Is the Cruising Lifestyle Dying ?

[savoir]

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Dudeman

...... it makes no sense that 99lb grandma is on the bow heaving the lines while young people who should be there aren't.
.........
After the baby boomers are done who's going to keep the tradition alive?

Dude, a real cruiser does not follow tradition… they simply follow their own path based on hard work, commitment and earned freedom chips.

So why would a young person who has done little but get a free education while living off their parents, be more deserving than their own parents to enjoy the freedom of cruising, once the kids are grown up?

Isn’t that a tad self centered and selfish?

You are correct though, when young wanabees start whining about what a waste it is to allow their elders some freedom, it is the death of a cruising mindset.

I think it only encourages those who have earned the right a good reason to perform their own Viking burial by “sailing off into the sunset” ...leaving the whiners at home.

[roverhi]

When we were in French Polynesia 35 years ago, most of the cruisers were pretty close to our early 30s age. Most were in boats they either built themselves; Brown Searunner tri's, Atkin's kit boats, wooden boats they'd rehab'd or a few production Cals, Ericksons, etc. Others were in small FRP bosts like the Contessa 26. There were a few old farts around 40 and even one or two couples over 50. All in the all most were in their late 20s or early 30s, however.

There was one older couple in a 50 plus footer and a couple of trust fund kids in mid forty footers, but most boats were in the 30 foot range and mostly in the lower end of that size. A few were in under 30' boats, about as many as in 40 foot plus.

Most of us had little money. To renew our visas in Papeete, we had to show cash, seem to remember a $1,000 per person. When a boat crew's visa was up, the boats along the quai would pool their money so they could show the gendarmes the necessary cash. We didn't hang out in restaurants and bars but spent most of our time socializing on our boats. Most of us had some marketable skills so were able to do some under the table work on the resorts or for the few boats that had money to extend the cruising kitty.

A few boats continued to cruise beyond two years but most of us returned to reality. The arrival of our first son ended our cruising days as it did with a few other couples.

From current pictures I've seen of our old anchorages, looks like there were a lot less of us out there cruising back then.

[Mimsy]

While my husband and I are definitely on the younger side of crusers we have met there are plenty of younger folks who are packing up the kids and heading out. Unfortunately, it takes a fair bit of cash to be able to cruise and building a cruising kitty takes time.

That being said, Bash summed it up very well. Age really is a number. I have friends who are in their 20s and friends who are much, much older. Some of my younger friends have an "older" mind set while some of the older peeps have "young hearts". A good friend of mine just got her pilots license. She is 70. She lived in Haight-Ashbury during the hippie hey day ( she says it was crazy and not good for anyone but you get through it), made groovy hippie clothes for her friends Jerry G and Pigpen. Now she makes clothes for hippies, freaks and conservative cruisers. She might be older than most of my friends, but she is more adventurous and fun than a lot of them. Can't wait to see her for spontaneous dance parties and yes, I'd rather go cruising with her than a lot of younger folks who happen to be sticks in the mud!

People come in all types and if you start selecting by age, you might just miss some really fantastic people.

[boatman61]

I reckon the OP's been dropping his hook in the wrong places.... in the Caribbean and the Med I've come across lots of under 35's out on the water....
You've just got to be in the Azores in May - July and you'll see more than 50% are under 40...
They often pop in here for encouragement but then get Pooh Pooh'd so wander away and quietly get on with it in their own way....
One friend of mine who's 26 is on his way back out to the Carib from the UK in a 100yr old boat with a bunch of fellow 'kids'.... I met him on his 1st crossing when he was just 21...
The guy is magic with that boat.... best seaman I've come across in a long time...
So Yup... I think/know its alive and kicking... you've just got to look in the right places...

[MarkJ]

Cruisers are generally older.
Generally retired after 60 or 65.

If you are young and heading out there to do it full time I suggest you need to give careful thought to how you are going to keep yourself entertained.

You will find yourself in a completely different mind set than your fellow cruisers: They have retired in many ways: They feel they have earned a time to relax and thats what they are going to do, in new and exciting places and have Sundowners on other folks boats of similar age and life experiences. Retired people are generally only cruising for 10 or 15 years (say 65 to 80 years old)

A young couple may not only find this as boring as bat-poop but in general they find their minds not able to be ready to retire. The age group of 20's to 40 is probably a persons most creative and intensely passionate about new ideas. Its very hard to use that sitting at anchor in a desert island for 40 or 50 years.

Cruising may get boring after years of it. Even Lin and Larry Pardy now live on terra firma.

I think there will always be younger people cruising. But few young ones will grow to grandparents on the boat. Most will go back to land for new adventures



Mark
PS Telling old people they are old gets them cranky. So I just start by calling them "Cranky old bastards" then they have to prove they're not
PPS People who want to ridicule this post please note words like 'generally' 'some' and 'most' they are not absolutes.

[jackiepitts]

I agree with MarkJ on this one. It does seem to me that the marinas have more older people (people that act older I should say) than when you are out on anchor but it may be just the mind set is different?
I am 49 and hubby is 52 and quite honestly we just are not ready to spend our days at line dancing lessons, horseshoes, bingo and hanging around the club house....maybe one day but not today

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by jackiepitts

I agree with MarkJ on this one. It does seem to me that the marinas have more older people (people that act older I should say) than when you are out on anchor but it may be just the mind set is different?
I am 49 and hubby is 52 and quite honestly we just are not ready to spend our days at line dancing lessons, horseshoes, bingo and hanging around the club house....maybe one day but not today

Absolutely, if the choice is freezing my butt off in the UK going to line dancing or jumping on the yacht and going south to the sunshine then the choice is easy.

However, how many young folk can afford to support themselves without working, hence it will be the older generations that can afford to go and do and why not they have earned it.

Pete

[imagine2frolic]

Consider yourself gifted if you started at an early age. Also be thankful the marinas are full of boats who never leave. Can you imagine what it would be like if everybody went sailing?.......i2f

[zeehag]

what mark an i2f wrote--and dont DARE call me old..........not old until yer dead........

[Khagan1227]

Nope, the cruising life style isn't dying. People are living longer and are staying on their boats longer before they move to the hard the last itme.

You are seeing so many 'cuz there are more baby boomers out there getting to retirement age than youngin's.

[gettinthere]

I think the growing dependence on technology will continue to make cruising more and more expensive. As an example, old simple naturally aspirated diesels are getting replaced by electronically controlled turbo engines that are not as easily repaired by the layperson.
Who takes a shop class in high school anymore? They're all taking video production now instead.

[David M]

I have to agree with the OP, there is nothing wrong with noticing a trend and making a relatively neutral statement about the trend. If he were insulting older people it would be different and possibly not allowed on this forum.

[bljones]

In 1970, if you were under the age of 30 you were likely exploring, either the adventures of pharmaceuticals or the joys of a world outside of your hometown, and you were doing it on the cheap- cruising a VW camper, a ferro-cement boat or a converted lifeboat, or trying that new-fangled cold-moulding and building yourself one of them Tri-marans, or maybe just joining the Peace Corps, or VISTA. the world was your oyster, working for the man was for squares, you were tuning in, turning on, and dropping out. A lot of those retirees you saw out there, junior? They have been scraping barnacles from port to port longer than you have been alive- they started young. Maybe they started young, stopped long enough to raise a couple of self-absorbed materialistic hypocritical Gen-Y snowflakes and then escaped back to sea in shame.

1n 2010, climbing the corporate ladder and being a sheep is the norm among those who are forming their first wet-behind-the-ears dreams. Oh sure, they want to travel after college- on well organized safe tours. They want to do good, and make a difference- by joining a group on facebook or wearing a ribbon. Sure, some still dream of cruising, but show them what cruisers were cruising on in 1970? They'd sneer that there was no way they would ever spend any time on something that crude. When they discover what a boat with everything they absolutely positively cannot live without is going to cost.... they decide to keep driving money into their 401K and they will cruise when they retire. Or they decide that they will continue to be a minimum wage barrista at Fourbucks and living in mom and dad's basement, because they will never ever, like be able to afford that, y'know. Besides, there is probably a bitchin' sailing game on Xbox. As the world has become smaller through technology, so have those in it.

[zeehag]

sounds like a helluva sentence.. not for life, tho--- cruising doesnt need many of the super pricey thangs, just neeed a compass and charts, mebbe a gps so ye dont have to keep paper charts in front of ye--besides, gps is ok..some kinda boat, and the will and desire to sail. maybe some sailing practice. always helps...
gods made perkins for a reason. also older yanmars and such-- for those of us who donnot appreciate engines smarter than we are. same with cars. has a brain--not for me..good thing tractors live forever.