Why do we love this sport?

They are wet, cold. The weather sucks. They have capsized twice. They are at the back of the fleet and probably have been all season. But they hare having a blast? It takes a different kind of mentality, I guess. A different attitude to what fun is.

I have read most of Tristan Jones' books. If you haven't tried them, you should do. He is not the best writer in the world but he tells a great sailing story and he had so many amazing adventures. He grew up in North Wales,  the son of a merchant seaman. He went to sea as a boy, joined the navy and then spent the rest of his life sailing various vessels, none of them remotely luxurious. One of the things he said, later in his life, by which time he had lost a leg to illness and was in a pretty decrepit state, was that he had never know comfort. He wasn't complaining, just observing that this was the only life he knew.

Perhaps we are all masochists but there is somethings satisfying about braving long periods of wet and cold. If you play rugby, your scars and stitches are your badges of honor. If you ski, it's about an amazing downhill run or a spectacular jump. For sailors it's all about hardship and braving the elements