Stock car racing, speed boat racing and other forms of racing have been the most popular forms of racing. But there is a form of racing that seems to be overlooked. That is sailboat racing.

I was recently reading an article in a sailing magazine that had asked its readers to write in with the number one reason they go sailboat racing. The results, supplied by a few hundred people, were not surprising to me. The overwhelming reason people named was the stimulating mental challenge racing provides. Other reasons - the physical challenge, the team-sport experience, the social value and the chan

There is one more, overriding reason why the mental challenge of sailing blows away anything else in terms of complexity. Moment by moment you have to take each different aspect of sailboat racing and prioritize it. You must choose where to focus your mental energies. In one moment, trying to gain a quarter boatlength, all your energy is on sail trim, steering and speed. But in the next, if you can pick up on the slightest windshift, you can quickly gain 100 yards or even half a mile.

When you add basic sports psychology and the head games sailboat racers play you get an idea of how complex it can be. (For example, your game plan is to go to the left side of the course, you get a bad start, tack away, and then convince yourself that the right side might just be better afterall.) Psychology also applies to crew interaction. How well you communicate, how well you work together, and how

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sailboat Racing, sailboat racing, forms racing, mental challenge, reason people,
Approximate Word count = 606
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)