How Many "Blue Water Cruisers" are There

[wholybee]

I think that we are on the cusp a a huge increase in the numbers of people cruising, if not water sailing">blue water sailing. Why? Starlink. (and the competing services that will be following in the coming years)

For really the first time, a Millennial or GenZ can make 100k-200k working from home while offshore. Previous generations had to work on land and save up a cruising kitty, or have an investment strategy that produced enough passive income to live off of. That pushed up the age of cruisers, and limited the number that could do it.

Younger generations don't have that limitation anymore. And it is precisely the higher paying tech jobs that younger generations are good at that lend to working remotely. Buy a 200k yacht instead of a house, and have boatloads of income to maintain it.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I understand that there are now substantial numbers of fly-in cruisers, who cruise for a few weeks at a time then return home (using commercial air travel) for a period of months

I met quite a few folks who keep their boats year round in La Paz or Mazatlan. They come late November and cruise through April. One couple from the UK have been doing it for 8 years.

I know it seems odd, but they seem to live it. Nice work if you can get it.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by wholybee

I think that we are on the cusp a a huge increase in the numbers of people cruising, if not blue water sailing. Why? Starlink. (and the competing services that will be following in the coming years)

For really the first time, a Millennial or GenZ can make 100k-200k working from home while offshore. Previous generations had to work on land and save up a cruising kitty, or have an investment strategy that produced enough passive income to live off of. That pushed up the age of cruisers, and limited the number that could do it.

Younger generations don't have that limitation anymore. And it is precisely the higher paying tech jobs that younger generations are good at that lend to working remotely. Buy a 200k yacht instead of a house, and have boatloads of income to maintain it.

That's simply not going to happen.

Most young folks could care less about sailing much less Blue Water Cruising.

It's just not a thing anymore like it was back in the day.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I understand that there are now substantial numbers of fly-in cruisers, who cruise for a few weeks at a time then return home (using commercial air travel) for a period of months -- a practice that was almost unheard of 20 years ago.


Some of them pay other people to move their boats for them.

Met some Norwegian soldiers who we're doing that between tours to Afghanistan and other places 10yrs ago..
They were circumnavigating and had gotten to Shelter Bay when I met them.. nice bunch of lads.

[Mike OReilly]

It used to be, the best way to get an anchorage to yourself, was to go to a place without cell coverage. No cell, no Internet. Not anymore...

Damn you, Starlink .

Actually, I don't buy the theory that this is going to open the door to an increase in young people cruising. Perhaps for a small number, but this doesn't change the underlying financial and security basics which make cruising as we know it, a risk too far.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by thomm225

That's simply not going to happen.

Most young folks could care less about sailing much less Blue Water Cruising.

It's just not a thing anymore like it was back in the day.

It doesn't matter that most don't. Most Boomers don't care about sailing either. Plenty enough younger people do.

[MicHughV]

Sailing around the world is no longer a "thing" for modern youth. They are a here and now crowd. To undertook a voyage that may last years is completely alien to them.

Many still live with their parents or are supported by them. Desire and ambition are strange words for them.

Most youth couldn't change a tire on a car to save their life, let alone fend for themselves on the open seas.

That's my take on the matter. It's what I see and hear every day.

The very few that do try and undertake such a voyage are typically 40 and above. Countless dreamers never make it beyond the inlet before turning around.

In my day, there was no such thing as Jimmy Cornell's "group" sailing or other mass departures, etc. You were pretty much on your own.

Above all else, boat prices have risen above most people's financial realities.
Coupled with exorbitant marina and insurance costs puts the kibosh on this type of venture for most.

Quite frankly, from my point of view, the number of sailboats I see out....even for a daysail.....are minimal.

This " insurance" thing is mystifying to me. The insurance companies have a death grip on the sailing community as a whole. One can't go here, there or somewhere because the insurance companies won't allow it, won't cover you, etc.
I don't see that changing unless people wake up one day and say to hell with all this bs.
Seems that today, little is done without being " insured". What a racket. Seriously, what a racket.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Most youth couldn't change a tire on a car to save their life, let alone fend for themselves on the open seas.

My daughters grew up rotating tires on my truck because I thought it was educational. One of them sails.

I have a nephew who lives off grid in rural Colorado. He's an EMT and repairs fire engines for a living, mainly, he's a fireman with small department too. Sailing isn't really his jag, I've taken him out a few times.

I made up some "0% Chance of Rescue" coasters and one of my kids wanted the artwork so they could make them for their friends.

I volunteer at a makerspace where there are all kinds of young people trying to learn the things they don't teach in shop class any more. I build boats there. People ask questions....


One of my daughters has taken up kitesurfing on Lake Superior which is not exactly a quick, easy, low-effort undertaking.



All is not lost

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Most young folks could care less about sailing much less Blue Water Cruising.
It's just not a thing anymore like it was back in the day.

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Sailing around the world is no longer a "thing" for modern youth. They are a here and now crowd.

Many still live with their parents or are supported by them. Desire and ambition are strange words for them.

Most youth couldn't change a tire on a car to save their life, let alone fend for themselves on the open seas.

This " insurance" thing is mystifying to me. The insurance companies have a death grip on the sailing community as a whole. One can't go here, there or somewhere because the insurance companies won't allow it, won't cover you, etc.

I tend to agree with both of you, but, (IMHO,) it more pertains to "city dwellers", those from more rural areas seem more able to fix things, (or rebuild the engine on a tractor).
The city boy says; "Change a tire on a car"? come-on now, that's for people who don't have a degree and have dirty fingernails.
A recent survey I read claims that over 50% of parents are still supporting their adult children to some extent.
Insurance? yeah, I wonder how many of those who traveled the Oregon Trail had "wagon insurance", (or life insurance).
The boats themselves?
Fiberglass has allowed several things, three of which are;
1, It has made possible the construction of boats to take place faster than marinas to put them in.
2, It has allowed more people to have a boat.
3, It has over time devolved into the mass production of sameness and ugliness, (quite like vehicles).

[Jim Cate]

Most young folks could care less about sailing much less Blue Water Cruising.
It's just not a thing anymore like it was back in the day.

Got news for you, Thomm: "it" wasn't a "thing" back in the day either! I got into sailing in the late 60s, in an area where sailing was relatively well represented (SF bay area) and most of my friends and acquaintances thought I was balmy. A few years later when we spent a month on board our Catalina 22 cruising the Canadian Gulf Islands they thought we (whole family) were out of our minds and likely to die forthwith. A few more years passed and we set out to sail our then boat, a Yankee 30, to Hawaii they threw a farewell party that was similar to a wake... they thought we were truly goners.

I suppose that by then we were no longer "young folks", but many of our friends and co-workers still were and very few sailed at all and zero did so offshore. My point here is that even back then, sailing offshore was attractive to a very small subgroup of a small group of sailors who were a small subgroup of American society... and I think that is still true today.

Here in Australia there are a fair number of youngsters who are into sailing, and some of them are into cruising, with an eye to going offshore someday... and I bet that some will succeed in doing so. As a side note, there are even some who are building their own boats... in timber! Wonderful to see!

Jim

[JPA Cate]

I think that people are discounting the fact that it has always been a very small portion of any population who has wanted to do "blue water" cruising. There never would be. The ocean is a hostile environment for us, like the arctic and Sahara deserts. Only a few will risk it.

The demographics have changed, though, definitely older, wealthier, and very inexperienced. And clubbier than they were back in the 80's, too.

******

Jammer, good on ya for teaching your lassies about cars. For me, it was similar. As a mom, I saw that our boys and girl all learned the same stuff: how to clean house; how to cook; how to do laundry; how to sew (we made a backpacking tent together; how to work on cars, all the good stuff one could do back then for one's own self.

So you get extra good marks for teaching interested young folks now.

Ann

[Crustyfisherman]

A lot of the above posts aren’t wrong. But many are lacking the larger perspective, which is the rapid demographic decline of developed nations (aka ones with an economy capable of supporting the ‘wealth’ needed for independent wanderlust). Luckily the US has Japan, South Korea, Germany and Italy (to name some big economies) as nice bellwethers from which to learn over the next decade or two on how to realign the economy. We have that time because our baby boomer generation had an echo (in the form of millennials) which the aforementioned countries did not.
I’m no professional demographer, and could easily be wrong, but nonetheless am extremely frustrated by ‘explanations’ that dive into the minutia yet don’t take into account the real world macro drivers.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by Crustyfisherman

A lot of the above posts aren’t wrong. But many are lacking the larger perspective, which is the rapid demographic decline of developed nations (aka ones with an economy capable of supporting the ‘wealth’ needed for independent wanderlust). Luckily the US has Japan, South Korea, Germany and Italy (to name some big economies) as nice bellwethers from which to learn over the next decade or two on how to realign the economy. We have that time because our baby boomer generation had an echo (in the form of millennials) which the aforementioned countries did not.
I’m no professional demographer, and could easily be wrong, but nonetheless am extremely frustrated by ‘explanations’ that dive into the minutia yet don’t take into account the real world macro drivers.

That's part of a larger picture.
That said, when several million American service men came home after WWII they didn't come back to a war-torn country where most everything of value had been destroyed.
Except for a short "slump" the US economy took-off at high speed, factories shifting from war production to new consumer items, (boats included,) Owens, Chris-Craft, Huckins, and scores of others found ready markets where even a blue-collar worker could get an 18' runabout or a smallish sailboat and still buy a home/raise a family on only one income.
The rest of the world took 25>30 years before they even began to catch-up, tractors/roads/housing, and a million more things being more important than "pleasure yachts".
There have been substantial arguments made that England/Europe, (in general,) have still not recovered from ~30 years of WWI/Depression/WWII, and the years of aftermath, (or got it out of their minds).

[Scorpius]

I think the ascendancy of charter boats, destination resorts, and cruise ships have had a lot to do with it. Why spend months (or years) sailing to the South Pacific, with all the attendant dangers and challenges, when you can fly there in a day or two, then charter a boat for as long as you like (or can afford)? Or cruise to Alaska, or take an AirBnB in Greece for a few weeks?


Also, I wonder if the rise of the feminism has quite a bit to do with it. In the 1950's our family had a "cabin" (actually we still have it) in the deep dark woods of the Sunshine Coast here in BC. My father was a teacher so we had summers off. He'd pack up the family at the end of June and we'd move to the cabin - which had been built of vertical logs in the 1920's. Mom was a stay-at-home "homemaker" - and she continued in that role at the cabin. Unfortunately for her, she had none of the modern conveniences there that she had at our house in North Vancouver: electricity, indoor plumbing, a refrigerator, a wringer washing machine and a sawdust stove.


At the cabin we had none of those. We had kerosene lamps, a shallow well out back with a bucket handy, a wood stove, and the "refrigerator" was a screened in frame on a table on the back porch. I remember my brother and I were figuratively chained to either end of a cross-cut saw for an hour every day to keep up with the stove's consumption. We don't speak to this day!


Where most women in those days followed their men on their adventures and continued to cook and clean wherever they were (be it at the cabin or on a boat), most women today would rather not be chained to the stove. If the family goes on vacation, she'd like to enjoy it too. So let's go to a destination resort or on a cruise where everybody can be catered to - not just the men.


Of course, there are women who enjoy the adventure of offshore cruising and are willing to put up with the chores, challenges, and inconveniences. Just not too many. The Bluewater Cruising Club here in Vancouver is half the size that it was in the mid 1990's when I was on the executive.

[GordMay]

“The Great Wealth Transfer From Baby Boomers To Millennials Will Impact The Job Market And Economy”

“... Boomers—born between 1946 and 1964—are currently the wealthiest generation on the planet. Their mean net worth falls between $970,000 to $1.2 million, according to Fortune...
... The Baby Boomer generation is expected to leave a significant amount of money to their Millennial children. It's estimated that more than $68 trillion will be bequeathed to their offspring. The great wealth transfer is expected to make Millennials the richest generation in American history...”

More ➥ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkel...h=74658bc63e4a