Cruising Sailboats: a Dying Breed?

[Juho]

Originally Posted by MartinR

I think the decline in new buildings is due to the fact that the early manufacturers did not understand that a product needs to have a limited life span, something car manufacturers were very good at in the 60s and 70s. If the boat companies just would have looked a little how the auto companies designed self-deterioration into their products, we would not have loads of nice old boats today and the market would be flourishing.....

They probably didn't dare to make boats whose hull would break at sea after five years of use. But maybe they used balsa for core in the decks to destroy the boats in a less dangerous way.

[mikedefieslife]

It's interesting how these kind of threads talk about Baby boomers, and millennials, but completely skip over Generation X, what happened to them? Aged from around 40-55 now (give or take a year), these are ones that might be looking a early retirement now and possibly going cruising.

[cyan]

Originally Posted by Davy J

The reason for this part of the OP is basically, there are thousnads and thousands of very good condition boats that twenty to thirty years old. Why spend twice or more for a new one?

The trend in Mfg'ing seems to be build boats of such a size that were just not available in those years. It would be interesting to know what was the largest boat Catalina built in the mid-eighties. I think they just announced the introduction of the largest boat they have produced, something 50' plus.

Interesting question!
Catalina's largest boat offering per decade, as far as I can tell...

1960s 22 ft
1970s 38 ft
1980s 42 ft
1990s 50 ft
2000s 50 ft
2010s 47 ft
2020s 52 ft (Catalina 525 due in 2020)

catalinahistory
wikipedia
yachtworld

[cyan]

Originally Posted by DMCantor

With our experience of increasingly crowded anchorages in the Caribbean, I could only wish that the popularity of cruising was decreasing.

I certainly thought this way about the BVIs, but assumed that people were finally catching on to such great cruising grounds there. Do you see the same crowding trends across the Caribbean?

[Sand crab]

On the other hand catamaran production has increased.

Maybe if you figure each cat as 2 monos then the production stats aren't so bad. Are tris only 1 1/2 monos because the amas are so small?

I stay up at night pondering these weighty issues.

[SV THIRD DAY]

As a general question:
Do some posters realize they could have just growled "get off my lawn kids" and saved us all a lot of reading?

Interesting...but out in the Cruising Fleet numbers are Growing....Not Shrinking.

[Bob Morane]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

(Safer)
Is it really?

Are you actually arguing that crossing the atlantic single-handed on a sailboat is safer than flying from Paris to New york ?

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

(Cheaper)
Not in my case. Not for traveling around the world.

But it is, if you can visit 12 countries spread around the world by sailing and match the 2200 euros flying price tag, that's really impressive. But you are part of the 0.1% who can/are willing to do it.
Most people, maybe wrongly, budget circumnavigations in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

(Not sea restrained)
Not air restrained. A lot more on the sea. In either case you can still travel on land or other methods at various destinations.. so there is not much point here.

How many populated islands out there don't have an airport ?
There are far more points of general interest accessible directly by flying than by sailboat.
If you are willing to travel a few hundred kilometers on land as well, it's probably equal but why do that if you can fly straight there ?

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

(way more flexible)
This is not true. It is apples to orange comparison. I don't claim one over the other. There are a lot of places you cannot fly that you can sail to.

That's not the kind of flexibility I am referring to.
Let's say you are in the middle of your trip and a relative get sick/has an accident and you have to stop your trip to go take care of him/her.
With air travel, cancel your ticket, buy a flight home and be there in a day.
With a boat, you might be on the water days away from any port, and even then you are a stuck with a depreciating asset, storage, maintenance, maybe selling process if needed.

That's just one scenario, but I can think of many more, running into someone else's boat and being liable, personal health issues, unforeseen financial problems, significant other hating the lifestyle.

I can definitely see that you don't agree with most people's idea of traveling, and that's fine, I don't either. I'll be out there soon and loving it, but I can definitely see how it is a big commitment and not for everyone.

Don't forget that the thread is about why people IN GENERAL are not traveling by sailboat as much not why YOU are doing it.

[Jim Cate]

General question: Why should I care if the production of new cruising boats has declined, or if the number of new cruising sailors is smaller?

I don't understand the apparent interest in "growing" the cruising fleet. Folks will either go sailing or they won't, and it matters little to me. If they would rather sit and play video games (or post on CF), that's their biz, not mine.

Serious cruising has always been a fringe activity, practiced by a tiny proportion of the population. I suspect that it will not change in that sense.

Jim

[VanIslandGuy]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

It's interesting how these kind of threads talk about Baby boomers, and millennials, but completely skip over Generation X, what happened to them? Aged from around 40-55 now (give or take a year), these are ones that might be looking a early retirement now and possibly going cruising.

Baby boomers love nothing more than talking about themselves and "their generation". Consider that 1960's nostalgia lasted a good 30 years in the media. Their millennial spawn inherited the same navel gazing fascination with themselves to the exclusion of all else. My parents and in-laws who were born just ahead of WW2's ending couldn't be more different in this respect. The "me" generation gave birth to the "selfie" generation. Who can honestly be surprised by this?

I won't speak for any gen-x'er other than my wife and I. We're on boat number two used as PNW cruiser. It costs a far greater percentage of my after tax income to own/maintain a much older boat than it did for someone twenty years ago doing the same job I hold today. Gas, housing, insurance have all tripled in cost over the last twenty years. Wages have stayed relatively stagnant. I consider myself damn fortunate we can afford to own a a nice seaworthy boat and sail at all.

I have a career I enjoy and am in no hurry to leave my profession before my pension is funded. Eventually I'd love to buy a boat in the Med and start a cruise from there but it's not time yet. If we decide to sail full time, it will be in a performance cruising multihull with good bridge-deck clearance that can be handled by two people. Until then we still have lots of beautiful places to visit in our own backyard with a boat that is full paid off.

[model 10]

[QUOTE=cyan;ere. Do you see the same crowding trends across the Caribbean?

I think the number of boats spending the summer on the Rio Dulce is increasing slowly every year. The main agent told me he handled about 600 boats last year. Last year there were also quite a few boats from the eastern Carib because of the storm damage.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

General question: Why should I care if the production of new cruising boats has declined, or if the number of new cruising sailors is smaller?

I don't understand the apparent interest in "growing" the cruising fleet. Folks will either go sailing or they won't, and it matters little to me. If they would rather sit and play video games (or post on CF), that's their biz, not mine.

Serious cruising has always been a fringe activity, practiced by a tiny proportion of the population. I suspect that it will not change in that sense.

Jim

Its Humanity's obsession with Growth Jim.. if theres no growth.. "Panic"!!!
Growth is bad..

[john61ct]

Another idea is the nationality mix.

USians declining except for the super-rich, other nations that support the middle+ classes more than the .0x%, growing.

[cyan]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

General question: Why should I care if the production of new cruising boats has declined, or if the number of new cruising sailors is smaller?

There may be a difference between declining and actually dying (as in the thread title).
The annual number of cruising-sized sailboats produced is an order of magnitude smaller now than in previous decades. I find that interesting for several reasons. We (fringe) cruisers are now benefitting from the glut of older sailboats that provides cheap means of getting out there.
Cool.
But- the downward trend in production has to level off at SOME point, as I find it hard to believe that it will all be gone in a few years. It just hasn't stopped it's annual decline in the last 30 years, and the trend still points to zero.
I don't feel so bad about that.
I DO find it fascinating.

[Mike OReilly]

I think it is an interesting demographic and economic question.

I predict we’re going to continue to see cruising numbers go up for the next decade (or so), and then decline as the Baby Boomers sail off into the sunset. Once the peak of retirment has passed, and age is really starting to take its toll, the numbers of cruisers will decline rather precipitously (so I predict).

There will always be people who take to the sea. But unless economics changes dramatically, the younger generations simply don’t have the wealth to get into the life.

[a64pilot]

Everybody wants to say it’s money, it’s not a lack of money, for either aviation or cruising.
I used to think that Aviation just got too expensive ,until I noticed how many mega expensive power boats there are, bellying up to the pump at 1,000+ gls a fill up.

Cruising isn’t dyeing due to a lack of money either, you can buy a fine cruising boat for less than the average price for a new automobile, and now that I’ve done it for a year, I know you can live aboard for far less than on land, way less if you need to.
In fact I’d say that you can live on a boat for less money than any other way if needed, and I’d challenge anyone to show me different.

So, it’s not from a lack money, it’s I believe just not easy is all, same for aviating, you have to want to.