have smaller houses, boats and cars than Americans, in general
If you thing the Irish Sea is demanding sailing just by looking around and at the geography, think again. It is tougher than that.
We have been up and down the length of it about a dozen times in the past 40 years, and have had a totally easy run once, and 50% of the distance in easy conditions a few times. Otherwise is was a bash, or else we took 25 mile chunks and stopped in beautiful little harbours with great pubs.
When we spent a couple of weeks in Howth one September, there was a race every second night, and lots of other sailing activity.