More people are sailing tidbit.....

[Jeff H]

"The number of Americans who sail grew from 4.3 million in 2004 to 4.7 million last year, [roughly a 9% increase] according to SGMA. [Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, which tracks sports trends] The average sailor is 37.9 years old, and has a household income of $81,200."*

And I thought that it was just us old farts that were still sailing. On the other hand, in an absolute sense, 37.9 isn't all that young. I still worry that I don't see as many 20 year olds out there as I used to.

I was also heartened to see that the average income was not as high as I had feared. I had come to suspect that sailing was once again becoming a sport for the very rich rather than for us average folk. (For what it is worth the average income in the US was roughly $45K with roughly 26% of the population exceeding the $81.2K average income for sailors in 2005)

Jeff

*Source: "Capital Newspaper" 8/16/2006 and US census data for 2005

[jean1146]

My feeling is that this trend is going to be on the rise.Just think how much the europeans are paying for fuel.....it's coming here.JC.

[ssullivan]

Jean hits right on it. People are dumping power boats and taking up sailing in an increasing number to avoid costs. Well, they are in theory, anyway. When I had looked into selling our boat, the brokers informed me of the uptick in the sailboat market due to the fuel cost factor.

Also, the general population is increasing. So, for any given percentage of the population that sails, as the population increases, so do the number of sailboats.

I also wonder about why I don't see the younger guys out there. I used to be one of them and wonder where they all went. Any on this board?

[Charlie]

I think there are alot of people out there who have made a small fortune by stock market, real estate, etc. and they are coming to the age where they want to retire. Ok what do you do now? Sail around the world. In my research for buying a boat I have met at least a dozen people in that situation. "I've been on power boats all my life and with the price of gas I thought I'd learn to sail." was a quote I heard in Mexico.

I think there are also people that have left sailing to work hard to get the money to go sailing (count me as one) and are coming back. Broker in SF told me he gets calls everyday from people looking for an ocean going cruiser around 35' to 40' that isn't a project and costs less than $150k.

Do you think that with the increase in demand and the increase in materials costs sailboats are going to actually appreciate. I doubt it in real dollars but with all this inflation (that the government says we aren't having) I can see that the price of sailboats will increase soon.