How do you try sailing without owning a boat?

Sailing has a reputation as something for people with a blazer, a yacht and a surname with a hyphen. The reality at most clubs is a car park full of muddy dinghies, a kettle that never stops, and members who are delighted when someone new shows an interest. Boats need people far more than people need boats.

Start with a taster

Many sailing clubs hold open days or "try sailing" sessions, often in late spring and summer. You turn up, borrow a buoyancy aid, and go out with an experienced sailor for an hour or so. It is the cheapest way to answer the only question that matters at this stage: do you like being on a small boat, on the water, with the wind doing most of the work?

Look for clubs on lakes, reservoirs, estuaries and sheltered bays. Sheltered water is the friendliest place to start.

Then learn in a dinghy

If the taster went well, a beginner dinghy course is the usual next step. Sailing schools and many clubs run them over a couple of days or several evenings, and they provide the boat and the safety cover. You will learn:

• How to rig a small boat and get it in and out of the water.
• The points of sailing, which is the language for how the boat moves relative to the wind.
• Tacking and gybing, the two ways of turning.
• What to do when it capsizes, which in a small dinghy is part of the fun and part of the lesson.

Dinghies teach you the most because you feel everything immediately. A gust, a bad sail trim or a lazy weight shift shows up straight away. Larger keelboats are more stable and dry, and suit people who prefer a calmer start; many schools offer both.

Wherever you learn, choose a recognised school or a club with qualified instructors and a safety boat, and follow their rules about conditions.

Become crew

The fastest way onto bigger boats is to be useful. Club racing in particular often needs crew, and many clubs have a crew list or a noticeboard where helms looking for a hand and people looking for a boat find each other.

Good crew are not experts. They turn up on time, listen, pull the rope they are asked to pull, and bring biscuits. Within a season of crewing you will know more than you expect, and you will have sailed several different boats without paying for any of them.

Holidays are a gentle way in

Lakes and coastal resorts in summer often have sailing centres offering short lessons, guided outings and hire for people who already have the basics. Italian lakes and sheltered bays are lovely places for this. An hour or two in the morning before the afternoon wind picks up, then lunch: a perfectly civilised introduction to the sport.

Clothing for a first session

• Clothes that can get wet, and that dry fast. Avoid cotton jeans.
• Shoes with grippy soles that can get wet, or wetsuit boots.
• A warm layer and a windproof, because it is always colder on the water.
• Sun protection and a hat that will not fly off.
• The buoyancy aid the club or school provides. Wear it.

The social side

Sailing clubs are, quite often, mainly social clubs that happen to have boats. The bar, the post-race tea and the boat-park conversations are where people offer you a place on a boat next week. Stay for them.

If you enjoy the wind and the water but want something you can carry under your arm, windsurfing or stand-up paddleboarding are close neighbours.