
The Difference Between the Boston Marathon and Sailboat Racing
What’s the difference between the Boston Marathon and sailboat racing? The difference is that the Boston Marathon has more happy losers. As we were looking at all the sailing races in the new 2025 Northern California Sailing Calendar, we again wondered why many don’t attract more participants. What keeps more people from racing? One often-heard complaint is rating rules. The racing isn’t fair, so why race if you can’t win? We looked at the results of the Boston Marathon with its 30,000 participants and wondered why so many people ran without any hope of winning. On this page, we can see that John Duffy (not pictured below) finished in 25,408th place. Good for him!

This got us wondering why so many runners are happy to race and lose, and sailors only want to race if they can win. Is that even true? Runners run for the personal challenge, exercise, camaraderie with their fellow runners, and just to be outdoors. Isn’t that what sailing’s about too? What’s the secret behind big, successful events? Having more happy losers?
One thing the Boston Marathon and sailing have in common is that there is just one winner for every division. The other participants are just happy to be out there doing their best.

The upcoming Three Bridge Fiasco is the largest event in the Bay Area, with generally over 300 boats signed up. This year there are already 273 boats on the list for the January 25 event. Despite having only one winner, and more losers than any other race on the Bay, it remains uniquely successful. The event’s convoluted course, the wide variety of choices, and the single- and doublehanded divisions create one of the more puzzling challenges sailors can confront on the Bay. It’s a bit like playing miniature golf, or poker with many wild cards. Sometimes the cards fall your way; however, almost every year, it’s the Bay’s best sailors who rise to the top. Despite the event’s huge size there are still a colossal number of boats not racing.
What keeps you from going out?

Of course there are other factors such as the challenge of finding crew or the fact that on any given weekend there are up to a dozen sailing events to choose from. The racing rules for sailing are a bit more complicated than running. Plus, the Boston Marathon happens just once a year. Regardless, most of those runners go out knowing they won’t win and no rating rule will give them a shot at the top. Sure, winning always gives an extra boost to the day, but the only way to really lose is not to be out there at all. For perspective, the last-place boat in the Vendée Globe is 8,500 miles behind the winner. Good for him too!
If you want to find some “fair” racing, you can put on your sneakers and try running. The rules there are simple and fair, but it’s still very hard to come in first. We think the same attitude should carry over into sailing. We’ve enjoyed every Three Bridge Fiasco we’ve ever raced, despite modest results or not finishing at all. We look forward to being out there for this weekend’s Corinthian Midwinters, on January 25 for the 3BF, and for the summer beer can racing. We’ll pluck a few more events out of the schedule and see how it goes. There’s lots of racing near your boat too, and yacht clubs will welcome anyone to race.

Latitude 38 wants to thank all the businesses, clubs, classes and events that advertise, making it possible for us to print the annual calendar. Plus, we thank the yacht clubs, volunteer race committees, the YRA, the PHRF committee, and all the folks who do their best to make the racing fair and fun.
Despite all that, in the end, the fun is up to you. The calendar is available online and the printed copy is in many of the marine businesses and yacht clubs ringing the Bay. We encourage you to pick up a copy, choose some events, and have fun losing a few races. It’s character-building. If you have a boat on the Bay, racing is a great way to gain skills, discover new parts of the Bay, make friends, and create a reason to hoist your sails. We hope to see you out there.
When I first started sailing (er…racing) I too thought about the ratings system and complained a bit. I have since been intimately involved in PHRF and understand both its strengths and weaknesses. But I digress: I finally began trying to understand how I could do better sans ratings. How was I finishing WRT other top rated boats. First of all, I made sure that my boat was in top condition, then that my crew was well practiced at their respective positions. Finally, I looked closely at my performance in each race and began to learn what I didn’t know and improve my own duties better. I learned to minimize mistakes and anticipate changes in conditions. I also race in a one design one season to better understand my relative performance against other skilled skippers. It is easy to blame the rating system, but in reality we need to just do our best and be willing to accept that our own performance is all we actually have control over. The goal for me is not necessarily to win, but to improve and learn.
Great Article John, and great comment too, Bill Schafer. I am definitely not the best in our fleet, but constantly look to improve and learn. I think bad sportsmanship probably exists in all sports- including running- but it has no place in any of them, especially the breaking of rules. I imagine that there are way more rules in sailing than there are in running, but sailing needs rules. Just go out there, learn and have fun!
In the local Laser fleet, we believe that we can build more participation by having top sailors help their fellow competitors learn and feel the satisfaction that comes with improvement. Our 2025 resolution is to put onto the race schedule two things: 1) pre-race briefings (expected wind, current, sail settings) and 2) post-race debriefs where sailors can ask questions of the top performers each day. The 505 fleet is renowned for this idea, and we are looking forward to doing it ourselves.
Despite some single-handed events, sailboat racing is mostly a team sport. There is quite a bit of effort in attracting, training, motivating, and keeping crew, for race after race after race. I cheer the skippers who do that!
To me, that team aspect is one of the attractions. But it also is a hump to racing in many classes.
Great article and great perspective. I think it can start with a simple change in language. When I started sailboating, I was drawn (or pushed) to the races. Race, race, race, with the subsequent points, standings, rankings, and trophies. This drove a competitive attitude that was unsustainable to my psyche, my marriage, my friendships, and my bank account. Everything changed for me when I started calling them “events” rather than races. Like a 10k running event, or a mountain biking event, or an obstacle race (Tough Mudder, Questival, etc), the focus is on participating and Hey! I finished the course! Or— I set a personal best! Or I did so much better than last year! It turns out that once we focused more on the event, our own performance (forget the published standings), and the participation t-shirt (or regatta party), then we started to do better and certainly it was a more positive experience.
For us it was really revelatory how just a small change in language— from “races” to “events”— caused a healthy change in attitude and performance.
And then there are those of us for whom the stress and crowding of a race simply holds no interest. Me and my regular “crew” – a 76 year old friend and his 70 year old wife – go out on weekdays when traffic is light(er) on San Diego Bay. We reef if necessary and go out in the ocean where we can really relax and enjoy ourselves. We’d much rather be surrounded by a pod of 1000+ dolphins (yes) than a fleet of stressed out people.
I’m not opposed to racing. My excellent boat (a Nonsuch 33) was designed for an ocean racer who wanted a fast family coastal cruiser. I’m only answering the question the article poses. Racing just isn’t for everyone.
Brian – we certainly wouldn’t suggest racing is for everyone. Our comparison to the Boston Marathon was to suggest the 30,000 people running aren’t stressed and love the camaraderie of running with the group. They love the challenge of improving their times, the encouragement from competitors, and the festivities that surround it.
We enjoy racing for the same reason. We like the game, we like the people (competitors and crew), it improves our skills and understanding of sailing, and we do our best to have low-stress fun. There can be stressful moments like the 40 boats simultaneously crossing the CYC finish line last Saturday (https://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/2025/01/20/#cyc-midwinters-finish-looked-like-starting-line). But if you were in the CYC bar afterward, you’d only have heard great stories and laughter. We had a great time and came in last in class.
Sailing has also stressed us out when pulling in or out of a slip, seeing floorboards floating, dodging a whale or crossing a shipping a foggy shipping lane. Any sailing can be stressful.
One other thing that can be stressful is paying a slip fee month after month and never using the boat. Signing up for racing elevates your commitment to use your boat. And you can do the race like a Boston Marathoner and not be sorry if you come in 25,337th place. You did it! Avoid stress by starting a little behind the crowd, leave lots of room for others at marks, tack out of the way of crossing situations but do the course, tune-up your game and join the post-race festivities. When we sign up to race we sail on days we would not have gone out otherwise. We’re almost always thankful we did.
Racing, rallies and events aren’t for everyone and we love that people go sailing on their own just for pleasure. We do that, too.
However, though there might be a few stressful moments, we think most of the 325 boats signed up for this weekend’s Three Bridge Fiasco will be burning off stress from the week’s news, media, time at the office, etc. and will all have a great time.
Don’t stress and have fun however you sail.