The sport of sailing involves a variety of competitive sailing formats that are sanctioned through various sailing federations and yacht clubs.

Racing disciplines include matches within a fleet of sailing craft, between a pair thereof or among teams. Additionally, there are specialized competitions that include setting speed records. Racing formats include both closed courses and point-to-point contests; they may be in sheltered waters, coast-wise or on the open ocean. Most competitions are held within defined classes or ratings that either entail one type of sailing craft to ensure a contest primarily of skill or rating the sailing craft to create classifications or handicaps.

Sailing can be dated as far back as prehistoric times. They would be used for means of travel, fishing, or for recreational use. Sailing is when ships use the strong force of the wind through sails to drive the boat to move at fast speeds.

In ancient times, you would only find the upper or more privileged classes of Asia, Greece, Rome, and Egypt to be sailing the beautifully decorated and extravagantly massive ships at that time. It wasn’t until the early seventeenth century that the art of sailing became a sport by Holland. The Dutch would sail smaller boats that ranged up to 65 feet. They would name these boats yaghtschip, which means “hunting ship.” Today we now call them yachts.

On water, a sailing competition among multiple vessels is a regatta, which usually consists of multiple individual races, where the boat crew that performs best in over the series of races is the overall winner. There is a broad variety of kinds of races and sailboats used for racing from large yacht to dinghy racing. Much racing is done around buoys or similar marks in protected waters, while some longer offshore races cross open water. All kinds of boats are used for racing, including small dinghies, catamarans, boats designed primarily for cruising, and purpose-built raceboats. The Racing Rules of Sailing govern the conduct of yacht racing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, model boat racing, dinghy racing and virtually any other form of racing around a course with more than one vessel while powered by the wind.

One great way to start sailing is to begin with a tiny, inexpensive sailboat and figure things out as you go. Read some books and articles, watch some YouTube videos, and have fun. You can get a little sailboat for less than $1000. Have fun learning the basics of rigging and sailing, and don’t sweat the bumps… and occasional complete capsize.

Just like any other sport, sailors would gather together socially to one place and discuss future and past competitions, yachts, and any other social aspect of that time. This brought forth the beginning of the oldest clubs known around the world as, “yacht clubs.” The world’s first yacht club was founded in Cork, Ireland, in 1720. One of the most famous and oldest running yacht clubs in the world would be America’s New York Yacht Club. This club was founded in 1844.

For many sailors, sailing is less of a hobby than it is a way of life. Sailing puts you into nature and lets you escape your daily concerns.

Sailing can cost around $1000 to get into and $50 a month to maintain. It could also cost $100,000+ initially with monthly costs in the thousands. Whether sailing is an expensive hobby for you depends on whether you rent or buy, how you store and maintain your boat and what boat you buy.