How Many "Blue Water Cruisers" are There

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by wholybee

Racers of all ages here. Yacht clubs have sailing classes with young kids on optimists and lasers etc. There is a Facebook group of mostly young (20's-30's but a few up to 50's) sailors in the area that get together for raftups monthly, and have a large summer party with 50 boats (almost all younger sailors) that raft together.

Get on the cruising Facebook groups, and they are filled with twenty somethings looking for boats to sail on. Worldwide, there are TONS of kids sailing.

Maybe it's just that sailing in San Francisco is just that much better than the Chesapeake? (just kidding )

It's probably all about location.

Overall though, there are fewer young people getting into sailing which is why many sail makers are closing shop.

As far as the Chesapeake Bay, you probably know that near Annapolis there will be tons of sailing even with youth involved, but those places like where you live are few and far between.

You will definitely see young folks sailing near Annapolis since the Navy Academy is there, and they have a sailing team.

They use their Navy 44's for the Annapolis to Bermuda etc. races.

https://www.usna.edu/Sailing/Training/index.php

https://www.chesapeakebaymagazine.co...ay-and-beyond/

https://www.chesapeakebaymagazine.com/326603-2/

https://www.bermudaoceanrace.com/

After the boomers are gone, there will be a huge drop in sailboat ownership as far as I can see in most areas but a few will survive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiWx77AFv7s

[Fore and Aft]

I think lots of people reading this forum are boat owners who have kept their boat for years and see the boat as a family member. Now there's a whole subgroup of sailors who think nothing of owning a boat for 12 months or less doing a cruise and either returning home or selling it at their destination. The commitment to the sailing lifestyle has changed. I meet people who think nothing of sailing to a destination and checking into a hotel. Blue Water Cruiser can have so many different meanings.
We are not seeing many younger sailors here in Tin Can Bay Queensland. Maybe 8 kids max regularly turn up for weekend sailing. Certainly, most of the cub is aged over 50. It is disappointing but with so many demands on time it is not surprising.
Cheers

[carstenb]

Well i started this to try to answer a question. I defined “blue water cruiser” for thepurpose of ising jommy cornells numbers

I wasn’t trying rank cruisers or say one type is better, more skilled, more daring than another

As someone on this forum once remarked

Off shore is doodle, coastal is where it gets dangerous

Interesting perspectives have been voiced but the numbers don’t bear them out

[MicHughV]

I think the definition needs to be clarified.
How many days at sea qualifies one to be a " blue water sailor", etc.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I think the definition needs to be clarified.
How many days at sea qualifies one to be a " blue water sailor", etc.

We started with “someone who has sailed at 1000nm out of sight of land”

If you have better one - go for it

[RonaldL]

There is vast difference between a teenager from the 60-ties and a teenager from today.
Back in the 60-ties one could only dream about mystic destinations based on told stories. Television was black/white. The first private round the world sailors like Chichester emerged.
Today a teenager is not dreaming about mystic places anymore. Everything already seen through youtube. Why would you bother to spend weeks on a boat whilst the world is available in your palm of the hand and reachable within a day by plane?

The richest of the world used to travel to remote destinations, because they could.
Nowadays those richest travel to Titanic (and die, but that was not meant to happen ofcourse) or try to go to outer space.

Maybe it is not so much about money or being young or old. It's about the mindset of you being a teenager.

By the way, according the definition I am a blue water cruiser, completed world circum nav once and about to start the second. Longest passage 4 weeks from Ascension Island to Horta.

[robert sailor]

I’ve always thought there were coastal cruisers, offshore sailors and voyagers. Coastal is straight forward and probably covers the majority of cruisers. Offshore covers those that have crossed oceans or an ocean. Voyager is someone who chooses a self sufficient lifestyle that goes on for many years and includes ocean crossings as a normal part of their lifestyle. They are independent in most ways from maintaining their boat to living large and provisioning for months at a time. They tend to avoid rally’s of any kind and tend to also avoid the normal milk routes. So lots of coastal cruisers, a number of offshore sailors and a large handful of voyagers, kinda my opinion.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

I’ve always thought there were coastal cruisers, offshore sailors and voyagers. Coastal is straight forward and probably covers the majority of cruisers. Offshore covers those that have crossed oceans or an ocean. Voyager is someone who chooses a self sufficient lifestyle that goes on for many years and includes ocean crossings as a normal part of their lifestyle. They are independent in most ways from maintaining their boat to living large and provisioning for months at a time. They tend to avoid rally’s of any kind and tend to also avoid the normal milk routes. So lots of coastal cruisers, a number of offshore sailors and a large handful of voyagers, kinda my opinion.

Indee
D
Good definition

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

I’ve always thought there were coastal cruisers, offshore sailors and voyagers. Coastal is straight forward and probably covers the majority of cruisers. Offshore covers those that have crossed oceans or an ocean. Voyager is someone who chooses a self sufficient lifestyle that goes on for many years and includes ocean crossings as a normal part of their lifestyle. They are independent in most ways from maintaining their boat to living large and provisioning for months at a time. They tend to avoid rally’s of any kind and tend to also avoid the normal milk routes. So lots of coastal cruisers, a number of offshore sailors and a large handful of voyagers, kinda my opinion.

Saying there's coastal cruising and then some sort of ocean crossing misses a lot - I know of one boat that went from France to Greenland, then through the Northwest Passage to Port Townsend WA. Coastal cruising - same category as San Francisco to Monterey? Hardley. What about run we're doing from California to Florida - coastal cruising?

I've advocated for "Coastal Passagemaking" as a category. Like most seasoned boat owners. I've done a lot of coastal cruising. As I write, we are part way across the Bay of Tehuantepec - a 220nm leg that puts us about 50 nms offshore at the belly of the Bay. Of the 2300 nms we've done since leaving California, we've done about 6 legs of at least in 200 nms each. We have the luxury of respecting 72 hour weather windows and while repairs and parts availability are often difficult, they are more accessible than trans-ocean. But far from ease of going from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay (example of typical coastal cruise).

For those of you who are "bi-curious" about cruising on a trawler, eel free to track us aboard our 1970 Wm Garden 36-foot displacement trawler on Instagram. MVWeebles.

[Mike OReilly]

I think in terms of remoteness, and access to services, when differentiating my cruises. I've sailed Lake Superior, and been far more remote than some who cross oceans. I currently sail NE Newfoundland. In some areas I am definitely on my own, and along way from support or assistance.

To me, a bluewater boat has more to do with resilience and self-sufficiency, than any arbitrary measure from land. This is why you can make almost any well-found boat a "bluewater" craft. But that doesn't alter the fact that some are designed with this in mind, while others are designed for something else.

[MicHughV]

There is tendency on this forum to focus on American boats and sailors, but it goes without saying that sailors originate from all over the world and just go about their business without partaking of any chat sites or telling anyone when or where they might be next.

For myself, I was completely unaware of this CF until my wife found it and suggested it. Up to that time, I did not partake in any chat sites, regardless of topic, which is to say, I have 35 some years at the helm that have gone unsung and untold and I know this is likely true for many others. Interestingly, my wife would never in a million years join any chat site and thus her story will never be told and I suspect that this holds true for many countless other sailors.

So the question of " how many blue water sailors are there" need to take this into consideration.

I also have Jimmy Cornell's book World cruising Routes where he has tabulated the number of boats transiting Panama, etc, but I think the book misses the mark in many respects.

At best, some reasonable questimates could likely be arrived at and what percentage that would be of the general sailing public I would not even hazard to guess.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I think in terms of remoteness, and access to services, when differentiating my cruises. I've sailed Lake Superior, and been far more remote than some who cross oceans. I currently sail NE Newfoundland. In some areas I am definitely on my own, and along way from support or assistance.

To me, a bluewater boat has more to do with resilience and self-sufficiency, than any arbitrary measure from land. This is why you can make almost any well-found boat a "bluewater" craft. But that doesn't alter the fact that some are designed with this in mind, while others are designed for something else.

I think there is a bright line when your itinerary exceeds a 72-hour weather window so you have to be prepared for whatever weather nature throws at you. To me, that's the biggest difference between remote coastal cruising and blue water.

[MicHughV]

I think the thing to do, is for all us to convene at some or other suitable "establishment" convenient to all so as to trade stories in person.