Middle class family entry level coastal cruisers, what are they?

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

DIY may indeed be an endangered species in urban USA, but in many of t he island nations we visit the practice is nearly universal. I suspect that a visit to rural America would reveal a fair amount of DIY, especially amongst farmers who have done DIY for generations.

And from my perspective, it has never been less expensive to buy and equip a modest older cruising boat. Sure is less costly than when I was edging up the boat size ladder. Thing is, all too many folks are brainwashed into the gotta be new and shiny and electronic thought process, both in terms of boats and in all the aspects of modern life. Given that mindset, costs rise dramatically for the cruising sailor, and the prospects of building enough wealth prior to departure to fund the adventure fade from reality.

We see both sides of the coin here on CF... the 500 buck a month types and the Oyster or bust types. How many posts have you read where the advice is to buy new or nearly new "in order to minimize down stream costs"? How many posts deriding lower cost cruising as "just camping"? IMO, anyone with the true desire to go cruising can likely do so, IF willing to give up a good deal of the "good life" prior to departure, and to find the means to enjoy the less expensive aspects of cruising. That's how we started off... I know it can be done!

There are enough CF contributors who succeed in cruising on a meager budget to lend some credence to my thoughts, and I'm always glad to read of their accomplishments. For those fortunate enough to feed higher on the hog, good for them! Most have worked damn hard to get where they are and no one should criticize their style. We might look with some envy at the all carbon Gunboat or whatever, but that shouldn't impinge on the joy we derive from our own vessels and travels, however modest they may be.

And finally for perspective, I've been a life long DIYer. Yet this year, at age 79, I bloody well hired someone to do a serious bottom job. Felt pretty weird, too! But when we relaunched and I didn't hurt for a week, the weirdness diminished!

Off of the soapbox now...

Jim

Summer is finally here (at least in the northern hemisphere) and I just wanted to repost Jim's post here to keep us all, well, ME, anyway, focused on getting what needs to be done done before we set out so we can feel good about our little boats even if all the cosmetics aren't dialed in yet....
it's amazing how much prettier your boat looks after you get a quote for a professional repainting of the whole thing!

[JPA Cate]

Don, with reference to your post above.... Imho, painting a fiberglass boat is really a last ditch effort. It doesn't stay "painted" much more than 10 yrs., then normal wear and tear, tools dropped, the occasional kiss of a dock, or a hard dinghy, chips, and flaky paint. I really think accepting that it's not a silk purse, and use TSRW or PoliGlow (sp?) is a good way. It polymerizes, protects the gelcoat, and the shine lasts fairly well from annual haulout to annual haulout, better than waxing, in our use. Shiny is pretty, sure, but it comes at a high cost (just the topsides cost about $14,000AUD 7 or 8 yrs. ago.) You can buy a lot of PoliGlow at that price!, and it's DIY.

All that said, though, the automotive LPU we had sprayed on has retained its gloss very well; it is the "brushable marine LPU that Jim used on the deck and cabin that has lost its gloss and crazed. Just, imho, it is a huge job, an "opportunity" to un-bed and re-bed every fitting on the boat! Agh!

As to your original question relative to why are not more people getting into sailing, I think another factor is that mainly only rich people's kids get sailing instruction at the local yacht club. On a percentage of population basis, not many have parents who sail. And, outfits that have summer programs for kids w/o regard to high membership fees (like Girl Scouts), don't have the funding to run sail training programs.

There are some places left in the world, where the sailing clubs are small and informal, and where there are sailing classes (safety and racing) for youngsters from about 5 yrs. on up, but on the whole, there's no great feeder for it so that young adults grow up wanting to continue to sail.

Ann

[Don C L]

Yes it's true about the kids not getting that involved anymore. We have a big beautiful open harbor (by our standards) with plenty of room for kids to learn on, and they have some sailing camps coming up soon, but I think back to when my brother was learning on an El Toro in a Palo Alto slough at a Sea Scout base, there were a lot of kids back then banging around in the muck...back in the 60s.... but then there were still blank spots on the map back then too.

Yeah as far as paint, the PO painted her with something, maybe house paint, but whatever it was it is now very un-neatly removing itself in various cracking and crazing layers, so even I, as tolerant as I am with imperfection, find myself compelled to THINK about starting the painting project again. Alas, I will likely just clean up the worst offenses, primer on the larger areas, and just get out there and let the kids bang around on it and not put my glasses on.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by AJ_n_Audrey

Actually, if you look at the middle federal tax brackets (and most tax brackets) they went down significantly from 1950 to 1980, and again from 1980 to today. In 1980 it was between 32 and 37% for the middle brackets. In 2017, the middle brackets are 25 and 28%. So the real problem is that income for the middle class has been stagnant since 1980.

The real problem, as others have pointed out, is that there is more to buy that we think we need. You could opt out of cell phones, internet, cable TV, electronics on the boat, power seats and so forth... but we don't. We are just as smitten by advertising as we ever were, but there is more now.


And it will always be thus. Appetites grow.


(My avatar is slightly out-of-date. I recently down sized to a 24-foot trimaran because it better suits my needs now. I bought the big cat as a tool for family cruising. Now it's mostly just me.)

[JPA Cate]

When it comes to denying advertising, I keep remembering, "a fool and her money are soon parted." Pretty well protects me.

Ann

[406Columbia]

We can't persuade friends of ours to get boats even for free in good shape its crazy, all the sweet boats going for next to nothing.

[Iaangus]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

The Middle class is what fueled General Aviation for decades, but it’s all but gone too.
I used to think Aviation just got too expensive, but then after buying a boat and cruising around and seeing hundreds of big motor yachts bellying up to the fuel dock for thousands of dollars of fuel at a pop, I decided it wasn’t a lack of money.

I think it’s just too hard, you can’t stroke a check today and be flying tomorrow, but you can with that Motor Yacht.

If you think about it, there is a tremendous amount of money spent on today’s “essentials” that didn’t even exist not too long ago.
I bet the average bill to watch TV now is $100 a month, then about that for a cell phone, and of course you have to have internet at home.

My belief is people are on average just too lazy, and want instant satisfaction, if it’s hard to do and takes practice, then it’s too hard.

I had my Grandkids living with us for a few years, we lived on a Farm, I bought them motorcycles, and we had two big ole friendly dogs, and a big swimming pool. I bought them good bows to shoot etc.
They only wanted to play video games, you couldn’t get them out of the house, honestly. The bicycles were too hard to ride, forget the dirt bikes.

Average Joe is too lazy to cruise or even to sail

Like a64 said plus sailing requires saving some money. A Harley Davidson is less work, cost less and easier to maintain.