Moving by sail is carbon neutral
We’re not talking about buying offsets, sequestering harmful gases, or using risky nuclear power. A hoisted sail moves you through space using energy already present and accessible in the air around you. No engines need to start, no electricity needs to be pumped in, yet you and your friends can still race around a lake, sail to the ocean, or circumnavigate the globe. Sure, it takes some patience on low wind days. But what’s so bad about drifting slowly through sun?
Sailing can be relatively laziness
Did you know sailing is an Olympic sport? And that it frequently involves periods of sitting and waiting while the wind does the work? Just try that technique in the biathlon. Besides, in what other sport can you be valued just for having weight? On a heeling boat, the simple act of moving your personal mass to the windward side can do a great deal.
People will want to be your friend
There are far more people who would like to sail than people who actually do. As someone who once counted himself among the former, I know the pangs of longing, the hopes of befriending a mysterious stranger who would share his knowledge of currents and wind, take me on his boat where we’d set a course for distant lands, looking into the mist with a stoic gaze and maybe one of those red Life Aquatic hats. Mention that you sail and are looking for new people to take out, and you’re nearly guaranteed a few phone numbers. To placate the doubters I’ll mention that, now a sailor myself, I’ve been propositioned by any number of new acquaintances looking to sail, the most memorable of which was the street performer who played a homemade percussion instrument, by which I mean that he hit the sidewalk with a stick to which he had fastened a collection of bells, beads, and tambourines. Sailing has its challenges but finding crew isn’t one of them.
High potential for plush adventure
By what other non-motorized means can you travel beyond the bounds of civilization while retaining the ability to easily live in relative luxury? Compared to backpackers, kayakers, or other outdoor travelers, I suspect sailors carry a far larger quantity of books, non-dehydrated food, and their beverages of choice. Even on a modestly sized cruising boat, it’s possible to sleep on a mattress, cook on a stove, and take care of more personal business in a head (what the landlubbers among us call a bathroom).
Participating in a long-standing human tradition
Although there’s no definitive date for the invention of the sailboat, it can be generally agreed that people have been moving over water by wind power for thousands of years. Were it not for sailing, how often would you participate in something practiced continuously since the construction of the pyramids? No matter how vintage your threads, how original your vinyl collection, or how outdated your cell phone, sailing trumps all the rest in the old school showdown. The modern sailing lexicon offers a few reminders of the sport’s connection to an earlier time. In what other sport could you legitimately yell “jibe, ho!” or secure something using a “shackle” or refer to a sailor stalled into the wind, unable to move, as being stuck “in irons?” In the case of these last two terms, we’re reminded not only that sailing comes to us from times long past, but that times long past were cruel, had more ways to chain you up, and are something to be glad you don’t live in.
-Nick
