Word: sailing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Yamila Sigler is wondering whether she enrolled in a Berlitz course instead of a sailing class. All morning on Miami's Biscayne Bay, in a 23-ft. keelboat called the Woolly Bully, instructor Dean Sealey has been drilling her and three other students on tacks (zigzag turns), nuns (channel-marking buoys) and cunninghams (sail-tightening lines). "English is not my first language," frets Sigler, 33, a civil engineer who came to the U.S. from Cuba a decade ago. And sailing jargon is certainly nothing she ever expected to learn. As the Woolly Bully heads home, Sealey tells Sigler...
...when Sigler docks the boat successfully, her mood swells like a mainsail. She can do this, she realizes--and within a few weeks, she and her husband Alex, 36, who like her is taking lessons at Miami's Castle Harbor Sailing School this summer, will be certified to sail solo in a basic keelboat. "We don't drink, smoke or party a lot," says Sigler, "so when we go on vacation or a business trip to a place like the Bahamas, we want to sail...
...pours money. Weekend sailors joke that boat is an acronym for Bring Out Another Thousand. A used 18-ft. sloop can cost $10,000, while a new 36-ft. two-masted ketch can run $100,000 and up. And then there's the maintenance and the commitment to sail from a single port. Sailing courses, however, free their students from these costs and limitations. That's because U.S. certifications are accepted in most ports around the country and the world. Graduates can use their certification to rent a craft, usually for less than $50 an hour...
Until a decade ago, sailing was still seen as largely the domain of wealthy yachtsmen in blazers and ascots. But in the '90s, burgeoning incomes, improved technology, the popularity of cup races--and the growing standardization of certification rules--democratized the marinas. "It's not viewed as such a niche activity anymore," says Sealey. Fiberglass construction has vastly increased the fleet of boats available for classes and rentals, while innovations like the self-tacking jib (a front sail that adjusts itself to the wind) have made sailing more pleasant and easier to learn...
...scared a lot of ordinary people considering retirement who don't have the $300,000 to $1 million you seem to think they need. A modest retirement is possible without working till 80. Not all of us need or want to live in a mansion, own a yacht and sail about the Greek islands. I've been retired for five years and am quite happy. I keep an eye on how much I spend every month and try to stay out of debt. The simple life can also be the good life. JOEL LAYNE Cascade, Idaho...