18/05/2026
Sharing this post from Dom Barnes coaching. A great reminder that even when sailing a single handed boat it takes a whole team to make club racing possible.
https://www.facebook.com/share/18j8AaShzt/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Sailing looks like a solo sport when you are sat in a single-hander, with nobody else in the boat, making your own decisions, trimming your own sail, choosing whether to tack or hold, blaming yourself for the start you got wrong and quietly wondering how the boat that just rolled over the top of you suddenly became Ben Ainslie for thirty seconds, but the truth is that most of us are only able to go sailing because a whole group of people have made it possible before we even push the trolley down the slipway.
That is true at nearly every sailing club, where the sport has always depended on volunteers who give their time quietly and consistently, often when they would rather be sailing themselves, so that the rest of us can race, train, improve, get frustrated, learn something, come ashore with an excuse, and then go back out next week believing we have finally worked it all out.
We call it single-handed sailing because there is one person in the boat, but club sailing has never been a one-person sport, and if we want good racing, safe water, strong training, open meetings that visitors enjoy, juniors who stay in the sport, adults who feel welcome, and clubs that are still alive in ten years’ time, then we have to be honest enough to admit that none of it happens just because a few keen sailors turn up and rig their boats.
It happens because people step in.
So yes, sail hard, care about your starts, your shifts, your boat speed and your results, because that is part of why we love it, but do not forget that every lap you sail sits on top of somebody else’s time, effort and goodwill.
Sailing is a team sport, even when you are the only person in the boat, and the best clubs are not built by the people who simply turn up, race, complain about the course and leave, they are built by the people who understand that if you want a club worth sailing at, you have to be part of the team that keeps it going.