YouTube Sailors - Overly Romanticized Or Just Lacking Details?

[carstenb]

I suppose I shouldn't "flog" our own blog - but we started 3 years ago and our blog journals our travels (trials and tribulations) during that time. We've made it to the Marquesas after coming across scotland, the biscay, along the european coastline, out to the canaries, across the pond, up the ICW to the Catskills, back down again, across the caribbean and through he canal and out here.

our blog is at svcapri.com


There are lots of videos in the blogs, none of them showing chesty young blondes

if you only want to watch the videos, go onto you tube, search for carsten breuning

we have lots of readers who say we tell it like it is - good and bad and they all feel they are on the boat with us

[Mr B]

I dont watch the youtube bloggers or vloggers,
Any one can sail in perfect conditions,

I watch youtube video's of when things get really rough and how they handle the high seas, waves and extreme conditions,
Sooner or later I will be in those conditions, And seeing it first hand adds to my experience of what to expect and how to handle these wild conditions,
It just adds to my own experience of large seas and high winds which I have already encountered, But seeing how others handle the bad weather,
Gives me an insight to whether I am doing it right or not,
Single handing means there is no one there to hold your hand if things go pear shaped, Your on your own, So every bit extra helps,

Even with the latest and greatest weather forecasting electronics on board, Which most cruisers dont have,
When the bad weather hits, There is no where to hide from it in the middle of an ocean,
You take it as it comes,
So a video of a cute woman in a bikini is no help at all in these conditions, Hahahaha

[Kolanorton]

Originally Posted by Time2Go

If they were referred to by what they really are,
“Customers” who are buying a product
The cash would dry up in a heartbeat
There is a bit of psychological manipulation
going on here.
“Give us some money and YOU ARE PART
of our “ Journey, Project, Experience”
Send us a few bucks and you are part of us
Latest craze
Have a baby and exploit the little one

Excellent summary, felt this way for a long-time. Amazed there are sooo many who buy into it Have to say hats off to Childress for refusing to go down the patron road (for now)

[john61ct]

Like any "club membership" marketing scheme

[Wayne hoath]

Escapism. People pay Netflix for it and fund the Kardashian’s for it. Funding some mostly nice people who sail in loverly parts of the world and living vicariously through them...no harm done. Not realising it’s entertainment and thinking you can live all your days like theirs could end in trouble. Fantasists will always find trouble though and it doesn’t have to start with a YouTube video.

[Trailer Sailor]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

I like Fun on Holiday. No drama. Just good folks cruising. Light hearted and not slickly packaged. Check it out.

One of my favorites on YouTube. I like their laid back, realistic approach to the cruising lifestyle.

[Juho]

All youtubers (and normal people too) tend to film on sunny days, and not film on rainy days. There are of course different levels of sunshine.

Some youtubers have made episodes where they tell us that sun doesn't shine every day, and that they have also their weak moments and rainy days. These episodes help also reading their sunny videos in the right way.

[odonnellryan]

Maybe we're weird, but we've had some of our best days on the rainy days. At least those are the ones you often remember (motoring in 0kts but 5ft vis due to rain, or learning to sail in 30 knots and crazy chop, etc)

[mabowers]

Originally Posted by Aguabago

Try whereisbrickhouse to see lots of reality on boat setup and great suggestions for cruisers.

My favorite of all the sailing Youtubers... Patrick & Rebecca Childress. No glitz, lot's of practical info, just a little bit of "travelogue". I don't think they put out videos until they were departing Sri Lanka on his 2nd circumnavigation.

[Seaworthy Goods]

There is an excellent resource of 1000+ articles of info about the reality of living/cruising on a boat, as well as planning for that life.

www.TheBoatGalley.com (TBG) started with recipes but a decade or so ago it branched out to include everything from travelling with a pet to selecting bedding to considerations for buying a boat ... you name it and Carolyn Shearlock has covered it.

It also helps that she & Dave previously cruised on a monohull in California and now are on a multihull in Florida, preparing for the Bahamas.

Another huge benefit is that TBG includes countless comments and recommendations from other boaters.

[carlosproa]

The YouTube videos serve as a guide of what are the places to consider. Cruising is budget dependent, so the more money you have the more accommodations and comfort. I actually follow all the above mentioned channels. There are two other ones from people barely making it on a Hippie budget. One is a German girl with an Aluminum sailboat. Is called White Spot Pirates. As expect d is very raw . The other one is a former American navy sailor and his German girlfriend in a plywood catamaran. I think is called Sailing Zíngaro

I have a preference for “Lucky Fish”, a retired Brit with a Mongolian girlfriend on a Warram catamaran. Although all of these channels have the drone shots, and pre-staged views, all of them gives you enough insight on cruising live at different budgets. My advice is to match your expectations$$ on budget and comfort

[Perfect Ride]

Originally Posted by edselby

Who gets it right?
Who almost gets it right?
Who is just full of bilge scum?

We have spoken to those that do full time video channels, for the most part they are the people you see on their laptops while you are enjoying a sunset drink at a tropical bar. Much is scripted and planed in advance and then published often 3-6 months after the fact. Very few get it 100% right.

Save up those hours of video watching and take the time to do a crossing as a crew (from French Polynesia to Tonga or Vanuatu would be nice) to or do a month long charter where you are a working crew to see the real deal. You will learn more and be better situated to know what is important to you in a boat.

Enjoy!!

[bluedotvoyages]

My husband and I are planning on doing the same as we retire. So, we already bought the boat and are posting videos and writing a blog of our weekends and vacations spent practicing and preparing the boat. I think it's important for anyone that's not done this before to dip their toe into the water slowly:-)



We have a mixture of work and play. No income from it yet - just hoping to show the real side of what we do. And when we do go full time, we really want to share our stories, and hear others stories as well - that's what the sailing community is all about. http://bluedotvoyages.com



On other youtube channels, we actually find the work videos much more interesting and educational - it is amazing how many different ways people have of getting those boat tasks done. Yes, some of the YouTube channels are paid, however it is SUPER HARD to make enough money doing that to totally fund your sailing, so don't count on it. Check YouTube channels OutChasingStars and S/V HappyTogether.

[hukilaumike]

I'm surprised no one has yet to mention White Spot Pirates as a Youtube vlog that is more on the "realistic" side. Nike (for those of you who don't know, she is a young German woman who bought a fixer-upper aluminum boat in Panama) shows the good and bad of the cruising lifestyle. And her videos are very professionally edited and well done. She shows us video of her scared during off shore lightning storms, angry and frustrated with her engine, elated during inland hikes, meeting locals (the series is in English, but she also speaks fluent Spanish), and interacting with other cruisers. I think the series has become somewhat repetitive at this point, but I still watch every week.

As far as blogs go, hands down my favorite was Sailing Papillon, detailed the 8 year cruise of Amy, her husband Eric and their two daughters as they voyage from the east coast of the US, down to Central America, through the canal, across the Pacific, and eventually ending up in New Zealand. Amy is fabulous writer with a great sense of humor (she's been in the magazines and on SailFeed), and the stories she tells of what it is really like to cruise with young children are entertaining to say the least. She does not skimp on the problems, but she also gives you plenty of the good stuff. They ended their journey in 2017, but it's worth a read from the beginning. I was hooked from the moment I saw the picture of her two daughters getting a bath together on deck in a five gallon bucket.

Sailing Papillon

As a general rule, I find the vlogs about cruising to be boring; I don't really care what these folks do; I'm not interested in them going to shore side bars or having drinks with friends, or showing us where they snorkel. It strikes me as narcissistic on their part to think that we are all interested in their personal lives. Now, show me how you fixed the head, or modified your genoa track; that I'll watch. The vlog Abandoned Comfort started off with the couple's journey to find, buy and renovate a boat. I watched that. But once that went off the rails, I gave up. Learning the Lines is still interesting, as the majority of the series is still boat projects. I guess it won't be a surprise that Sail Life, with that ultimate DIY guy Mads, is my favorite.

[zulugmt]

Youtube channels generate income for their producers. What you see is what the producers have determined you want to see. Entertainment, fantasy, serial drama, girls in bikinis. Different characters in each but much the same story line in all.