Where does the young cruiser roam?

[Eder]

French Polynesia is full of younger cruisers.

[_andi_]

Originally Posted by Argyle38

But you're certainly correct about the financial aspect, but that's always been the case. Older people always have more money than the young, just a factor of how much time it takes to work and save. It seems (from reading) that there was a time, from around the mid '70's to the late 80's when there were more 'younger' folks out cruising compared to their older counterparts. I think this is mostly because boomers were more adventurous then their very fiscally conservative parents (generally speaking of course).

Hi, I'm in a bit of a hurry so I can't research proper statistics but the "older folks always have more to spend" is wrong imho. For example if I ask Boomers how long they had to pay back their mortgage, 10 years seems to be a common number. Most of my friends are paying for 30+ years and that in a country where you don't start your professional life with 100k of tuition owed. So, if you're in the hole for most of your life, the interest makes it difficult to save up funds.

Another thing which happend around the 70's was GRP. That really lowered the price point / made for good competition. Before that you either had to be rich or a boat builder (like L. Pardey for example).

[gmakhs]

Money is one of the main reasons you can't find young people around .

But as for myself being 26 years old with 27 years old.girlfriend currently sailing in West Africa soon to Caribbean and then who knows but you ain't gonna find us in a marina except if we are there for repairs or is really cheap .

[Argyle38]

Originally Posted by _andi_

Hi, I'm in a bit of a hurry so I can't research proper statistics but the "older folks always have more to spend" is wrong imho. For example if I ask Boomers how long they had to pay back their mortgage, 10 years seems to be a common number. Most of my friends are paying for 30+ years and that in a country where you don't start your professional life with 100k of tuition owed. So, if you're in the hole for most of your life, the interest makes it difficult to save up funds.

Another thing which happend around the 70's was GRP. That really lowered the price point / made for good competition. Before that you either had to be rich or a boat builder (like L. Pardey for example).

Not wanting to get in to an argument, but doesn't the boded part of your quote prove the point that I made? Boomers are older, they have more money, they've saved up longer.

Do you believe that your contemporaries, even with $100K in tuition debt and 30+ mortgages are going to be less wealthy in 30 years than they are now? Because if you disagree that older folks, in general, have more money, then that's what you're saying, unless I've missed something.

I didn't think that saying that older people generally have more money was something debatable.

Here's an article with some data. Don't know of it's validity.
https://www.thestreet.com/personal-f...y-age-14730772

Your point about GRP is very correct. To that point, it is actually far cheaper to get in to cruising now than it has ever been, if you're willing to put some work in to an older boat. Maybe the early 2000's was a bit cheaper, but in 1980, if you wanted a 30 year old boat, you were buying wood. These days, unused 30 year old boats litter boat yards, many of which can be had for a song, and are very solid, but just need work.

[jmschmidt]

john61CT. Yes, we are returning to La Belle Epoque because of government's disregard of the Constitution and hatred of the people they are supposed to serve. Don't know about you but I'm planning on staying in the 1%, which soon will be maybe ten grand a year (in real terms) if government keeps jacking up interest rates, creating money electronically out of thin air and pissing away trillions overseas.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

john61CT. Yes, we are returning to La Belle Epoque because of government's disregard of the Constitution and hatred of the people they are supposed to serve. Don't know about you but I'm planning on staying in the 1%, which soon will be maybe ten grand a year (in real terms) if government keeps jacking up interest rates, creating money electronically out of thin air and pissing away trillions overseas.

Government’s role in the return to oligarchic rule is the continual diminishment of the commons through massive tax breaks for the rich, billions in corporate welfare, disregard for the environment, and completely ignoring the will of 'the people.’

Government ‘of the people, for the people’ turns out to be quite the aberration from a historical perspective. And all evidence shows we are rapidly returning to the days of Master and serf economic structures. This is why cruising will decline; there is rapidly shrinking middle class that has the luxury of pursuing it.

[mikedefieslife]

They will be in the Western Med, Canaries and on their way to the Caribbean then out to the Pacific.

In my time in Greece I came across only two or three young cruisers. In the Spanish Islands and mainland, there were dozens, and nearly all the ones I med were going to the Canaries with a view to crossing. Contrast that with many of the older people I met that were headed east instead to relax in Greece.

[Redreuben]

Buy a Wharram and a surfboard and hit Asia.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

What is it with these recent threads about young people wanting to mainly/only hang out mostly with young people? I can’t recall one thread where middle-aged people or older folk asks this question. But I’ve seen this theme crop up here on CF, oh must be a 1/2 dozen times in the last year or so.

We no longer qualify as young but who doesn't want to hang out with 20-something hotties in bikinis (if they say they don't, they are lying).

We went full time at 37 and it was rare to find someone our age. Yeah there are a few but not many and they tend to be scattered. The younger you are looking for the rarer they become.

Mid-50's to Mid-60's seems to be the most common. Old enough to afford it but young enough to physically do it. After the mid-60's, starts to drop off again as people age out of the lifestyle.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Redreuben

Buy a Wharram and a surfboard and hit Asia.

That's only the matted hair bare-foot hippy types.

Originally Posted by valhalla360

We no longer qualify as young but who doesn't want to hang out with 20-something hotties in bikinis (if they say they don't, they are lying).

We went full time at 37 and it was rare to find someone our age. Yeah there are a few but not many and they tend to be scattered. The younger you are looking for the rarer they become.

Mid-50's to Mid-60's seems to be the most common. Old enough to afford it but young enough to physically do it. After the mid-60's, starts to drop off again as people age out of the lifestyle.

37 can go either way.

One of the reasons I like to hang out with younger people is similar priorities, adventure, risk taking and ideas of fun. Older people like a drink, they don't necessarily like going out to bars/clubs until 4am chasing short brunettes in hot pants. Always good to have a wingman.

Other than that, the older cruisers can be lot of run too.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

We no longer qualify as young but who doesn't want to hang out with 20-something hotties in bikinis (if they say they don't, they are lying).

We went full time at 37 and it was rare to find someone our age. Yeah there are a few but not many and they tend to be scattered. The younger you are looking for the rarer they become.

Mid-50's to Mid-60's seems to be the most common. Old enough to afford it but young enough to physically do it. After the mid-60's, starts to drop off again as people age out of the lifestyle.

I left the land home and began this cruising life at age 48 (am now 51). I still find I am one of the youngest in most cruising gatherings. But there are the 20s, 30s and 40s folks out there as well, along with plenty of 50s, 60s and 70s folks.

But as with so many other concerns that show up in the virtual cruising world, in the real cruising world I’ve never encountered age as an issue. Our tribe is “cruisers”; age has never entered into it — at least not in my experience.

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

...One of the reasons I like to hang out with younger people is similar priorities, adventure, risk taking and ideas of fun. Older people like a drink, they don't necessarily like going out to bars/clubs until 4am chasing short brunettes in hot pants. Always good to have a wingman.

Here’s the thing Mike; I don’t connect "going out to bars/clubs until 4am” as part of the cruising lifestyle. That, to me, sounds like normal urban land-lifestyle. People who go cruising are choosing something different. And age doesn’t seem to matter — at least not in my experience.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Here’s the thing Mike; I don’t connect "going out to bars/clubs until 4am” as part of the cruising lifestyle. That, to me, sounds like normal urban land-lifestyle. People who go cruising are choosing something different. And age doesn’t seem to matter — at least not in my experience.

Fair enough. I find the ones I meet don't seem to do anything different than they'd do on land either having a permanent base, an RV, or other means of transport.

Pretty much all the ones I know anchor out all summer like me, but will still go out and party from time to time. Not sure why that would change just because they're on a boat, and it doesn't stop them doing all the marine related activities either.

I'm in a marina now. There are older people I go out drinking with and we have a good time. They go home by about 12, I pop out to another bar or two. it works well.

[_andi_]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Remember a Vimo video a coupla years back where some young uns bought a boat for $1000 and went on to sail to the islands and have a ball..
Dunno how old Boat Alexandra is but theres another amazing example of what one can do with a $1000 boat.

propably hold fast/moxie marlinspike. Interesting character, became cso of twitter for some time and nowadays is the mastermind behind signal messenger and the whatsapp encryption algorithm. knew him for sailing and then saw the name on a whitepaper about ssl/tls flaws.

[belizesailor]

Loads of young backpacker types, mostly not cruisers, in Bocas del Toro, Panama.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

We no longer qualify as young but who doesn't want to hang out with 20-something hotties in bikinis (if they say they don't, they are lying).

We went full time at 37 and it was rare to find someone our age. Yeah there are a few but not many and they tend to be scattered. The younger you are looking for the rarer they become.

Mid-50's to Mid-60's seems to be the most common. Old enough to afford it but young enough to physically do it. After the mid-60's, starts to drop off again as people age out of the lifestyle.

I punched out at 40 and was definitely on the younger end of the scale. Now, 18 years later, most of the expats/cruisers I meet are still older than me.