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You are here: Home / Sailing Quotes: Funny, Short, Good

Sailing Quotes: Funny, Short, Good

These sailing quotes help capture the essence of being out at sea in a wind-powered vessel enjoying the sun in your face and the water beneath you.

For all who have sailed even the simplest of boats, they know that there’s something magical about the experience. Sailing is a time-honored tradition with its own vocabulary and rewards that you cannot find elsewhere.

Best sailing quotes

Here are our favorite sailing quotations for you to “set sail” with (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Best Sailing Quotes.

1.) No landlubbers allowed

“Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.”
Brooks Atkinson

A landlubber is a person unfamiliar with the ways of sailing – a non-sailor. Sailors enjoy the opportunity to visit various destinations and experience unique routes that others don’t. Adventures await both on the boat and at every port.

Work like a captain and play like a pirate - sailing quotes.

2.) Work Hard, Play Hard

“Work like a captain and play like a pirate.”
Unknown

At sea, like on land, there’s a time to get the work done and a time to relax. Try to perfect both parts. (Don’t take the pirate part too literally, please).

The wind and the waves - good sailing quotes.

3.) Good luck happens for those who are prepared.

“The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator.”
Edmund Gibbon

Fortune favors the skilled in sailing as well as in other endeavors. What might seem lucky to some might actually be years of experience and expertise that enables one captain to out-maneuver another. In sailing, small movements can produce better results.

Anyone can take the helm with the sea is calm.

4.) Expertise is needed when there are rough seas

“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.”
Publilius Syrus

Just as anyone looks like a great investor when the whole market is up, anyone can captain the boat when the conditions are great. When the sea is more challenging, it’s important to have more sailing skills.

The sea finds everything you did wrong

5.) Preparation for sailing is of utmost importance

“The sea finds out everything you did wrong.”
Francis Stokes

Sailors should never underestimate the challenge of sailing on big bodies of water. Planning and preparation are key. Create lists, check twice, review with others, and be cautious to ensure a safe trip.

Who is staring at the sea is already sailing a little.

6.) Sailing Takes Me Away

“Who is staring at the sea is already sailing a little.”
Paul Carvel

Sailing is about exploration and connecting with the elements. There’s something about the solitude, the breeze, and the relaxation that can make sailing a one-of-a-kind experience.

At sea, I learned how little a person needs.

7.) A sailing life can be simple

“At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.”
Robin Lee Graham

There’s a simplicity to sailing that many treasures. You might want to read about the history and tradition of sailing. There’s also an immediate reward when you get your sail trim just right.

Funny sailing quotes

Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk.
Sir Francis Chichester

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.
Vincent Van Gogh

A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind. Live passionately, even if it kills you because something is going to kill you anyway.
Webb Chiles

Home is where the anchor drops.
Unknown

To young men contemplating a voyage, I would say, “Go!”
Joshua Slocum

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port, and the other was an atrocious liar.
Don Bamford

Good sailing sayings

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward

Sail through the good days, and on bad days pick a spot of blue sky to steer toward.
Richelle E. Goodrich

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.
Kahlil Gibran

For the most part, a sailboat navigates through its world of wind and water not leaving a single trace of its passage. Nothing is consumed. Nothing is altered. The winds and the water are left in exactly the same condition for the next user. Sailing is forever.
Unknown

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
Hellen Keller

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky. And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.
John Masefield

It’s not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails; that’s what a ship needs, but what a ship is…what the Black Pearl really is…is freedom.
Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean

The cabin of a small yacht is truly a wonderful thing not only will it shelter you from a tempest, but from the other troubles in life, it is a safe retreat.
L. Francis Herreshoff

Smooth sailing

He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind and extract a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.
Walter Scott

It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage.
George William Curtis

On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open, and the world is full of beauty.
Rumi

Aboard a boat, it is frequently possible to achieve just that. That is why sailing is a way of life, one of the finest of lives.
Carleton Mitchell

On life’s vast ocean, diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.
Alexander Pope

The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang& and has no respect.
Carl Sandburg

The fine art of slowly going nowhere at great expense while being cold, wet and miserable.
Irv Heller

There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than life at sea.
Joseph Conrad

Ship sailing away

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain

A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind.
Webb Chiles

It’s remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living.
Ernest K. Gann

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.
Jacques Yves Cousteau

Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down.
John Masefield

There is nothing like lying flat on your back on the deck, alone except for the helmsman aft at the wheel, silence except for the lapping of the sea against the side of the ship. At that time you can be equal to Ulysses and brother to him.
Errol Flynn

You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Christopher Columbus

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky. And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.
John Masefield

Sailing a boat calls for quick action, a blending of feeling with the wind and water as well as with the very heart and soul of the boat itself. Sailing teaches alertness and courage and gives in return a joyousness and peace that but few sports afford.
George Matthew Adams

Short sailing quotes

I cannot not sail.
E.B. White

The goal is not to sail the boat but rather to help the boat sail herself.
John Rousmaniere

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance.
Annie Van De Wiele

I wanted freedom, open air, and adventure. I found it on the sea.
Alain Gerbault

The ocean is an object of no small terror.
Edmund Burke

A bad day sailing is 100 times better than a good day at work.
Unknown

Hoist up sail while gale doth last, Tide and wind stay no man’s pleasure.
Robert Southwell

Inspirational

The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea.
Isak Dinesen

Now and then, we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.
Mark Twain

There is no better tool or equipment you can have onboard than a well-trained crew.
Larry Pardey

Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts, the soul of a song is laid.
Robert N. Rose

A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.
William Shedd

I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.
Willa Cather

I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.
Arthur Ashe

It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears.
John F. Kennedy

Motivational Quotes

The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use.
Dom Degnon

Any fool can carry on, but a wise man knows how to shorten sail in time.
Joseph Conrad

We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
Dolly Parton

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.
Aristotle Onassis

Sailors, with their built-in sense of order, service, and discipline, should really be running the world.
Nicholas Monsarrat

The cabin of a small yacht is truly a wonderful thing; not only will it shelter you from a tempest, but from the other troubles in life, it is a safe retreat.
L. Francis Herreshoff

Until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore, you will not know the terror of being forever lost at sea.
Charles Cook

Famous Sailing Quotes

The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails.
Joshua Slocum

It is not that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.
Sir Francis Drake

Live in the, sunshine swim the sea, drink the wild air.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
August Hare

The only ship you can truly steer in this ocean is the one you’re sailing. Quit trying to alter the winds; harness them. Richelle E. Goodrich

I'm learning to sail my ship.

Sailing proverbs

One foot cannot stand on two boats.
Chinese Proverb

Hoist your sail when the wind is fair.
English Proverb

If there is a wave, there must be wind.
Chinese Proverb

God provides the wind, but man must raise the sails.
St. Augustine

A boat stands firmer with two anchors.
Russian Proverb

Raise your sail one foot, and you get ten feet of wind.
Chinese Proverb

Fear blows wind into your sails.
Japanese Proverb

Two captains sink a ship.
Turkish Proverb

After the ship has sunk, everyone knows how she might have been saved.
Italian Proverb

In calm water, every ship has a good captain.
English Proverb

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
African proverb

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors - sailing proverbs.

Sailor lingo that we use today

Here is some of the sailing lingo that has found its way into everyday conversation on and off the boat.

  1. Give a wide berth.
  2. Batten down the hatches.
  3. Make waves.
  4. Run a tight ship.
  5. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in morn, sailors take warn.
  6. Down in the doldrums.
  7. High and dry.
  8. Rock the boat.
  9. Pipe down.
  10. Hand over fist.
  11. Through thick and thin.
  12. Learn the ropes.
  13. The cut of one’s jib.
  14. A shot across the bows.
  15. Sink or swim.
  16. Bamboozle.
  17. The devil to pay.
  18. Over a barrel.
  19. All hands on deck.
  20. Passed with flying colors.
  21. Dead in the water.
  22. Scuttlebutt.
  23. A clean bill of health.
  24. On Board.
  25. A loose cannon.

Spending time sailing can be relaxing and take away some of your stress from your day-to-day challenges. It helps you get away from it all and maybe even go places you’ve never been. If you’ve never sailed before, make sure you give it a try. I hope you enjoyed our list.

By Mike O’Halloran

Mike is the founder and editor of Sports Feel Good Stories. He can sometimes be found sailing on Lake Harriet or Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis.

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