Why Do Cruising Couples Quit

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by rwidman

That would be us as well except for the "working" part, we are retired. However, many on this forum would not define people like this as "cruisers". The thread I started a few months ago was pretty revealing.

It really doesn't matter, it's like trying to define wealth.
To some it's >$1Mil a yr, to some maybe >$10K a yr, and to some it's having a beautiful wife and happy, healthy children.

Somewhere in that post, it should say "in my opinion" or similar, meaning what does cruising mean to me.

Me, I'm still a wanna be cruiser, but I'm much further along than I was this time last year, I'm making progress.

[a64pilot]

I think most cruisers are retired simply because most people who aren't can neither afford the time and or expense required to cruise, those that can, are lucky, but I believe they are few in number.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

It really doesn't matter, it's like trying to define wealth.
To some it's >$1Mil a yr, to some maybe >$10K a yr, and to some it's having a beautiful wife and happy, healthy children.

Somewhere in that post, it should say "in my opinion" or similar, meaning what does cruising mean to me.

Me, I'm still a wanna be cruiser, but I'm much further along than I was this time last year, I'm making progress.

When my wife comes in and asks me what I'm doing and sees me at the computer, she was always says, "Are you having an opinion on the internet again?"

[dannc]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I think most cruisers are retired simply because most people who aren't can neither afford the time and or expense required to cruise, those that can, are lucky, but I believe they are few in number.

And people are retired because their kids are out on their own and/or the people have accomplished some of the "bucket list" on land and it is time to move to something else.

For us, having kids on a cruisng boat would have been VERY difficult if not impossible. 15 years ago we talked about cruising but we had just bought our dream land, were having kids, were planning the dream house, etc. Also, where would we get money to cruise? It really was not in the cards at that time.

A couple of years ago, we started discussing this again, I found the boating information I had read in 2000, still liked what I read, and here we are. The reality is that we will have to be retired to go cruising.

I am lucky in that the wifey wants the boat as much as I do, if not more.

Later,
Dan

[BandB]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

On a sailing forum you need to be careful of semantics.
My mother has sailed more miles than I have. On cruise ships.
Mark

But this isn't a sailing forum, it's a Cruising Forum.

Still I'll grant that even those of us with power boats often think of the term "sailing" as meaning a boat with sails.

[a64pilot]

US Navy is full of Sailors, but I don't think many sails FWIW

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

US Navy is full of Sailors, but I don't think many sails FWIW

yeah I quit that cruising even though I went to a lot of places for free

[4music3]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

It interests me that there are different ways people define cruising and living aboard. My opinion & keeping the definitions simple:

Cruisers: People who dock, moor, or anchor in different locations.

Liveaboards: People who regularly wake up on their boats.

Liveaboard Cruisers: People who regularly wake up on their boats in different locations.

Yup that's a good one but notice if you take out the word (their) it includes the pro's also-not that I'm one of them !

[med]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

Liveaboard Cruisers: People who regularly wake up on their boats in different locations.

Sounds like "Liveaboard Cruisers" need to upgrade their anchors so they wake up in the same location they went to sleep in

[ddavis4464]

Why Do Cruising Couple Quit?
Setting aside the unforeseen shore side problems that can strike anyone, the main reasons couples quite is they get worn out. It is hard to live in the nineteenth century, scrimping on electricity. Worried about batteries, fighting with hot generators and all the noise just to keep the batteries up. Showers you can’t standup in and no hot water for the shower or to wash dishes. And berths that would make a pirate walk the plank. And the most important thing anchoring. Afraid that every little thunderstorm will blow you into the mangroves—that’s no way to live. That’s what I see.
It takes about ten years to work out the problems, if someone doesn’t give you a heads up…some never figure it out and quit.
The problem stems from all the marketing hype about needing the best sailing boat, the one that points highest. The truth is the best sailing boats make terrible live aboard’s. They are to deep, to narrow, you can’t load’em up with solar panels, its hurts their sailing ability.
It takes at least the following to make a good live aboard, a safe and comfortable boat that is easy and fun to live on.
· Most importantly heavy anchor gear. A heavy anchor 2lbs per 1000lbs of boat, enough chain for a 7:1 scope in whatever water you’re going to anchor in.
· Electricity…a kw of each solar and wind will take care of 95% of the weather conditions, and provide enough power to run everything you can drag aboard, except the AC.
· A shower you can stand up in…oh, so important.
· For coastal work, draft 5ft or less. You can use a little deeper, but it just limits where you can go and that’s the reason to be cruising after all…to go to neat little hidden places.
· Propane shove, cheap and easy to find fuel. No electric stoves please.
· Think bed not berth, a nice 8” thick matress.
· Marine frig, give the household frig to the Goodwill.
· A beamy boat that gives room for a real recliner in the salon.
· A big fixed three-bladed prop, you need torque to get off groundings and to motor efficiently down channels and up rivers.
· The sail rig…completely irrelevant for traveling. Nice to have as a backup and for when you want to have fun…but not for traveling.
Anyway that the way I see it.
Danny L. Davis
“Read more, be more”

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by ddavis4464

Why Do Cruising Couple Quit?
Setting aside the unforeseen shore side problems that can strike anyone, the main reasons couples quite is they get worn out. It is hard to live in the nineteenth century, scrimping on electricity. Worried about batteries, fighting with hot generators and all the noise just to keep the batteries up. Showers you can’t standup in and no hot water for the shower or to wash dishes. And berths that would make a pirate walk the plank. And the most important thing anchoring. Afraid that every little thunderstorm will blow you into the mangroves—that’s no way to live. That’s what I see.
It takes about ten years to work out the problems, if someone doesn’t give you a heads up…some never figure it out and quit.
The problem stems from all the marketing hype about needing the best sailing boat, the one that points highest. The truth is the best sailing boats make terrible live aboard’s. They are to deep, to narrow, you can’t load’em up with solar panels, its hurts their sailing ability.
It takes at least the following to make a good live aboard, a safe and comfortable boat that is easy and fun to live on.
· Most importantly heavy anchor gear. A heavy anchor 2lbs per 1000lbs of boat, enough chain for a 7:1 scope in whatever water you’re going to anchor in.
· Electricity…a kw of each solar and wind will take care of 95% of the weather conditions, and provide enough power to run everything you can drag aboard, except the AC.
· A shower you can stand up in…oh, so important.
· For coastal work, draft 5ft or less. You can use a little deeper, but it just limits where you can go and that’s the reason to be cruising after all…to go to neat little hidden places.
· Propane shove, cheap and easy to find fuel. No electric stoves please.
· Think bed not berth, a nice 8” thick matress.
· Marine frig, give the household frig to the Goodwill.
· A beamy boat that gives room for a real recliner in the salon.
· A big fixed three-bladed prop, you need torque to get off groundings and to motor efficiently down channels and up rivers.
· The sail rig…completely irrelevant for traveling. Nice to have as a backup and for when you want to have fun…but not for traveling.
Anyway that the way I see it.
Danny L. Davis
“Read more, be more”

Two comments:

You have just described a trawler type motor yacht, not a cruising sailboat.

If those are the requirements for a successful cruising boat, I guess I'd better quit, for we lack most of them. But somehow we've been cruising full time for 28 years now...

Jim

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Two comments:

You have just described a trawler type motor yacht, not a cruising sailboat.

If those are the requirements for a successful cruising boat, I guess I'd better quit, for we lack most of them. But somehow we've been cruising full time for 28 years now...

Jim

Back to the question why don't some people quit... tenacity? obstinance? an aversion to comfort?

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Two comments:

You have just described a trawler type motor yacht, not a cruising sailboat.

If those are the requirements for a successful cruising boat, I guess I'd better quit, for we lack most of them. But somehow we've been cruising full time for 28 years now...

Jim

What is your point?

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by rwidman

What is your point?

Whoa....wait a second...post have to have a point?
I call bullsh$! on that...have you read some of these.....ha ha ah...

[Lin Pardey]

After 45 years of wonderful voyaging, plus delivering boats, racing boats, Larry and I stopped crossing oceans only because his advancing Parkinson's (he was 72 so couldn't complain and still doesn't complain about this intrusion in his life) made both of us feel we couldn't handle emergencies such as a sudden squall in a less than perfect anchorage. This is a similar reason given by our other very long term voyaging friends. Size of boat didn't come into the equation. In our book, The Cost Conscious Cruiser I have a chapter called The Psychology and Philosophy of Long-term Voyagers. It was written a few years back but interestingly, four of the couples mentioned are still out voyaging in the same boats - all 40 feet or shorter - so successful couple cruising doesn't seem to have much at all to do with boat length.