I discovered sailing on the south coast of Cape Cod, where the breeze is a reliable 15-22 knots out of the southwest like clockwork every day; the sun rises, heats up the shore, that air rises, and the sea breeze comes rushing in. My first taste of sailing in light air happened in high school and college where I was racing predominately on small lakes. The inconsistent and lighter winds frustrated me at first, but as I learned to better harness them and apply that to my strategy on the racecourse, light air and I got on better terms. As I expanded my cruising and racing world, I learned that light air was far more prevalent than my perspective acknowledged. To enjoy sailing more, I needed to improve my ability to handle light winds. I gave myself no choice when we sailed our Luders 33, Ben-Varrey, engineless for three years, and since then I have nearly doubled down by installing an electric motor with just a small battery bank. I’ve learned some lessons, inshore and offshore, that have made me truly enjoy light air sailing.
There are few moments more magical than when it is blowing only a handful of knots, the ocean is flat, and your boat is effortlessly cutting along through the water. We chase these moments. If you tend to turn your engine on as soon as your boat speed drops below 5 knots, you will miss them. Today’s boats can easily power at 8 to 10 knots, making it oh so tempting to just furl and power in light air.
But if you let it, time takes
