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Comment by mattiss | Hacker News Reader

Knowing how to tie a few useful knots is surprisingly empowering. Cinch things down, strap things to your backpack, hang a tarp, fix broken items, etc. etc.

I highly recommend learning to rock climb or sail as you will most definitely use the knots you learn on a regular basis.

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I've been a climber for a bit over two years and am looking to get into sailing. Other then volunteering to help out during races, do you know of any other cheap ways to get into the sport/pastime?

Dinghies or offshore?

Where do you live? In Boston, for example, there's Community Boating, where you can get out on the water for a couple hundred dollars per season and learn with peer-to-peer instruction.

I'm near Baltimore, so there's definitely a community here. Some clubs cost near $800/yr, which is a bit too much for me.

You don't need to join a club to sail, only the owner of the boat really needs to be so you can usually find someone who is willing to teach you on their boat.

Google is Your Friend. Check out the downtown sailing center, http://www.downtownsailing.org/ . $245 per season for a crew membership.

Excellent; I live in Boston. Is this what you're talking about?

http://www.community-boating.org/

Anyone know of anything like this in west Michigan?

The Grand Rapids Yacht Club (on Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids) has some classes but I don't know if it's really comparable to Boston's program.

Community Sailing sounds great - I wish I'd found out about it before I spent the summer of 2008 in the Boston area rather than once it turned cold in the fall.

Oh, that's a good call, I will have to check that out. Are you from this area as well?

Yep, that's it. Hop on the T, get off at the Charles/MGH stop, and walk across the footbridge to the Esplanade. They're open until the end of October, so you've got another month of good sailing left for this year (dress warm!).

Go to your city's rec center. They offer courses for under 200 bucks that will show you the ropes (no pun intended (ok pun intended)).

Sailing is quite possibly where that saying originated.

The easiest way is to join a sailing club, if there is one nearby. They often have a sailing school and boats you can borrow. Alternatively you can buy a cheap dinghy.

Crew for someone else. I have had 10-15 people come out for their first days with me in the last 3 years. My suggestion is to find the local clubs and just shoot off emails saying you are looking to start sailing and wondering if any boats need crew.

Not to mention survival situations. Not that it's something that happens on a daily basis, but did that stop you from learning CPR?

The double bowline is really useful to throw to someone as a rescue harness if you need to pull them up something, and being able to tie a one-handed bowline is useful if you need to tie a rescue harness around yourself.

(Boy Scouts ftw)

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