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kittensusie Landar

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Posts posted by kittensusie Landar

    Leeward Cruising Club

    in Favorite Destinations

    Posted

    On 7/5/2021 at 11:17 PM, Jammy Voxel said:

    While exploring SL18B I stumbled into an exhibit for the Leeward Cruising Club. Their motto: "No one left at the dock!" Being very enthusiastic about sailing, but still mostly a novice, and encouraged by their motto, I decided to join their group and give them a try. I sadly discovered that they have no trouble at all leaving people at the dock.

    This club has two sailing events a week followed by a dance. Each event has a particular route that the boats follow. I tried two of these events, and also made a trial run on an upcoming third event. In each case I observed that the sailing routes were not for beginning sailors, and were often quite challenging. In most cases requests for help were met with silence or snobbery from the experts. Rather than enjoy a leisurely cruise, most of the other boaters seemed to consider the route a race to be run through at the fasted possible speed. Other sailors routinely crashed into other boats, not yielding the right of way or engaging in any kind of sportsmanship. At no time did I receive any impression that new members were welcome, nor did anyone reach out.

    Well, there was one single exception to this. One person did step up, on my first cruise, and offer quite a bit of help. But for me that just wasn't enough. Perhaps you might have a different experience, and color me butt hurt if you want. I have left that group and will be looking for friendlier waters and more welcoming people to sail with. Suggestions welcome.

    Hello Jammy :) Only just saw this thread as I don't normally 'do' forums and stuff....

    I'm sorry that your experiences (and others) with the Leeward Cruising Club were not as good as you expected or as good as I would hope. We always like to see new members joining us and indeed, from what I've witnessed running the Sunday cruises, have never seen anyone being deliberately ignored or given the brush off. We are not a perfect group, obviously, but I like to feel that were are a friendly and helpful group. Whenever I learn that someone is new to the group I (and others) will always welcome them, and if I learn they are also new to sailing then I give them my basic guide to sailing in order to help them get into the sport. I have even spent time later in the week to help people choose a boat or plane (I also co-own the Skyward Flying Club).

    As for the routes; I set the easiest wind direction for the cruise so tacking is easily avoided or kept to an absolute minimum. There is also the option of using a different wind direction - it is not set in stone. I have never thought of the routes as being challenging however (though some are easier than others), simply because we do get a number of people who are new to sailing in SL. Yes, some of our members want to finish the cruise asap but the majority just want to have a leisurely sail. Personally I use a fast yacht simply because I start the cruise way after most other people and, since it is evening for me, I want to finish the cruise with enough time left to enjoy the party before I have to log off. The reason why I start the cruise 20 - 30 minutes after the start? Simply because some people like to arrive and start after everyone else has gone so they don't get caught up in the lag. 

    Boats colliding is almost inevitable unfortunately, especially at the start of the cruise when lag is at its worst. Mostly when that happens, a shouted "Sorry, was lagging" can be 'heard' coming across the water or an apology appears in group chat. 

    If you (or anyone) would like to chat things over in SL, just give me shout (best send a NC as IM's get capped rather quickly :/

    Kittensusie Landar

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