Twenty years from now

Leads on to perhaps another thread entirely.  But Sailing can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be.  I am 33 years old, have a good job, house, 2 kids and a wife with a particular taste for handbags.  I have two hobbies now, cycling and sailing.  I never went to Uni and our club was so far off the beaten track i never heard of squad sailing.  However I did stop sailing at around 16-22  I found beer, girls, lads holidays, girls, cars, girls so much more interesting.  Once i had met my now wife and we had our first child i settled back down and started again.  I had no money to start with and sailed a £250 solo as things became better i upgraded.  I have spent years now travelling around the country in various classes having a great time with like minded people.  However its been at the sacrifice of family time, something which as my kids grow older and less interested in me I cherish.  The only reason i got back into sailing was my brother and mate still did it.  If they had also of left there is no way I would of come back.  As a sport i find it similar in cost to cycling.  But that i guess is down to me.  One thing i was amazed with recently was the cost of Abersoch Dinghy week, something i used to go to every year religiously.  My wife and kids got bored of sitting on the beach especially after a year of constant rain.  That i agreed to take them abroad the following year.  We now spend 10 days in somewhere hot, all inclusive at a significantly cheaper prices than would could stay in abersoch.  We looked at going backthis year but frankly the mind boggles as to the pricing!!!  I cant see us going back any time soon now.  We worked out that with food, house rental, entry fee etc. we would see no change from £2000 for the week!  

I really envy people who know/knew what they wanted to be in life, I just muddled through mine with as much of an emphasis on going out to play and selling toys for those of like minds to do that, never did I dream it might have turned int a proper business but it did lucky for me.

My 'smug' comment was not meant to be particularly offensive but we are all different, our personalities send us along different paths. My path was perhaps more in tune with young Woodburner....but without the millions. How I look back and wish I had tried harder at school, found a proper job and concentrated on life. But, you know, I never would have behaved like that because my personality precluded it. That is where my smug bit comes in. None of us is capable of replicating the life of another, there is no right way and no wrong way, just different ways. But this is a sailing forum (with the odd philosophical touch) and I like sailing my £150 Lightning and enjoying my sailing friends company. I am lucky to be able to continue...long may it last, another 20 years?

The cycling equivalent of the sailing Open Meeting is the "Sportives" which of varying quality are now mushrooming with a good choice most warmer weekends. 

I love sailing, especially the classes I have sailed, but I stopped for the many years I played rugby. This thread has made me question why? I think the answer is that it lacks excitment, it will never, ever replace the feeling of pure anticipation sitting in a changing room with the rest of the team not knowing what you are about to face. Sailing could do this but doesn't, the structure from top to bottom is drab, formulaic, repetative and often down right boring. I once watched a nameless class for whom I was acting as PRO hound out a competitor because he had modified his boat and broke the pecking order, his class committee was all over it with some very flimsy rules until they found one he may (?) have broken, he left, went home and sold his boat. Just do something with the sport or why bother with another 20 years?