I have said a good deal in these pages of the dangers of boat-sailing. It has been necessary to insist upon them, because the price of safety in boat-sailing is eternal vigilance and a little knowledge. The careless man may drown himself any day, and there is no saying what mess the complete duffer may not get into. But given the habit of carefulness, which soon becomes instinctive and unconscious, together with a little experience, and a moderate amount of prudence as regards weather, and boat-sailing is certainly not a dangerous sport as sports go.
[Illustration: There is no place like home.]
As Lord's is to the cricketer, St. Andrews to the golfer, Newmarket to the lover of the Turf, so is the Solent to the yachtsman--the Solent in its largest sense, not the West Channel only, but the whole of the waters inside the Wight, bounded by fifty miles of shore line, and covering an area of over fifty square sea miles. The West Channel, twelve miles long, is nearly twenty-four square miles; the East Channel, eight miles long, is equal in area; and Southampton Water, six miles long, covers three square miles. Nearly all of it is navigable to yachts, the Brambles being the only midwater shoal which interferes with small vessels of moderate draught.
The water of the Solent is clear as crystal, the air healthy as Switzerland, the scenery nearly as beautiful; here are watering places with mirth and music; cities with docks and shipping; men of war and men of peace; clubs and hotels; piers, slips, jetties, and hards; building and repairing sheds; yacht designers and agents; skippers and 'hands'; sail, flag, and rope makers; yachts' ironmongers and purveyors, &c. &c. &c., which etceteras include several snug anchorages and small harbours for those who wish to escape from the general hubbub during the yachting and excursion season. And the whole of this within a two hours' journey of London!
Curiously enough, the advantages of the Solent for yachting have only been fully appreciated during the past few years. It is true that the Royal Yacht Squadron was started early in the century, and the Royal Southern and Royal Victoria Yacht Clubs early in the forties; but yachting on the Solent as we know it now was not dreamt of, and the Thames held for many years the leading position as the centre of this essentially English sport.