Pictures of boats

Welcome to my web site. Here you'll find movies and pictures of boats to entertain and delight. All freshwater sailing enthusiasts will be interested in the sailing dinghies. If you live in Cheshire or nearby, you might like to join our sailing club at Winsford Flash.

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Formula for Success

Have you ever tried to explain to a non sailor what makes sailing so fascinating and challenging, or harder yet, justify why it often seems that the only thing sailors even think and talk about is sailing? When I was working out in the local college gym for the Laser Worlds to be held in Australia, in the course of friendly conversations I was repeatedly asked which sport I was in training for. I answered "sailing" and, with distressing regularity, was met with a somewhat confused "Oh," and then silence.

My first reaction was to rush in with a heartfelt explanation of the mental and physical complexities of the sport, followed by a vigorous demonstration of the many positions the sailor assumes throughout the race. But just as quickly I realized that most of these people had little in their backgrounds with which to relate to what I was talking about. And besides (they probably thought), sailing is never on ABC's Wide World of Sports, except for the time those guys burned their boat in the 1976 Olympics. So how important could it be, anyway?

Finally after much thought and a few rapid bench presses to work up a sweat, I cornered a particular sceptic and put it to him this way: "Take pro football - a pretty complex sport, right? But every game is played on the same size field, in the same amount of time, against the same number of players, week after week, all over the country. Now imagine just for a minute, that every field was a different size; that, in fact, the boundaries continually changed during the game. Furthermore, the playing surface moved along under the feet of players and varied in speed and direction throughout the game. In addition, some areas of the field were soggy, others icy, and still others sandy, with irregular one foot high ridges running all over.

The game would still be intricate; offence vs. defence with the height premium on excellent individual performance. But there would be only eleven guys per team: no specialist teams, no offensive unit separate from the defensive unit, no punt return team, and no guy to come out just to kick the extra point. In fact, there will be no substitutes, no trainers, and no coaches high up in the grandstands looking down on the game, analysing the upcoming defensive formations and quickly radioing down the correct play of offence to use". (My mind raged with the image of a sky full of blimps hovering over the entire race course radioing tack after tack to their sailors, while little rubber dinghies shovelled in fresh skippers and crews at strategic points in the race).

By now, though I was not sure he was getting the point, my sceptic was beginning to show distinct signs of intimidation and had definitely begun to rethink his image of sailors. I was having a great time. "In addition," I continued, "There will be no referees passing instant judgements on rule infractions. Rather, the infractions would be noted down and, after the game, those involved would appear before a panel of austere and knowledgeable judges, who may or may not have watched the game. Imagine mean Jo Green accusing Dick Butkus of holding him. Both gentleman would have the opportunity to state what happened, question each other to determine the exact place and nature of the alleged infraction, and call witnesses to aid in their case if ..."

"But all that could take for ever!" My sceptic suddenly blurted out. And with active restraint to a huge inner grin that went from ear to ear, I answered politely, "Yes, it could." My sceptic had begun to see the light.

When you really stop to think about it, sailing is possibly the most complex sport in the world.

Dave Perry - "Winning in One-Designs"