How old is your boat?

[psk125]

Our 1981 J/36 outsails many newer boats and surprises people with the woodwork below. Big enough to take us on cruises for weeks at a time, small enough to head out for an afternoon. We like it.

[SailtheWind]

1988 Caliber 38. Hull#2 - The only 32 yr old I am allowed to sleep with.
Last refit 2019-2020. New standing rigging, running rigging, electronics and radar, refrigeration, ACs upholstery, plumbing, dinghy, sails etc., etc.
Heading out to the Bahamas, T&C and points beyond in the next three weeks.

[seabreez]

Originally Posted by Cruiser2B

1976 Westsail 32...44 years and counting

mine is 33 years old but very well maintained and refitted... just like new and a crowd pleaser... looks and goes very good...

[Mike OReilly]

Great stuff. Nice to see all age categories filling out, but the over 30 and even over 40 proportions are remaining dominate. Seems like most of us really are sailing "good old boats."

[PirateGuy]

Originally Posted by Singularity

I'd suggest that the poll numbers shouldn't be surprising insofar as most responses seem to be from the US. The numbers reflect the age of the American fleet in general....which is the ~same as the average age of factory built private aircraft you see sitting at the local airport in the US (not including homebuilt airplanes). Florida does seem to have a lot of newer boats, but Florida has some questionable economic influences.

Quite simply real surplus economic growth dried up between ~1975-1985, which is the period that boat/airplane manufacturing too dried up. Where a new boat/plane doesn't do anything better than an old one, and fewer people can afford so much as a used plane/boat, there hasn't been a need/market to make many new boats/planes.

Of course up until Covid the economy in the US was better than ever.

Interesting insights Singularity, and I’m sure you have some of it right. I think a lot has to do with lifestyles changing, easier routes to gratification for younger people. I suspect most of us here grew up far more hands on with the external world.
I got my first PC in 1986 - right at the end of tge time window you postulate. IBM, Apple, Compaq and even the famous inventor of the internet, Algore, changed how most people (at least those that might have the wherewithal to
own and maintain a boat) interact with the world.

I came up with over 70% of responders having boats older than 31 years. I know I can afford to cruise and live most of the time on my boat because she is vintage - like my homes and cars. Sweat equity made much of my lifestyle possible.
Now - back to swiving maids and guzzling rum - aaaargh.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Great stuff. Nice to see all age categories filling out, but the over 30 and even over 40 proportions are remaining dominate. Seems like most of us really are sailing "good old boats."

2019 Seawind 1160 Lite. Since you are shooting to fill out all age categories. ;-)

[capt.rob]

I have and live on a 1972 formosa 41- 50 years old and still going strong

[Zzmeyer]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Answers in the recent "How Old Is Your Standing Rigging" thread got me wondering what the actual age breakdown of CF boats are. I see there was a poll thread on this back in 2015. I'm going to make this a big more detailed, but we should be able to compare this poll to that previous one from six years ago.

Mike, thanks for doing this. Totally surprised. More than half the boats are between 30 and 45 years old. Can you point me to the "size" poll. I saw one on Sailnet a while back and was equally surprised how small the boats were given these are cruiser forums.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Zzmeyer

Mike, thanks for doing this. Totally surprised. More than half the boats are between 30 and 45 years old. Can you point me to the "size" poll. I saw one on Sailnet a while back and was equally surprised how small the boats were given these are cruiser forums.

Sorry Zzmeyer, I kinda mis-typed on the initial post. I meant to say "I'm going to make this a big bit more detailed." Not "big". The other CF poll I found on the age of boats is here:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...143387-10.html

But since you asked about size, I did find an older CF poll (2011) asking that question:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...4-a-60151.html

And there's this somewhat related one asking "what is a big boat?"
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...oat-67260.html

It would be great to update the size poll with a new one. I wonder if things have changed?

[LarryDW]

1978 Pacific Seacraft Mariah 31, hull #52, 42 years this month.

[Mike OReilly]

So, the over 30 crowd is still coming in at over 73%, and the over 40 crowd is over 36%.

This compares to the under 30 that comes in just shy of 27%, and the under 20 year olds at not quite 18%.

We've got almost 200 votes so far. Hardly statistically significant, but does suggest a pretty clear picture so far.

[Knotical]

33 yrs

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

So, the over 30 crowd is still coming in at over 73%, and the over 40 crowd is over 36%.

This compares to the under 30 that comes in just shy of 27%, and the under 20 year olds at not quite 18%.

We've got almost 200 votes so far. Hardly statistically significant, but does suggest a pretty clear picture so far.

Yeah interesting, but probably not shocking considering how expensive new(er) boats are and most of those wealthy enough to afford them probably aren't interested in the lack of creature comforts for a week or two let alone months or years. Hope I didn't offend any wealthy people.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Yeah interesting, but probably not shocking considering how expensive new(er) boats are and most of those wealthy enough to afford them probably aren't interested in the lack of creature comforts for a week or two let alone months or years. Hope I didn't offend any wealthy people.

No, not too surprising I suppose Don. The economics of boat ownership certainly work against buying new, and there appears to be a glut of quality used boats that are sticking around in the market.

[Argyle38]

1975 Downeaster 38.

Just getting in to her prime.