Inland vs Sea

   Surely the point is all sailing is making the best of nature. Some venues have wind that goes round and round, some have water which moves in and out roughly every six hours.We're all entitled to our preferences but some of the jaundiced views suggest to me what people are saying is they prefer racing over sailing, which is also cool if that's your thing. 

Poll Question: Where do you prefer sailing?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Inland	11	[44.00%]
Sea	14	[56.00%]
You can not vote in this poll

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Do Different Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 26 Jan 12 Location: North Online Status: Offline Posts: 1312	Post Options Post Reply Quote Do Different Report Post Quote Reply Topic: Inland vs Sea Posted: 06 May 22 at 4:40pm
	Surely the point is all sailing is making the best of nature. Some venues have wind that goes round and round, some have water which moves in and out roughly every six hours. We're all entitled to our preferences but some of the jaundiced views suggest to me what people are saying is they prefer racing over sailing, which is also cool if that's your thing.

mole Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Groupie Joined: 02 Feb 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 43	Post Options Post Reply Quote mole Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 06 May 22 at 5:04pm
	I was lucky enough to learn to sail on the sea, it gives you a great respect for the power of wind and waves combined. But I also enjoyed the challenge of inland racing, Redoubt in Kent effectively has two lakes joined by a 'cut'. Great fun trying to get through when boats are going both ways. I quickly noticed how boat handling skills were important inland, sail smooth and keep the boat moving. On the sea you can just wait for the next following wave. Can't beat reaching down wind with a following sea, surfing down waves, so I guess its the sea for me.

CT249 Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 08 Jul 06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 399	Post Options Post Reply Quote CT249 Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 07 May 22 at 1:23am
	For me it's the sea for actual sailing and racing, but inland clubs have a lot of benefits in terms of access to populace, easy launching, etc. So estuaries, which combine the two, are perfect! :-) I grew up on an estuary and for years only raced at sea, but over the last few years I've been mainly an inland sailor and it's been good for my sailing. IMHO you can hit the sea for a weekend and get lots of good training in, but learning to handle inland conditions seems to normally just take week after week of racing. I do get what Eric said about the inland venues that create some sailors who are only good in one set of conditions, but the same thing can apply to ocean venues. One major thing could be that a country that values inland sailing (the UK in particular but perhaps also Germany) will almost always have a bigger and better sailing scene than those that downgrade it and therefore make the sport less accessible to most people.

The Q Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Posting king Joined: 07 Feb 22 Location: Norfolk Broads Online Status: Offline Posts: 126	Post Options Post Reply Quote The Q Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 07 May 22 at 7:37am
	I've sailed dinghies in several places in the sea, the Hebrides, Scarborough, Saudi. (You want salt try Saudi). I've sailed dinghies inland, in the Hebrides, kielder water, Shotwick, Cheddar, Gull island Pond (Falklands), four places round MK, and all over the Norfolk Broads. Each place requires a different type of sailing, but inland requires much better boat handling, especially on the smaller lakes. People on the larger waters like cheddar and kielder really didn't like me sailing 6inches apart as we do commonly on the Norfolk Broads. Also I find in very light wind days on the sea I found the seagoing sailers were not that good. Having been used to the light winds of the Norfolk Broads I was used to spotting the next little patch of air to aim for.. We've had sea going sailers turn up for opens and thing like the 3 Rivers Race, and they really don't do well tacking up 50ft wide rivers busy with sailors and hire boats... Hmm 9mph north easterly forecast tomorrow with low tide at Horning about 12:00, so the tides not going to be too strong either way, but a running start on the river.. once round the corner there won't be much wind between the houses.
	Still sailing in circles

mongrel Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 27 Aug 08 Online Status: Offline Posts: 304	Post Options Post Reply Quote mongrel Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 08 May 22 at 7:35am
	My experience of being a member of a large inland club and smallish coastal club is as follows - Sailing inland on a lake/reservoir can be so much more convenient/safer than sailing on the sea. Launching your boat down a nice concrete slipway within 10 metres of where the cover was removed, not worrying about the tide taking your trolley away while you’re sailing is so convenient. My old club in the midlands was a decent sized reservoir, the racing area would be probably twice the size of the racing area used by my coastal club. Inland the marks were permanently positioned and the course would be set according to the wind direction, you’d normally get at least two upwind legs and a variety of reaches and runs downwind. The coastal club would have to send a rib out with 3 buoys and set a triangle, which could end up being a one-sided beat and two dodgy downwind legs. Inland you could turn up and launch and use the marks to set a course to practice, if you had a serious breakage it would result in a long walk back rather than a trip on a lifeboat. Also I’d sail in much stronger wind strengths inland than I would on the sea, probably because of my perception of the risks, the inland club would also run races in higher wind strengths than the coastal club. Certain wind directions on the coast can build a large swell where you intend to launch from which results in no sailing, even relatively low wind strengths can cause this. I think you can really improve at racing sailing quite rapidly at an inland club whereas it would take years to reach a similar level sailing at one coastal club, that said some areas have a variety of coastal clubs that sail on different days, so you could sail at 3 or 4 to get more racing. I would say that sailing at a coastal club can give you a day of sailing that you’ll always remember as one of your best sailing experiences, when the sun’s out, force 4, nice waves its perfect, you just can’t get that inland. Also sailing along the coastline to another beach for a beer is a great experience, especially for someone who grew up in the midlands. Edited by mongrel - 08 May 22 at 8:39am

turnturtle Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 05 Dec 14 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2538	Post Options Post Reply Quote turnturtle Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 08 May 22 at 8:15am
	Great post - exactly my experience too

Guests Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Guest Group	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Quote Reply Posted: 08 May 22 at 8:21am
	That sums up my experiences perfectly Mongrel! Also, on the coast, especially in a singlehander, you scratch the living days lights off the bottom of the hull as leaving the boat on the beach whilst you fetch your trolley is unavoidable. On a lake you can leave it where you launched.

mongrel Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Far too distracted from work Joined: 27 Aug 08 Online Status: Offline Posts: 304	Post Options Post Reply Quote mongrel Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 08 May 22 at 8:57am
	The other I apsect missed from my post is the time spent at the club, I don’t really do much socialising at sailing clubs as I need to spend time with my wife too. You could rock up to an inland club 30mins before the start, peel the cover off and go, then be back home 30 mins after the race. At the coastal club, the safety boat has to be set-up, engine warmed thru’, marks loaded on, etc. then collectively everyone has to muck in to get the rib down to and across the beach, and get the rib launched. The folk on the rib then get the marks dropped and set a start line. Then everyone else launches and sailing out to the start, with a variety of classes there’s a range of time its takes for some boats to make it to the start. If a boat gets into difficulties, then the rib up- anchors and goes to assist which then can delay the start. At our coastal club it would be handicap racing from a mass start, the race would be roughly 50 mins for the first boat but this could be 1.5hours for the last boat. Then the marks would need to be retrieved and the rib recovered, hose down, engine flushed thru’, etc.. An evening race of about an hour would mean you’d be gone for 4 hours, I struggle to justify being away for that length of time so find myself jumping on a mountain bike for an hour or so instead these days. Edited by mongrel - 08 May 22 at 8:57am

423zero Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 08 Jan 15 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 3420	Post Options Post Reply Quote 423zero Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 08 May 22 at 11:29am
	My first trip out to sea was from Lowestoft, what a disaster, we were supposed to be sailing to Peterhead, we left on the tail end of a big storm, so the sea was still rough (this was late seventies). Left river mouth, turned up north, we were met by waves the size of vans, not breaking though, but we were repeatedly dropping off the top into the following wave. From leaving the side Skipper was repeatedly banging the top of the radar and muttering to himself. Then a fog bang rolled in, Skipper then found out the radio decided it had had enough. No option but to turn back, that was a laugh. We were all desperate not to hear the bell from the beach . Two hours after leaving we were back tied up. Edited to add, it was Great Yarmouth, (Lowestoft was later). Edited by 423zero - 08 May 22 at 10:42pm
	Robert

The Q Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Posting king Joined: 07 Feb 22 Location: Norfolk Broads Online Status: Offline Posts: 126	Post Options Post Reply Quote The Q Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 09 May 22 at 7:07am
	Sadly not all inland sites can keep their marks out, whether we be on the Broad or on the river the marks have to be taken back in... Or you might find some holiday maker in the bushes having moored his 40ft hire motor boat to a mark with a 5 lb weight on it.. yep they've tried even during a race, though that was a 20ft hire day motor boat.. If you have a breakage though and the rescue boats are elsewhere on the course of the river, you just paddle to the side of the river and another competitor will tell the nearest rescue boat as they pass. Fixed marks can be dodgy too, I've sailed at clubs where they always use the same marks, always trying to set up a sausage samoza, from the same start line, so you get strange angles to the wind and when it's the normal south westerly it can get very boring. A variety of courses makes life more interesting. It's one of the reasons I've stayed at Horning Sailing club, we do on the river at the club, up at the Broad doing a variety of courses, and the most of civilised races Down river to a pub, have lunch and then race back.. Edited by The Q - 09 May 22 at 7:10am
	Still sailing in circles