How long have you been sailing?
I get this question a lot—why not? It’s a good question to ask someone you’ve just hired to take your family out on a Folly Beach sunset sail or dolphin cruise, right? My go to response is to glance at my watch like I’m doing the math.
It’s not like I come from a long line of sailors. My uncle and aunt are/were definitely big cruisers. My mom sailed too. Our family hails from the tidewater region of SE Virginia—so lower Chesapeake Bay. But I didn’t get the sailing bug till I was about 20 or so—a family friend asked if I wanted to race one weekend; he was part owner (along with two lifelong friends) in a 38’ racer/crusier named Trilogy. After one weekend I was hooked.
Racing was big fun. Trilogy usually raced with a crew of about 7-8. Everyone has a job, from helmsman, to tactician, to sail trimmer, to rail meat. If you’re just starting out, well, you’re rail meat. Your job, such as it is, is to move from one side of the boat to the other as the boat tacks upwind in order to keep the boat from heeling too far over. (If you are interested in sailing, this is a great way to learn believe it or not. The learning curve is steep (i.e. you learn really fast!); racing is very social with after race get-togethers, and it’s super fun.)
The more I went on these dash-around-the-buoy weekend adventures, the better I understood all the crew’s jobs and how they all worked in unison to maximize the boat’s potential. For the next decade and a half I raced on various boats in regattas all over the Chesapeake as well as Key West and New England.
Sail Folly has been running now for over eight years. Whether it’s a chill sail through the salt marsh creeks or a bachelorette sail to the inlet sandbar it really never gets old. For me the two best things about Sail Folly are: I get to sail all the time, AND I get to meet super great people from all over and hang out with them for a few hours. And I have to throw in that the dolphin and wildlife of this pristine low country setting never get old either!