Age Of Cruisers

[Charlie]

Twenty + years ago wile cruising the south pacific I met a pretty wide range of people. some people my age. one older couple (in there late twenties) sailing a a 27 foot boat from Mexico to NZ. and a bunch of real old people (in their 40's) and some ancient people in their (50's). I like the idea of average age of crew b/c with the two kids being 9 and 10 that brings our crew's average age to 28.

[infopubs]

Quote:
Originally Posted by CSY Man

Back in the days the young girls couldn't care less. They were also a lot more fun cruising with than older women who are constantly complaining.


CSY: Maybe as you got older they found more things to complain about?

-Louise

[slomotion]

Don’t know about the Pacific, but in the Bahamas/ Caribbean (and I suspect it’s the same everywhere) the first two kind of surprising things you learn when you abandon your home port and start real cruising are:

1. You are immediately and unconditionally accepted. You are welcome regardless of age, experience, or boat/bank account size. For younger cruisers, the gray hairs may not want to go hiking or climb the volcano with you, but it doesn’t matter - there is a common bond and a real community among all cruisers.

2. Even among people your own age, not everyone is like you. There is an amazing variety of cruising life-styles. It’s probably fair to say that there are more people who are resort marina hopping and living a kind of private cruise ship life-style than ever before. But, most cruisers, regardless of their wealth, have made a decision to simplify their lives and live relatively frugally. There are plenty of people both old and young who like to anchor in the out islands and only come to town to take on provisions and fuel. Others like to frequent party towns and eat out, or bar hop, or alternate with deserted island snorkeling, or everything in between.

Not sure how the young girls fit into this - I remember one time ..... Uh, just kidding, honey.

[schoonerdog]

I personally think that leaving with young children to show them the world, have them learn new languages, and experience history, cultures, politics, economics, geography all first hand. Greater love has no one than this, than a parent lay down their careers for their children. Can I have an AMEN brothers?

[Celestialsailor]

Hell!!!...I'm not too old to be a cruiser???...Hot digity damn

[pyearesqrd]

Two of my friends from college and I bought our boat when we were all about 26. We are now 29 and are finishing up a fast circumnavigation. We met other boats that had people our age, but usually they were crew, the kids of the owners. We only met three other boats that were owned/skippered/crewed by young'uns like us. Most boats we met were of couples in their late 40s - early 60s.

-jeff-
Adventures of the Sailing Vessel SohCahToa

[harryrezz]

Interesting thread. First a couple of observations: based on personal experience, most real cruisers will never see this poll. The majority do not have access to the internet, or if they do they use it to obtain weather information and communicate with friends and family. They simply do not have the time or interest to be surfing the web and to participate in polls and forums. As a result you are getting a very small number of cruisers participating in you poll, and those that do are probably younger than average because we old fogies are not into electronic gismos and so most of us will never see the poll in the first place. (I am currently ashore for the suummer - but while aboard I'd never have seen this.)
Second, again based on my limited experience in the southern Caribbean , I'd guess the average age of cruisers to be around 60. Cruising sailors in their 70's are not at all uncommon, but those in their 40's are out there, too. I seem to fall just a bit on the high side of the average, but I am also much more physically fit than most who are 10 years my junior so I can keep up pretty well.
Personally I had dreamed of cruising since I was a teenager (now 67), but bought into the corporate life and raising a family first. My second wife completely bought into my dream, and it became our primary focus and goal - I was then 49. Finally, in 2001, we got to the point at which we could buy an appropriate boat and arranged our lives to permit taking 3 1/2 month cruises in the southern Caribbean while also running a small crewed charter business to make extra income. We returned to the states and our jobs for the other 8 months. We were on the brink of breaking free and retiring aboard. Then the unthinkable happened: we were both diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Sadly my wife passed away after a 17 month struggle. I am still here and, by all accounts, cancer free. I will forever be thankful that we were able to at least have a taste of the cruising lifestyle during those 4 winters together aboard La Nostra.
I have been fortunate enough to find another first mate and am continuing to pursue my dream - as Bella wanted me to.
My point? Simple. It makes no difference how old you are. If you want to go cruising, I mean REALLY want to go, then do it ..... now! Find the way to make it happen while you still can. We never know what may lie in store for us behind the next island or around the next point ... and we certainly never know when we may be called to that final cruising ground.

[unbusted67]

Thank you for your response and your reminder of life's brevity. My heart goes out to you and your family. I hope your chosen lifestyle makes your life full.

[Vasco]

Capt. Harry,

You're quite right about "just going". I first went for a year nearly twenty years ago. Height of my career but I took off because I'd seen so many cases of people planning for years and then have illness or some other circumstance derail the plans. Although most of the cruisers out there are of retirement age there are still many that have just taken off . Most of them come back ashore and back to work after a year or two but some manage to keep cruising and getting by.

[mikereed100]

When I was a paramedic I had a call involving a 64 year old man who had a heart attack and died while walking to his mailbox. He had just retired the day before after working all his life so he could retire in comfort. Since then I have squandered all my savings on travel and fun and never looked back.

"The past is a cancelled check and the future is a promisary note. The present is the only cash you've got. Spend it wisely"

Mike

[Brent Swain]

We dont stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing . Saying "I'm too old for that" becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
A teenager once said to me "Brent, you'll never grow up".I said "Promise?"
Brent Swain

[Ex-Calif]

"The past is a cancelled check and the future is a promisary note. The present is the only cash you've got. Spend it wisely"

And perfect financial planning is having the check to the funeral home bounce...

[roverhi]

Think the demographics have changed. The younger crowd today is a lot more devoted to getting ahead, job, house and family than we were. Chucking it all to go cruising just doesn't seem to be in the cards for our junior executive families. In the '70s, when we were in SoPac, almost all the cruisers were under 40 and more near 30. Of course, we weren't in 50' boats and worrying about keeping our airconditioning and reefer working. The largest boat was a Swan 65 with a bunch of crazy Italians aboard, a 50' Canadien boat that had the sinful luxury of a washer/dryer combo and then the rest of us in under, mostly well under, 40' boats. We didn't frequent bars and restaurants, or the bright lights and, with the exception of two 40'ish couples, none of us drank much. It was definitely not Margaritaville. Most of us were doing it on the cheap and loving it.

Also the herding instinct seems to have struck the cruising crowd. I see pictures of bays that we had all to ourselves are now cheek to jowl with boats. We enjoyed weeks at a time without seeing another boat, often only had to share an anchorage with 2-3 other boats. Even the most populated anchorages had fewer than 10 boats with the exception of Papeete. Even the sparse population of cruising boats in the '70s was a crowd compared to the previous decade from what we heard.

I read about the the size of the boats and all the mechanical and electronic systems that todays cruisers can't seem to do without and the mind boggles. The days of kerosene lamps, sextants, and self reliance seems to have gone over the side. Hell, even the Pardeys are cruising around in a 44' FRP boat with all the luxuries.

Aloha
Peter O.

[defjef]

I bought Shiva when I was 39. First boat... last boat.

jef
sv shiva

[bottleinamessage]

Harry pretty much told my story. One day a few years after my wife passed I woke up and said "why in the hell am I still working and juggling things so I can sail a month or so at a time?" Reality check.

Within a few months I had sold the house, gave the kids what they wanted, had an estate sale and sold everthing else (read stored nothing), asked my sailing mate to marry me (she said yes), sold my hot rod (painful) and car and moved aboard (Dec/06).

It's better than we expected.