It's one of heroic events, dangerous encounters, and personal survival where all is overcome through vast knowledge and experience, physical endurance, command presence, super seamanship, huge sums of money and all the goodies of the computer age. Methinks that they protest too much. Sailing is simple. It requires minimum intelligence. There is no magic here - only very basic physics that can be mastered, given some time, by nearly anyone.
Children learn almost instantly.
Proficiency in sailing, navigation, and seamanship takes a few years of solid effort - but competence doesn't take forever. Sailing is however an ongoing learning experience where people progress at different rates in an ever changing environment, and where the old duffers like me are still learning at a phenomenal rate. In the 60s and 70s, sailing was a gentle sport that many enjoyed. Small boats were everywhere and daring incidents few. Brokers and dealers commonly gave sailing lessons and kept the few blowhards at bay.