Is Family Cruising Dead ?

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by BettiedelMar

I'm 30, and my boyfriend and I are heading out in April to cruise for a couple of years. We bought a boat in August for a good price and have been fixing it up and saving. We don't have a ton of sailing experience, but we both wanted to see the world, meet interesting people and have an adventure. I can't think of a better way to accomplish those goals than sailing!

But I would like to stand up for my generation for a moment. Saying that young people live in a virtual world or that we can't fix anything because of our devotion to the throwaway culture or that we are too focused on material goods and status to live in a small boat or that all young people do is watch MTV are pretty cliche arguments. Kind of like saying that all boomers are self-involved.

The fact is you have to have some money to do this. Many young people are struggling right now, and many are so laden with student loan debt they wouldn't be able to dream about going cruising without the bank charging them interest. The other fact is that there are a lot of young people cruising or planning to cruise. There are probably just as many as in the '70s. It's just there are so many retirees now that it looks unbalanced. And why are there so many retirees? Because they have the financial resources to do this easily. It has absolutely nothing to do with MTV, which incidentally was invented by a boomer.

'seems to be a lot of good insight here. I posted earlier that, since the seventies, most cruisers seem to be my age (sixties), but it's likely true that there are as many young cruisers now as then. I have several friends on boats who are living aboard and cruising in their twenties and thirties and they seem to be as skilled or more skilled than those forty years ago. Certainly they have a better ability to access information and gain knowledge.

[Overlord]

I am 44 , and my wife and i are cruising with our kids Girl , 13 , boy 11 and girl 8. Cruising life can be pretty taxing with the home schooling etc....but would I rather them be at a mall with friends and peer preasure and all that..no
So we decided to take them on an adventure of a life time. With cruising come sacrifices but the adventure out weighs them by far. We are on a 47 ft cat. My brother in law decided to join us in the cruising life and bought a 45 ft cat. He has 2 small children. Then we inspired 2 other families , who are our good friends to do the same. They both have children , one set very young and the other 's are teens. We are all on leopard cats , ex mooring charter boats
Discovery channel will be our back yard

[SunDevil]

That is cool that you have a fleet. I think that would be more enjoyable if there were multiple ships all going in the same general direction. They could help you out if you ran into trouble, watch over boats when some people go to the beach, they could pick up supplies at the store, and there would be more people researching and finding things to do.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

That is cool that you have a fleet. I think that would be more enjoyable if there were multiple ships all going in the same general direction. They could help you out if you ran into trouble, watch over boats when some people go to the beach, they could pick up supplies at the store, and there would be more people researching and finding things to do.

Not to mention the teens could rake in some coin as babysitters when the adults, as a group, want to hit a few evening watering holes in port. Just like in the 'burbs, except instead of a cell phone in mom's pocket, she has her VHF to check in on the kids.

[JimmyB73]

We were talking about this same topic before we left in September from our home marina to head south. We are both in our middle 50's and for the most part, we seem like the youngest people on the water, with the exception of the kids out for a afternoon. My personal opinion would be the time involved, When I was in my 20's, 30's and 40's I was busy trying to earn enough money to enjoy a lifestyle like we are now experiencing, besides raising a family.
So now our job is to give the younger generation a chance to share it. I try to get my daughter and son-in-law on the boat every chance I get. But I am spending more time showing a 4 yr old grandaughter the joys of sailing. She has several hours tiller time on a 22 Catalina. She never gets bored once the sails are raised. So she will be the next sailor in the family.

[medicrene]

Hello all,

I was asked for more specifics about the cruise plans for the Witchdoctor. I am married, but we are without children and we do not plan to have children. I am 45 and she is 32. We both work as medical officers aboard a cruise ship. We work for three or four months at a time, then we are off for two or three months. As we have just finished the retrofit our our Hudson Force 50 (The Witchdoctor II), we will start cruising this year. Our plan is to first to take our boat from San Francisco to the Caribbean. After that, who knows.

Now that our boat repairs are completed, we have both taken a 75% pay cut to work on the cruise ship. However our expenses are now very minimal and we will both have months of vacation at the same time were we can cruise our boat. We eventually plan a circumnavigatin, but we are not ready for that quite yet.
the Witchdoctor

[Nadejda]

Hi,

We are new to the forum but thought I would post a quick note. My wife and I are in our thirties and are full time sailing with our children. We made this change about ten months ago and have learned a lot along the way. We actually did what was mentioned in an earlier post; we bought an old boat and have been fixing it ourselves as we go on a shoe string budget. Part of our decision to make this life change was money; it was the cheapest way to live for our size of family. I know that cheap and boating don't normally go together but done right it can be extremely inexpensive; yearly moorage with electricity where we are, runs about $1600 for the year and our boat is 65' OAL.

I think you may see a change in the demographic of cruising as more young people look for affordable alternatives to the normal American life style. Although in our travels so far we have only met one family cruising, we have been asked a lot about what we are doing and how it works by other young families at various locations.

Peter
S/V Nadejda

[Paul Elliott]

Here's a link to my friend's cruising blog: Forgeover
He and his wife scrimped and saved, he quit his network admin job last year, and now they are cruising with their two young children. They seem to be having a great time.

[medicrene]

Originally Posted by Nadejda

Hi,

We are new to the forum but thought I would post a quick note. My wife and I are in our thirties and are full time sailing with our children. We made this change about ten months ago and have learned a lot along the way. We actually did what was mentioned in an earlier post; we bought an old boat and have been fixing it ourselves as we go on a shoe string budget. Part of our decision to make this life change was money; it was the cheapest way to live for our size of family. I know that cheap and boating don't normally go together but done right it can be extremely inexpensive; yearly moorage with electricity where we are, runs about $1600 for the year and our boat is 65' OAL.

I think you may see a change in the demographic of cruising as more young people look for affordable alternatives to the normal American life style. Although in our travels so far we have only met one family cruising, we have been asked a lot about what we are doing and how it works by other young families at various locations.

Peter
S/V Nadejda

How is moorage for a boat $1600 per year? That is insane! It's great! It's impossible! But if not inpossible, where do you find such a deal?

In Sausalito, I paid 1250 per month for a slip for my 50 foot boat. I now have it in South San Francisco and it costs 350 per month ($4,200 per year) for a boat slip. Where is your boat located...South Central Los Angeles?

The Witchdoctor

[medicrene]

S/V Nadejda,

I am not certain, but I think I may have seen your boat anchored in Richardson Bay near Sausalito. The photos remind me of a boat I saw that seemed to have a few children living aboard. My wife and I were intriged by the boat and that a large family was cruising aboard. We circled the boat a few times to get a better look. Our boat was a Hundson Force 50, Ketch. Does this sound familiar at all? If so, we hope we did not make you feel uncomfortable, we were simply lookint at the boat. We are glad to see you guys out there cruising. I am also impressed that you continue to do repairs while cruising instead of waiting for the boat to be completed before setting off. Keep posting on the site. Perhaps we will see you in a more souther anchorage soon.

The Witchdoctor

[Nadejda]

S/V Witchdoctor,

Yes we remember you circling us in Richardson's Bay. We were so new to cruising at that time we noticed everything. We had also considered a Force 50 so we took note that one was now circling us. It sure is a small world.

Yes repairs are on going; I took care of the ones that were safety issues and am now moving in to the one that allow extended cruising. After those are finished it will be onto the would be nice category.

About the moorage rates, to get these rates you have to leave California. Most of my sailing experience was in the PNW and SE Alaska, so when we bought the boat in California and headed up the coast I think I irritated the marinas along the way. I was in such sticker shock when I got quoted a price that would tell them to check again there must be some mistake! Or some other statement of unbelief, which didn't make too many friends. It wasn't until we came into Winchester Bay on the Souther Oregon coast that I started to feel at home. Transient moorage was $15 a night including a 30amp hook up (regardless of size of boat). So i guess to answer your question, yes that is really what we pay it just happens to be in a small fishing town at the mouth of the Columbia River and not in California. For the record the are places in SE Alaska that are even more reasonable.

Thanks for the note; it is alway fun to hear from others that we saw or met along the way.

Peter

ps. Our current intentions are to head south this coming fall, so we may see you then. All the best.

[capn_billl]

Ours is about to start. I just got laid off.

A little earlier than I planned to start, but sometimes things work out in ways you don't expect.

I have a small boat I will be sailing to pieces the next year, while I tie things up.

Then I will trade up to a big boat and heading out. Florida coast, then the Carribean, with my wife and 12 year old son. I can taste the fresh conch already.

[All-in]

I am 45 she is 29 we have a 8 yr old and are stating sailing lessons in the spring we plan to purchase a 38-42' cat and embark on our journey spring 2013 i figure it will take a yr to get all our stuff sold and get a lil sailing time before heading out we will be at sea 3-4 months at a time and then back to work for the same period while my business partner takes over the boat.

[Jimbo485]

Interesting topic. Our observations mirror those described above. The families are just not out there anymore.

I started cruising in the early 80s with my parents when they were in the early 30s. My 2 siblings and I were all under 11. The other yachtie parents out there were roughly the same age - in their 30s. So they were of child-bearing age and naturally had kids. Everyone used a sextant. Kids and sextants galore.

In the early 2000s we went cruising. Everyone used a GPS and the sextant was rarely seen. Now we were in our late 20s / early 30s. Everyone else seemed to be in their 50s. THEY WERE THE SAME GENERATION THAT HAD BEEN CRUISING IN THE 80s. GPS and oldies galore.

And now in 2012 here we are again, another boat and some more cruising. This time we are in our early 40s and we have a 10 year old son of our own to do some night watches and contribute. I had told him of all the cruising kids and water games etc that I enjoyed as a yachtie kid and he expected something similar. Sadly that is not the case. The other yachties out here now are, on average, in their 60s. SAME GENERATION AS BEFORE. Now they don´t have kids, they have grandkids! And the grandkids are back home somewhere playing their WII or Xbox while the adult kids pay off their mortgage on the MacMansion.

Like most things in the western world, the baby boomers dominate. When they start to die off in the next decade or two, the glut of cruising boats will grow even more and prices will take another dive as not enough of gen x and gen y go cruising.

Such are demographics, social expectations and the cycle of life...

[JoeDiver]

Originally Posted by Jimbo485

.....When they start to die off in the next decade or two, the glut of cruising boats will grow even more and prices will take another dive as not enough of gen x and gen y go cruising...

That's what I'm counting on. I'm still 20 years from retirement, but hopefully when I'm ready to buy my retirement world cruiser....the timing will be just right and I'll get quite the bang for my buck.