IT’S a gorgeous Friday evening. There’s a breeze off the Hudson River, and the single best place to be  every sailor knows  is out on the water. But you, who wouldn’t know port from starboard or rudder from tiller, can only gaze longingly at those bobbing, darting boats on the horizon.

You don’t know anyone with a boat and you don’t know how to sail.

Get to Nyack, on the Hudson 25 miles north of Manhattan, and stand on the dock of the Nyack Boat Club before a scheduled race. “There’s always people looking for crew  you would definitely find a ride,” even without any experience, said Tom Lawton, who sails a 17-foot Thistle, one of the nation’s top 10 fastest such vessels. The club’s regular races are Wednesdays from 5:30 until dusk, and Sundays at noon.

Despite its blue-blood reputation, sailing is for everyone. Owning and storing a boat may cost thousands of dollars a year, but aside from membership fees at some clubs (not Nyack), crewing costs nothing when a skipper invites you aboard. What you do need are the will to learn and a boat in need of a crew.

And “it’s definitely not only a young person’s game,” said Mr. Lawton, who is 33 and has been racing sailboats for 12 years. “The average keelboat racer is in his 60s, and we have an active racer at our club who’s in his 90s.”