RichH wrote:
My wife rapidly learned when I encouraged she go out on a small one
design all by herself (my complicated racing scow with 33 control
lines !!!!) ... and when the 'questions' from her started in earnest I
knew that she was 'sold' on sailing.

My wife & I raced a Lightning together for years, and her skills &
confidence grew tremendously... one of the difficulties we had was the
she was often solicited to crew for other teams! She occasionally
skippered the boat in races but the main lesson gained from this was
1- she *can* do it but 2- she's not as good as I and would rather
place well (while insisting she's 'not competitive by nature')

I have felt very comfortable with my wife skippering cruising boats.

She now can helm our boats in any big-boat race and with precision
that would match the best of well experienced helmsmen.
We leave on a 2-3 year 'journey' on our boat this fall .... primarily
her idea !!!!!


Excellent work! I am looking forward to seeing posts of your cruising
adventures.

Just remember if YOUR sailing skills arent (honestly) that good there
will be many unnecessary 'conflicts' --- get her into lessons or get
her off by herself in a small sailing dinghy ..... if you want a
'partner'. Motivate, communicate, appreciate ...... otherwise you
simply wont have a boat very long ... or wont have that wife very
long.
;-)

It looks like they've muddled along OK for quite some time, but with
large amounts of friction. Getting rid of the friction is a worthy
goal. I wish I had some sure & simple way of achieving it. A mother/
daughter sailing weekend sounds like it could be a good idea... maybe
on a chartered boat

Fresh Breezes- Doug King