Sailing is a great window into how a fellow sailor thinks. Most of the time, all of us put up various fronts. We want to have the right image, or we want to appear confident. However, under stress, most people reveal their true selves.
A number of years ago, I was sailing a 51-foot sailboat that belonged to the United States Naval Academy. On weekends, we would frequently have guests of various kinds. On one occasion, one of the guests was media mogul Ted Turner. Yes, the one who inherited a medium-sized billboard company, and turned it into CNN, The Cartoon Channel, etc. He was also married for a time to actress Jane Fonda.
He was well known for being an experienced open water sailor. He even sent his small son on an Atlantic voyage, and wasn’t even on the boat.
Our boat, which had been willed to the Academy, was a fine vessel, designed for open-water cruising, but not for speed. Near us were a couple of J-Boats, well known for speed. Without question, any of them could have beaten us in a race.
We were tooling along, having fun, and traveling about five or six knots. I observed that Turner was becoming agitated, red faced, etc. Then he said, “Look at that terrible J-Boat skipper on our port side. Even WE are beating him.” I commented that the people on that J-Boat were probably just enjoying the nice Saturday weather and didn’t care about racing.
Turner shut up for a couple of minutes and said, “If you pull in the main sheet about six inches, we can go even faster.”
I tried to ignore him, but his face was so red that I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack. I yelled, “Pull in the main sheet about six inches.”
That was the adrenalin that Turner needed, and he immediately grabbed the winch.
Within seconds, we speeded up. The J-Boat skipper noticed what we had done. He began yelling instructions to the people on his boat. Within about a minute, we were passed by the J-Boat, and it left us in its wake.
I looked over to Turner, who grinned and said, “Couldn’t resist.”
That experience gave me more information than many hours of looking at body language or other indications. Ted Turner was rabidly competitive and had a hard time simply relaxing on a nice boat on a Saturday with perfect weather.
If you sail with other people, be observant. You will have a good window into what makes those people tick. Also, think about your own behavior. Most people don’t do that. You may be surprised.
