Originally Posted by Rowan

You think sailing can't be aggressive (a question not directed at you, but the non-yachties)?

I was foredeck crew on one yacht, and when it came to aggressive starts and manoeuvring for buoy space, and starboard calls, I was there, shouting to the skipper to keep it up. We had more than a few passes within inches of other yachts, and if you've been in close quarters with three, four or seven ton boats, you'll know that the skippers have to have great confidence in what they are hearing... and in your judgment that their boat is going to miss the other one.

We won a few pennants with a yacht that was an oldie but a goodie (of course, handicaps helped, but we sailed to hers, and did very well).

On another yacht, a "sailing master" was brought on board, and our successes to that point evaporated. I was royally pissed when we lost a pennant through the guy's inability to get the tactics right.

Sailing is about the only sport in which I've let the aggressive genie out of the bottle. I did play field hockey for quite a few years, as a goalkeeper, but never really achieved that much.

Randonneuring and 24-hour cycling races appeal to me because I am competing against to myself, and, in my mid-50s, they're something I can succeed at without putting huge amounts of emotional energy into them... and thoroughly enjoy.