Mental wellness: Being out on the water puts you in a good mood.
Muscle strength and endurance: The many activities involved in sailing, like pulling and hoisting of sails to manoeuvre a boat or a yacht, adds to your muscle strength for your shoulders and back.
Cardiovascular fitness: Sailing can also improve your cardiovascular health and reduce the risk of hypertension, obesity and other heart illness. This is because of the large amount of oxygen uptake that happens when you engage in intense activities.
Lowers stress levels: The swooshing and splashing of water, the rhythmic movement of the boat and the sound of the wind in the sails can all affect brainwave patterns. This relaxes and soothes a busy and highly stressed-out mind.
Increases agility: The various tasks associated with sailing also help improve your flexibility and agility. Activities like pulling lines and moving around and keeping yourself stable on a moving boat can significantly improve your hand-eye coordination and motor skills.
Improves concentration: With the ultimate goal of staying safe while on board, sailing enhances a person’s ability to focus even with multiple tasks at hand.
Improves communication skills: To effectively control a boat, the Helm (captain) and the crew must act as a unified unit. To do this they need to learn how to communicate effectively, especially through non-verbal means. Everyone on board has a crucial role to play in order to keep the boat afloat.
Spatial awareness: Sailing requires the participant to be aware of the dimension of the boat along with the space required for the manoeuvring of the boat. By sailing, you can have an increased understanding of how much space something requires; this skill translates to skills required on land as well such as driving. In dinghies, you are constantly aware of the position of the boat in relationship to the wind and the water, it gives a great sense of freedom to go sailing.
Organisational skills: Being on a dinghy requires that everything be kept in “shipshape.” After being exposed to this mentality, other aspects of your life begin to reflect this standard. You will become more organised in your personal life, which will boost motivation to eat healthier, exercise more and increase your quality of life.
Sailors Use Science, Maths & Engineering : Sailing is more than just who can be the strongest, you have to be a scientist, mathematician and engineer as well. You have to be able to read the wind, clouds and weather patterns to determine what side of the race course you will be sailing on. You have to calculate your moves and angles to the wind to make sure you are not sailing too far away from your next mark or intended destination. And you have to be able to put your boat together and perform simple maintenance tasks to keep your boat in good sailing condition. We enjoy tinkering with our boats to keep them in good order nearly as much as the sailing itself.
