How many pilots move from flying to sailing...

Ibra wrote:

I can’t sail in +20kts winds but I can fly in +30kts winds

Sailing in the West Coast of Scotland we are well used to 50kts all the time…..hones your sailing and flying skills

I moved from sailing to flying. Growing up I was a sailing instructor and dinghy racing coach, I loved it. I always wanted to fly airplanes as well and started with models. When I eventually got to flying real aircraft, I loved it! It was like sailing in 3d, with a better view :-). It still gets me every time the wheels leave the ground! Although, float flying is a bit of both

I hope to return to sailing bigger boats (cruising) at some later point, but as mentioned in an earlier post, I can’t get my head around not going anywhere. I will have to retire, or take a multi-year break and give it a go when you have ‘time’ to sail to interesting places. On this basis, I think flying fits in better around a working career, it only takes a few hours to fly somewhere interesting.

We talked with a young woman whose fiancé is big on sailing. He goes several weekends a year to brittany and leaves her in Paris
So my fiancée thinks flying is not a bad hobby at all ! She says flying is like any other sport that would take me one evening per week (actually less than that, she refers to currency flights). And we can go places some times a year as a bonus !

BeechBaby wrote:

Sailing in the West Coast of Scotland we are well used to 50kts all the time…..hones your sailing and flying skills

That would make some nice jibing on boats and nice ground loops for tailwheel flying

Quote I personally hate motoryachts, they are pretty useless toys that get boring quickly. You can’t do anything with them but sit in the marina, they’re very uncomfortable on the sea because they’re not stable.

Why do people feel so entitled to write such things. Why would anyone buy a motoryacht if that were even remotely true?

A lot of opinions here seem to forget the massive diversity available in both disciplines.
And in a flexible context you could align alost every point of ‘Boating ’ with a point of ’Flying’
For example
Windsurfing/kitesurfing with Paramotoring
Dinghy sailing with Flexwings
Gin Palace motoryachts with kingairs/CJ3’s
And a dozen comparisons in between.

I have never been part of a flying club, so have never fully experienced some of the fun club camaraderie and social scene that may exist, but on a few occasions i have been exposed to airfield club environments it was a little ‘Stiff and stuffy’ this can happen in sailing too which is why I never joined a sailing club. But all around the uk generally on airfields people are fun and friendly. The same in a marina, but in a marina, there’s time and space to make friends, sit around and socialise. In our experience at the latter part of the day things are getting better rather than putting the covers on and going home to the family. Often the family are already with everyone at the boat so the social scene is far far better.
Impromptu BBQ’s and Pontoon parties are common.
As for going places, it’s horses for courses.
Finance plays a part but if you don’t have time, maybe sailing is a poor idea.
My plan is, I’m working hard to earn money and time is poor so we burn diesel ’ (lots of it) and go places all the time.
When I retire I’ll have no money for diesel but will have time so we’ll sell the motorboat get a sailing boat, sail, and we’ll go places all the time.
Unfortunately at that point flying will have to stop completely.
Peter there will always be ’ toilet’ stories but it’s not really a thing, unless the boat is very small but I have experienced that ;-)
I would advise against swimming in some marinas but in 40 years of boating I haven’t had an issue generally.
I hear the cost comparisons made in error so many times. A like for like category is the only way to do it.
Across 4 categories of boating personally and 3 flying personally, I would say in my experience. flying is about twice the cost of boating.

GA_Pete wrote:

I would say in my experience. flying is about twice the cost of boating.

Agreed. One can also do a lot of the work yourself on the boat. I like pottering about on it looking at this. fixing that. No CAA/CAMO/EASA/FAA annual stuff. I actually bought the boat for my wife and I to sell everything off and sail into the sunset once we had seen the kids alright. At the time she thought I was mad, still does, but now looks forward to the Med, on a budget, when we can de-stuff and go. The kids can get the planes if they want them.

She also prefers the marina scene, at the expense of the Flying clubs which she actually detests. Not that I have been part of the flying club joys, they tend not to like owners as Peter once famously quoted

I did not think I would ever prefer sailing to flying but recently I have yearned to get out the water again, rather than into the air. Must be something to do with rules and regulations that are way less restrictive on the water than around airfields. All ‘hobby’ stuff should be a de stressor, not add further stress to our busy lives. Also in these strange times I am very conscious that many have lost their jobs, and business, I still hang on in there, but appreciate it is all a bit tenuous. In that sense I consider myself very fortunate to have a choice.

BeechBaby wrote:

I would say in my experience. flying is about twice the cost of boating.

I think this is an impossible equation for making comparisons.

There are so many variables depending on where the boat is kept, its size and its purpose.

For a largish yacht my guess is that fixed costs are similiar to a twin in terms of hangarage / mooring, insurance, fixed maintenance – but, as I have said, very broadly speaking.

For a yacht in terms of bang for buck for sailing / flying time the yacht is clearly vastly less costly. The fuel burn (if you are not sailing) is a fraction, albeit over long distances that you might fly, then the equation changes dramtically. You could probably motor a typical sailing yacht (if you really wanted) 2,000 miles for the equivalent of flying a twin one half to three quarters of that distance which is interesting, given the yacht is perhaps over 20 tons compared with a couple of tons for a light twin. Again obvioulsy there are great variations between perhaps a super light wieght 50 foot yacht and a Diamond twin.

However, broadly I suspect like for like (if there is such a thing) in terms of comparing say a basic day sailor with a well used 172, or a blue water yacht with a good twin, the running costs are actually very similiar, and I dont think flying is likely to be any where near twice as costly.

I think the real difference is obvioulsy an aircraft is a point ot point machine. It can enable you to range far and wide very quickly, although usually only to spend more money when you get there (hotels etc). A yacht on the other hand is a very slow means of getting anywhere, but you can live on board for long periods of time in as much comfort as in a small apartment, and travel to places you couldnt reach in an aircraft, and then live there without being concerned with hotels or accomodation generally.

I think there is an argument that the utility value of a yacht during someone’s working life is likely to be less in terms of travel. Over a w/e you will not get far, whereas in an aircraft a w/e anywhere in Europe is entirely possible. If you have rather more time on your hands than I suspect this part of the equation changes dramtically. Horses for courses I guess.

Peter wrote:

In sailing, I’ve never been involved with a boat but had a taste of it with windsurfing and water-skiing, and the “beach/lake / club politics”. In one ski club, we all paid membership / insurance dues knowing somebody was pocketing them. One had to keep one’s mouth shut because one needed the boat to tow you (this was in the 1980s, and all people involved are dead). At one prospective and very nice windsurf (lake) location in the south east, not a million miles from EGKK actually, the club chief told me “you don’t have big enough t*ts”. Clearly he knew what attracts the men and what makes them spend money on drinks. Since I was not interested in implants (I know a pilot who does them but he charges 5k for a pair) I walked So I bet that the berth situation is really key. You want more or less total independence, so you can come and go without getting involved with too many people.

I dont think it works that way with sailing. Most marinas will welcome you, some have a yacht club, but usually this is entirely separate and even more entirely take it or leave it. The marinas are commercial enterprises, pay your dues and nobody is interested beyond that. Of course in parts of the country there is plenty of choice as well, unlike airports and farm strips so there is competition for business.

I think with windsurfers etc most people these days put it on the roof and simply go to whichever beach or surfing area they wish to visit. The vast majority are fo course free.

Obviously water skiing is a different game, but avoiding the club scene is clearly the answer, and a motor boat on a trailer or marina makes, to me, far more sense, although I accept the weather will restrict the days you can ski, especially as there are often restrictions on protected waters.

Sailing / boats are equally as rife with poor quality tradesmen. In fact the standard is truly appalling, probably worse than with aviation where at least they are all in theory certified. On the other hand, you quickly learn to do most jobs yourself if you can, as it is far more reliable and much quicker, and of course you can do whatever you like. Interestingly their hourly rate in the boat business is little different from the aviation industry.

I think aviation gets more political the smaller the airport or strip at which you are based. A strip near me is fabulous but only because I knew the owners very well was I offered some hangarage there – there is a permanent waiting list and if the owner doesnt think you will fit, well of course forget it. Of course you are often limited to aircraft that suit short strip flying and that therefore excludes most higher performance aircraft.

Personally I have never had anything to do with the club scene either in sailing or aviation (other than when I use to race dinghies when it became inevitable to some extent). I have never found it especially interesting, but that is of course me, I understand many love the social scene.

Ownership is almost the exclusive norm with boats, there is almost no sharing or arrangement of such like. I dont entirely know why. In aviation of course it is the opposite, but I think arguably for most, ownership is the only way to go if you want flexibility and (potentially) even reliability. You are very lucky indeed to find a good group, but they do exist. However, almost certainly that will be down to who you know and the perception that you will look after the aircraft with the same care as if it was yours – unfortunately there arent many people that fall into this category which is why these groups are rightly highly selective. The last owner run group with which I was involved had five members, two were middle aged commercial pilots with BA, both ex RAF fast jet pilots, one was a solicitor, and one was a senior project manager. All had very sucessful careers and very sound aviation creditials. We had no issues that could have been avoided.

Fuji_Abound wrote:

Sailing / boats are equally as rife with poor quality tradesmen. In fact the standard is truly appalling, probably worse than with aviation where at least they are all in theory certified. On the other hand, you quickly learn to do most jobs yourself if you can, as it is far more reliable and much quicker, and of course you can do whatever you like. Interestingly their hourly rate in the boat business is little different from the aviation industry.

Dead right. I am in the middle of buying a used Searay 250, which is getting the marine equivalent of a top-end overhaul right now. I got roasted with my first boat on maintenance and learned to do a lot of stuff myself. I couldn’t afford to leave it to a full-service maintenance facility, it would just get out of control. I can get a guy for about 200 euro a day, and I have my own harbour with power to work on it if I need to do jobs beyond my competence level. I live on the lake, but I am not so sure about boat people. I find they behave a bit like flying club people from the 1980s and take it all a bit too seriously.

If I had to go for a beer with a boat person or an aeroplane person, it would be the aeroplane person.