Racing sailors - what are they? Some racing sailors are amateurs who can not live without sparkling water, fresh air, marine vessels, and competitions. The romantic notion of sailing and racing is true for them. Out on the water, in harmony with the natural forces, sailing can be many different things to a large universe of different types of people. It can be exciting, invigorating, relaxing, challenging, physically difficult or undertaken with minimum physical strength required.
The other group of racing sailors is professionals for whom racing is way of earning the money. They train very hard. They have professional race yachts and special gear. Professional racing sailors should always keep abreast of new racing gear in order to win the race. Let's take, for example racing compass - Sailcomp 103 AC. It is the most widely used, electronic tactical sailing instrument available today. Ideal for racing sailors, the Sailcomp's waterproof, remote display provides easy-to-read heading, windshift, and off-course steering information wherever racing sailors need it the most. And its standard NMEA 0183 output allows it to interface with other onboard equipment, including radar, autopilots, plotters, PC software, Loran, and GPS. With its simple keypad and easy-to-read display, essential navigation data, and superb compatibility, Sailcomp gives racing sailors the edge they need to win races!
Racing sailors have their own professional language. Not every person will be able to understand what they are taking about. However, the same may be said about the people of other occupations. If you have no idea about the space industry, it will be difficult for you to understand what experts in space industry are talking about. Sailing language has been compiled over many centuries and from many different native tongues. The end result is a polyglot of words, terminology, phrases, acronyms and jargon - some of which have multiple meanings - that can be downright intimidating to a newcomer. The fact that racing sailors as well all the other sailors have their own language that is rather difficult to be understood by the people outside their "vessel" says that racing is profession nowadays with its own terminology and professionalisms.
Every professional racing sailor tries to do its best even it is rather risky for his life in order to take part in the most prestigious races. The Volvo Ocean Race is one of them. This year 2005 it got underway on November, 12. The Volvo Ocean Race has been ever since its 1973 inception (when it was known as the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race).
There are even officially recognized design classes that may race. Those that may race are: Splash (International Class), Access 2.3 (International Class), RS:X (Recognized Class), Techno 293 (Recognized Class), RS Feva (Recognized Class), Access 303 (Recognized Class), Platu 25 (Recognized Class) and Swan 45 (Recognized Class).
Finally, there is one more essential thing that is connected with racing that is risk. You will never know how the weather may change, how the sea may behave, and what may happen to the vessel. So racing sailors families do always worry when their men take part in races.