend a year sailing the damn thing you never know you might actually get better at it!!!!

Yes, that being said, I have two dogs and no kids.  Makes a real difference.  The dogs go to their Nanneke (dutch grandma) when we want to go away. I live 15 minutes from the sailing club.  A much easier life than many.

But don't be envious - the joy of mini me should never be under estimated, I can see that in my friends.

I never found windsurfing less time consuming than sailing. Let see, keep checking the wind, get the roof rack out. Put it on 15 mins, get the board and quiver down, strap to roof, drive to somewhere with wind, untie everything, start to rig, change mind on fin, change mind on sail size, try to reset harness lines, get changed, tension the rig, get in water.......have fun.....crawl ashore, de rig, change, repack, tie down, drive back, untie, put board and quiver away, undo roof rack and put away, collapse, day gone!

Originally posted by yellowwelly The fact that you need to take a week to train for the euros if you haven't sailed it much kind of support Simon's POV no?   And the fact that you are not club sailing it, but concentrating on the circuit (the same conclusion I had come to with my 100 for the second season) does also not go unnoticed mate. I'm sure they are good boats, but you are quite right the endless packing, unpacking, travelling (on the inside lane at 50) and arriving to find that 3 hours on the motorway heading away from a decent forecast, is reason enough to put some of us off treading in your footsteps. So yes, mojo definitely at an all time low for seeking out 'quality' dinghy racing and with none available in a suitable craft locally, it just makes sense to change directions a little- be that on a board, sailing with kids or scaling back to something like a laser and keeping it cheap and cheerful... but I'm glad you've got the Grad to keep yourself on the water and enjoying sailing in general.     Now over to Graeme... any solutions to get him out of the latest lycra obsession- road biking... whatever next?  (And cross country running.... purleaaseee, surely no one still goes looking in the woods for a porn stash these days?)

Jeez, you lot are bloody morose!

Instead of spending your whole lives looking for some unachievable panacea of sailing, just get a boat, any boat and just sail it and sail it lots. Stop moaning about being at the back of the fleet, stop moaning that the boat was made for people 1/2oz lighter than you and just sail and enjoy the sailing. If you spend more than one weekend a year sailing the damn thing you never know you might actually get better at it!!!!

As for my mojo, apart from having to remove all the deck varnish and epoxy over the winter and redo, and a bit of a re-stringing, I am really looking forward to April and the start of our dinghy season. My 5yr old daughter loves racing and loves crewing in the Graduate and I love sailing it with her, and for midweek races I can burn some energy and get an adrenaline rush from sailing my 700. Bring on the Springtime and bring on the sailing and please bring an end to the moaning!!!!!!!!!