What happens to all the wannabees?

[atoll]

i would love to hear from some of the posters that join the forum with great plans,use our knowledge,tell us how they are going to do it,then nothing....

here is a recent one that never amounted to much:

SeeWorld TV with Jon Charron | An 8 Month Sailing Adventure Across The South Pacific – LA To Australia Through The French Polynesians

[Hudson Force]

Good news, but then I guess we were all once wannabes; however, I too like to hear from those that started with questions here!

[Travelnik]

Dingos ate them! (Or pirates!)

[atoll]

here is one best forgotten!!!!!

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...s-88734-2.html
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...and-79739.html

[Randyonr3]

From my experance..
I knew a guy from theforum that bought a ChoyLee Offshore 31 to go cruising,,
After the first winter in the boat, they moved back into an apartment and sold the boat.. It never moved from the dock..
So many have the grand dreams of sailing off into the sunset only to discover the other side of living on a boat and sailing off to new places......

[Travelnik]

Originally Posted by Randyonr3

From my experance..
I knew a guy from theforum that bought a ChoyLee Offshore 31 to go cruising,,
After the first winter in the boat, they moved back into an apartment and sold the boat.. It never moved from the dock..
So many have the grand dreams of sailing off into the sunset only to discover the other side of living on a boat and sailing off to new places......

Sounds like what Persig said about "cruiser's depression."

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Randyonr3

From my experance..
I knew a guy from theforum that bought a ChoyLee Offshore 31 to go cruising,,
After the first winter in the boat, they moved back into an apartment and sold the boat.. It never moved from the dock..
So many have the grand dreams of sailing off into the sunset only to discover the other side of living on a boat and sailing off to new places......

for better or worse as they say in marrige it would be great to hear from some of these failed sailors,if only to let others know what they are getting into,we joke about the "boat buck"($1000),but for many if there is not a continuous stream this can be a major stumbling block.

not even mentioning the massive learning curve

[Ex-Calif]

I think there is a large core membership here that loves to share. I also think the quality of posts here is way higher than the average forum.

I suspect newbies either fail at the endeavor (a large majority), or get out and do it and decide that wading through all the posts here is not as enjoyable as the boat and learning on the go (maybe with help from real life people at marinas) is how to better use their time.

Then there are the few that like both and share their journey with the group.

From an ego perspective not many people want to come back and admit failure. Who would?

Finally I think there is the group that really ends up living vicariously through the forum.

$500 cruising aside, sailing is not really a cheap or easy endeavor. RTW cruising even less so.

I also am bemused by the many posts that start with, "I have never set foot on a boat. I am planning to go cruising in 3 years. What boat do I need?"

Seriously it really starts with the learning to sail part, doesn't it? Buying a boat is at most a 6 months exercise best to be thought of in year 2 1/2 of the 3 year plan.

[Therapy]

How about.

There were just too many dock lines that looked like they could be untied but could not. Could not even cut through the the last three.

Still trying to plan a sneaky way around them.

Maybe cut the dock itself and take part of it with............but not sure what the real drag would be. Not sure what the COLREG light configuration is for dock towing either.

Guess I will read (and comment) some more.

[stevewrye]

The story is that 1% of the western world wants to go cruising and only one percent of those ever go. I would like to add one more to that list. Seems like half of that one percent that go only get about 200 miles down the coast before they need major repairs for which they are not sure how to do or just don't have the cash to fix it. I guess they didn't have the cash to really go cruising anyway because their boats were not ready to go.

So ya got to give these wannabees credit at least they left the dock be it not far before the dream was shattered. The rest of the wannabees who never go are nice folks with bigger dreams than how they live their lives.

It's really not crowded out there it just seems that way here.

I hope more live their dream.

[Travelnik]

The Bermuda Triangle?

Alien abduction?

Eaten by wild buckets?

[atoll]

what a wonderful forum we have here,kudos to ex-calf for pointing this out,my guess is these people need more "mentoring",many of the deliveries i have done in the past few years have been "owner assisted!",which is a great way to learn the ropes.

perhaps if crewing websites were not quite so stuck on what is renumeration,and what is charging ,boat owners would be more able to find the happy medium between tuition,paying crew,and paid crew.

on the forum there are constantly people of great experiance offering their services as captains,engineers,riggers,sailing crew etc for free,and offering to pay expenses,it allways pisses me off when people of little or no experince quote rules that are generally not applicable to ameuter run vessels involving renumeration.

perhaps this is a way forward for people who have dreams

[rebel heart]

The point of life is to enjoy it, which doesn't inherently mean sailing. Honestly, good for those people who put their marriages and emotional health over the boat, sold it, and went on to do other things

We've been doing a lot of coastal cruising and are ready to split the country for our "big" circumnavigation in a few weeks which will be super slow. I've sort of ditched the idea of any sort of plan and just want to enjoy being out there with my wife and kids.

We're back in our old marina in San Diego doing some refit stuff and it blows me away the amount of money people are dumping into their boats without ever leaving the dock for any period of time.

Also, I think the whole "you're only a real sailor if you anchor out 365 days and enjoy offshore passages more than sex" is absurd. When I meet people who want to sail around on a boat, I try to let them know that there are a lot of ways to do it. Different types of boats, budgets, places to stay, things to do, etc.

Yes, lots of sailing can be rough. But I (and my wife) generally like being around something resembling civilization at least once a week if we can. And we like to keep the boat parked for a while and just check places out. There are folks who just like to marina hop: good for them.

Maybe if people knew that there is more than one way to skin the cruising cat they'd stay in it longer and not waste so much money. Dunno, just rambling.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

The point of life is to enjoy it, which doesn't inherently mean sailing. Honestly, good for those people who put their marriages and emotional health over the boat, sold it, and went on to do other things

We've been doing a lot of coastal cruising and are ready to split the country for our "big" circumnavigation in a few weeks which will be super slow. I've sort of ditched the idea of any sort of plan and just want to enjoy being out there with my wife and kids.

We're back in our old marina in San Diego doing some refit stuff and it blows me away the amount of money people are dumping into their boats without ever leaving the dock for any period of time.

Also, I think the whole "you're only a real sailor if you anchor out 365 days and enjoy offshore passages more than sex" is absurd. When I meet people who want to sail around on a boat, I try to let them know that there are a lot of ways to do it. Different types of boats, budgets, places to stay, things to do, etc.

Yes, lots of sailing can be rough. But I (and my wife) generally like being around something resembling civilization at least once a week if we can. And we like to keep the boat parked for a while and just check places out. There are folks who just like to marina hop: good for them.

Maybe if people knew that there is more than one way to skin the cruising cat they'd stay in it longer and not waste so much money. Dunno, just rambling.

actually eric you probably have far more than most to contribute to this thread,since you have recently been made redundant,have a wife that is 5 months pregnant,(great blog by the way) most people in your situation would not be looking at beggining a circumnavigation,albeit a slow one,my hat is off to you and red charlotte!

it would be great if you could comment on what was the really hard make or break point before you left,that influenced your decision.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

We're back in our old marina in San Diego doing some refit stuff and it blows me away the amount of money people are dumping into their boats without ever leaving the dock for any period of time.

These folks also fit into the mosaic of our sport. I was speaking to a guy yesterday who is planning his electronics install. He has a small boat like me and is planning a chart plotter and trying to figure out how to shoehorn it in.

Now I asked about long range cruising and it came out he plans only coastal cruising in and near Sing, Malaysia & Indonesia. The reality is (I think) he will do daysailing a lot and maybe 1 vacation trip a year.

99% of the time within site of land and we get haze but never fog. It is pretty darned hard to get lost. I talked about iPad, iPhone and navionics for the occasional passage. He said, "got that but not waterproof."

Anyway I am rambling now but a chart plotter is what he wants and it is his money so more power to him. At least he is putting money into a 30 year old boat and giving it TLC and a lease extension on life.

Never think about the economics - It will drive you nuts...