Good Dissection of Where Sailing is Headed

[boatman61]

I don't think sailing will ever die..there's to much romance and adventure tied up in it.
Its a minority sport/lifestyle and will always have folk who will try to emulate/participate in what ancestors and peers experienced..
Plus the Adrenalin Rushes.... funny how 6kts and everythings humming on a mono... or 12+ on a Cat can feel like a 120mph hack through the Cotswolds countryside at 3am..

[barnakiel]

I think younger people now are generally less willing to undertake any physical or mental effort. No offense, just an observation. Perhaps elsewhere things look different.

Sailing will not disappear completely as there are always those one-off individuals that want to get cold, wet and uncomfortable. But, the way I see it, there is no way the numbers, relative and absolute, could grow.

The future is elsewhere. The future is virtual. Sofa, chips and X-box.

I think it is good news for us on the water.

b.

[nimblemotors]

Quite funny, because you can do it today already.
But that has little to do with the decline of sailing, and more about going fast vs slow, and all the other things people can do instead of sailing.
I think all forms of 'sports' have declined in participation, except maybe soccer.

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

:bigg rin:: biggrin::biggr in:

That's funny.

[Mike OReilly]

Thanks avb3. Interesting piece. From my reading of the story, it may not be that sailing is on the decline, but that big boat ownership may be shrinking. It says the number of boats made and imported into North America both rose, but the overall value declined. And that it was the under 20' range that increased the most. This suggests to me that the interest in sailing remains strong, but people are going for smaller boats.

This is likely due to the decline in middle-class incomes and the fact that most people are now working longer hours, so less vacation time. I wonder what the trends look like in Europe, where middle class incomes haven't been squeezed as much, and vacation times are still pretty reasonable.

[mlucasparris]

Being new to the sport, I can say that I've given sailing a bum rap for a long time. As always an observer I thought sailing was for drunk rich people. I had an uncle that owned marinas in Michigan and I can remember being at family functions with John Noel and his rich drunk fake friends. I only got interested because I'm looking into living a sustainable lifestyle when I retire in 10 years and with my thirst for adventure and being some place warm I began to explore this option. Now I have my first boat, a trailer sailer I'm going to see what this is all about and prove some of my earlier observations possibly incorrect. With more people having less money and working harder than ever before since the crash of 2008 when more middle class wealth went up in smoke, I feel many have this same conclusion - sailing is for rich people.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by zboss

Honestly - we are only 20 or so years away from powerboats that can run indefinitely at hull speed using a completely electric setup recharged using solar... so, why have sails?

So we get 20 years of cruising while you wait for something that might not happen?

BTW, what's a millennial? Are there people 1000 years old?

[brownoarsman]

I think at some point demand has to catch up to supply. If fewer people want boats, those used ones will be cheaper and more millennials can access the lifestyle. I think millennials, who don't necessarily want to own things and don't have the money for it anyways, actually fit better in the cruising life due to their lack of land-based possessions. For what it's worth, 29 years old on a Pearson 28-1 and sailing down to the keys (or at least will be when this rain stops; Venice, fl is getting stale)!


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Greenhand]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I think younger people now are generally less willing to undertake any physical or mental effort. No offense, just an observation. Perhaps elsewhere things look different.

Sailing will not disappear completely as there are always those one-off individuals that want to get cold, wet and uncomfortable. But, the way I see it, there is no way the numbers, relative and absolute, could grow.

The future is elsewhere. The future is virtual. Sofa, chips and X-box.

I think it is good news for us on the water.

b.

It is amazing how people use this bolded phrase just after being extremely offensive, usually with no actual observations of any reasonable sample size. Have you seen the sports and start ups that younger people put their effort into?

[Mike OReilly]

Just thinking about this ... I keep hearing that sailing is on the decline, but I also hear that popular cruising areas have never been busier. Anchorages are apparently full and moorings are hard to get. Seems contradictory.

Or are cruisers congregating more and more into fewer and fewer places?

[cowboy58]

So after sailing for 25 years and owning my own boat for 15 yrs. I have bought a new to me boat and when I asked my 23 year old son if he would like my 1967 islander I became super dad . I new he enjoyed sailing and wanted him to have a chance for something I didn't have my own boat early in life. I also don't think sailing will die as long as the cost doesn't get to high to get into the sport.

[Montanan]

My wife, daughter and I sail because we like to go slow with whatever the breeze provides. Our sailboats are our escape space. We primarily sail in the summer months on Flathead Lake, in northwest Montana, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, surrounded by forested mountains that come down to the waters edge, or we trailer our Hobie Tandem Island Adventure to smaller mountain lakes in Glacier National Park or near the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

We anchor in a bay to stay overnight or beach the boats and camp on the shores or an island.

We watch the operating practices of the Go Fast Boats as they motor to one side of the lake then return back to the other and finally they will just turn the beasts off and float for much of the day.

When we take the Go Fast Boaters out for a sail they fall in love with the experience and appreciate the savings from not expending on fuel. It is just that very few people in the USA have ever experienced sailing. One can rent a motor boat and they essentially require no training [albeit no training leads to not so go skippering]. Sailing takes time, effort, knowledge and experience to set up and to skipper. Sailors need to be proactive in taking landlubbers and motor boaters out for trips, day trips or overnighters, and to teach the inexperienced vast majority of the population. It starts by inviting all the motor boaters that are docked at your marina and / or are putting in their ski and day cruiser motorized boats to come aboard your sailboat so that they get a chance.

Another opportunity to provide a motorboater a chance to experience sailing is when they run out of fuel or their engines malfunction, and we get to pull them back with our sailboat to a marina to refuel. We go even slower when towing, our services provided in return for cold beer.

[ryon]

What are you guys talking about?

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

It is amazing how people use this bolded phrase just after being extremely offensive, usually with no actual observations of any reasonable sample size. Have you seen the sports and start ups that younger people put their effort into?

Just a reminder that intentionally coming on here and posting comments for no other reason than to create tension or offend someone is a breach of the rules.

[alctel]

Originally Posted by FamilyVan

I'm not sure what defines a millennial, but if it means somebody in their 20's all the ones I know are broke as can be. Like others above have mentioned, at 38 (me) and 26 (her) we were by far (10 years?) the youngest on our dock last year. We decided this year to give up the marina and join a yacht club. I went in to pay my dues yesterday and it was the weekly ROMEO luncheon- Retired Old Men Eating Out- great.

Yeah, everyone I know my age is broke as hell and trying to pay off thousands of dollars in student loans

I was lucky and got my education in the UK just before the grants/loans were cut and the prices sky-rocketed so I wasn't in such a bad situation, and I manged to luck my way into a pretty decent job. Most of my counterparts are a lot less lucky!

[TanzerTom]

Originally Posted by taildragerdrive

The interesting thing to me is on a very different though. I'm relatively new to sailing. I have been an adrenaline junky my entire life. I'm 64 so sure not a young guy. I have been getting my fixes doing the following things since I was young.
fighting forest fires
flying airplanes
downhill skiing
parachute jumping
etc.
I have spend a lot of time with other junkies like myself and we always talked about short shots in that most of these things give you at most a few minutes of adrenaline rush some only seconds.

I was surprised to find that early in my sailing experience I experienced the longest adrenaline experience of my life. We were sailing from the Cayman Islands to Florida. We got into 40kt winds I was in my Swan with a very experienced captain in a very sea worthy boat and all seemed to do well and felt comfortable. After being a bit scared for a few minutes. Then off for more than 24 hrs of fantastic fun and excitement.

I have been hooked on sailing ever since although I don't get to do it as much as I'd like I do sail a couple of months a year.

It seems like there are all kinds of TV shows and YouTube videos of bungee jumping, diving of cliffs with wing suits, ski and snowboard acrobatics, etc., that younger people just love.

Before sailing I would never have guessed that going out in 25 to 30kt winds would be as exciting and fun as it is. I think even here on the forum we don't talk enough about the excitement of sailing. I do love the lazy light wind days a bit but sailing in strong winds is what I love the most. In fact if someone had told me I could get excited about sailing 7 to 8kts before I sailed off shore I would have laughed at them.

So we are always talking about the fun and leisure of sailing and comfortable boats. I think the whole sailing community also needs to make a pitch to the younger folks about the excitement of sailing. I would not have wanted to be out in a power boat in those 40kt winds.

Just my 2cents on why sailing is loosing out because I think very few young know the excitement of sailing.

I think you nailed it. Too many alternatives that are too easy to do. Then there is the instant gratification thing. Sad. The feel of boat on water and response to wind and sail trim and tiller... few will ever experience. I'm 66 and more excited about getting my next boat than I was my first. And not a single family member, friend, or even acquaintance is interested in sailing. Oh, did I mention the value of solitude one can experience on a sail boat