HOME :: Recreation-and-Sports / Boating First Time Night Sailing - Be Cautious and You'll Experience a Truly Enjoyable Part of Sailing

If you've never sailed at night, you're missing one of the most exquisite experiences offered by the sport of sailing. Night time is a magical time on a sailboat, one with even more solace and peace than you'll experience during the daylight hours. There's nothing like ghosting and gliding on the water with a full moon above or easing along a secluded shoreline and hearing the howl of coyotes or eerie hoots of an old barn owl.




But sailing at night is quite different as you can imagine than during the day. A lake with its landmarks and identifying points looks completely different in the dark. Sometimes hazards and boat channels are well lit and marked and sometimes they are not. Following a few simple and common sense rules for your first night sail will ensure your nightly excursion is pleasurable and not stressful and unsafe for you and your crew.



1. Before you sail by yourself at night, crew with someone who has experience. There's no substitute for learning any sailing skill from someone who's done it before.

2. For your first night sail, scope out your route during daylight hours. Make sure you mark hazard areas on your GPS as well the channel to your home port.

3. Sail with at least one other crew for your fist time. Keeping watch in tight areas and places where other boat traffic is heavy is best done by someone else while you focus at the helm.

4. Make sure all navigation lights are working on your boat. Do a check before leaving port. Discovering that critical lights aren't working is better done at the dock rather than in the middle of heavy boat traffic at night.

5. Keep white, blinding lights turned off in the cockpit. Be careful to not kill your night vision by seemingly simple things like a crew member flicking on a bright flashlight or lantern.

6. Take it slow. There's no rush. Particularly in heavy boat traffic areas, easy does it. You'll be surprised how hard it is to see some boat's navigation lights.

7. Confirm weather before you go out at night. You can't see clouds building like you can during daylight hours.

8. If you anchor, make sure your anchor light is on and you're out of the way of boat traffic.



You'll bring a whole new dynamic to the sailing experience when you start going out at night but be cautious for your first few times. Slow and easy is the rule and with time you'll gain confidence and totally enjoy your night time outings.



Steve has been interested in sailing for 28 years and writing articles on the subject for the last four years. In addition to his sailing interest, Steve's new website at http://www.gasfireplaceparts.net helps people looking for gas fireplace parts as well as providing information on all gas fireplace accessories.



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