Sailing: A Cash Cruise?

Growing up in the North of Germany, near the Baltic Sea, I have a lot of friends who love to go sailing. They are taking their boats out on the water every chance they get. Even though they asked a few times, I never joined them. I always had preconceptions about sailing and never thought of it as a “real” sport. Back then, I never thought I would be joining a sailing crew.

I was living in Toronto for just about a week when my landlady Emily called and asked me to help out at a race. Her crew was short-staffed and needed some helping hands. I told her that I will only be in their way, as I had no idea about sailing. Emily asked me: “Do you know how to pull a rope?” I couldn’t say no to that.

When I arrived at the Yacht Club, I started to warm up to the idea of going out on Lake Ontario. It was a sunny day and a nice breeze was blowing around my nose. While I was walking down the dock towards the boat we would be racing on, I saw expensive-looking boats all around and I thought to myself: “This is such a posh place. Everyone here must be loaded.”

But when Emily introduced me to the crew, my conception of a sailor was shaken. I was surprised to see people my age and also two more women. Also, I learned that sailing doesn’t have to be expensive. There are many boats to rent from the club, or secondhand boats you can buy. I bet my tennis lessons cost my parents a lot more than that.

We didn’t have much time left before the race started, so my instructor Steffen quickly tried to explain to me what I had to do during the race. I felt confused and overwhelmed by all the names of the different ropes (or “sheets” in correct sailing terms) I had to pull.

As soon as the horn blew the starting signal, the feeling grew a lot, and a sense of fear joined when the wind was blowing harder, making the boat heel strongly to one side. Everyone else didn’t care about that. They were bustling around, moving fast, shouting instructions over the wind: “tacking”, “jibing” or “going downwind”. Fortunately, Steffen patiently told me what to do and when. After a while, I started to understand most of the terms and figured out the correlation between the wind and the sail. When we crossed the finish line, adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I was sweating. Here I was saying that sailing is not a real sport.

In the past weeks, I went sailing with the crew a few more times. I joined them not only for races but also for slower cruises, where I got the chance to properly learn how to sail a boat. I am actually sad that winter is coming, and the season is over for this year. I don’t think of sailing as a complicated, boring, expensive sport anymore. In fact, I didn’t spend a single penny and got a whole lot of fun with it.