[Shinrei]

My sister and brother-in-law sail (and race) a 26 ft. S2 sailboat. Wonderful boat, been out on it a number of times working as "railbait" and "board cranker". I've even been onboard for races. Fun fun stuff. I would get into it, if I lived close enough to them to do it regularly. I've been on that boat in the middle of Lake Michigan too. I could almost imagine myself a real sailor with no land in sight.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Tarcanus, on 15 March 2010 - 01:26 PM, said:

cerveza_fiesta, on 15 March 2010 - 12:14 PM, said:

@tarcanus

Does your kayak float? Then it counts. I've never been a huge fan of the ol' yaks. Much prefer canoeing myself, but I do most of my paddling on mild whitewater rather than saltwater. Ever taken your kayak over rapids?

Sure have, but nothing like whitewater. I normally take the kayak out to the local lake to paddle around, maybe go up into the lake's feeder stream to sit around and enjoy the weather and quiet. Other times my dad and I take them to various creeks and some of those have some nice sets of rapids - I've had to stop along the bank and roll the kayak a couple of times to remove a bit of water, before. It's pretty fun.

Yeah. I've never had a kayak down a river deep enough to do a proper roll...just little brooks mainly. I always get dumped. The canoes are great it whitewater though. Not too much skill involved for most rapids and you can do it with a beer in hand too!

Shinrei, on 15 March 2010 - 01:37 PM, said:

My sister and brother-in-law sail (and race) a 26 ft. S2 sailboat. Wonderful boat, been out on it a number of times working as "railbait" and "board cranker". I've even been onboard for races. Fun fun stuff. I would get into it, if I lived close enough to them to do it regularly. I've been on that boat in the middle of Lake Michigan too. I could almost imagine myself a real sailor with no land in sight.

Yeah, that no-land-in-sight thing is something I definitely want to experience asap. I need to build my skill a bit more and get a bigger boat before I dare attempt any serious saltwater sailing. My little boat is fun but really not designed for anything but inland waterways.

I might try to do a couple races this summer for the first time too. Buddy in the yacht club keeps trying to convince me to join, but I have no desire to enter my boat. I'd rather crew with somebody to learn the basics first at least. His last kid just headed off to University though and he said if I don't want to enter my boat I could probably help him out since he'll need some crew now.