What does it take ? Soul of Being Lost in Sailing

The racing sailor. what are they made of? what makes them tick? why do they sail?

i think it is all like an onion, many layers to cut through and the whole species nothing without the sum of those many levels.

the outer layers are firsy the superficialities- a bosuns knife, a climbing harness, this years trendiest sun glasses and footwear. or maybe the crusty old fox in a fisherman's smock, or maybe the world champion in jeans and a soggy dollar t-shirt.l
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deeper in and you find a festidiousness- always questioning' always adjusting, and just below this you start to get really deep under the skin- you find then openness to learn and adapt. gone isthe arrogance of the cash splash on a first seriois boat, or the cockiness of the young man leaping around the foredeck. maturity'  which comes as afunction of experience and not age.

now you approach the core. you find a little bitter layer of the races they lost, the faux pas and the bad chemistry, the sharp tongues at the bar quick to lash the guys who threw it all away.

delving on, the deep dive throws up the concept of the intellectual challenge of boat trim and rules, of wind and tides, of starts and bouysii to round. chess on water, amateur fluid dynamics.

now enter the mystery. all the practical ways and means are stripped away - no certificates, no books on metereology, no winter rules evenings, no instruments to read down here.....we are off the scale....we arr into the human factor


Here in the core the stuff gets thicker and harder-
First there is a strong layer built of nerves-of-steel. Also a cold self denying layer, where you admit defeat and get out of trouble, you bail out or come back.

Now in the middle down there at the core, as you would expect is the heart. you love sailing ....it draws you.... but it can be like a bitch mistress, like a scornful father' , an unreliable best friend.....you curse but once in love or loved you always go back, a winter usually being enough time to heal the wounds and bathe the sport in rose tint and only dancing diamonds and milling placings on the fleet result list. ..and the love hate burns and drives you like a furnace fueling a bigger thing outside and radiating further oit tjrough all the layers

Outside this heart, then there is pure will to overcome losing and to be a winner.