Youtube liveaboard stars?

[Saleen411]

Originally Posted by SnakeEyes

All it takes nowadays is boobs, string bikinis and a patreon account. And you have yourself a YouTube channel with ever growing subscriber base that can keep you going. Doing nothing productive for the rest of your life.

Indeed. Based on the Sailing Doodles channel comments, many if not most of the guys are focused entirely on the gals. Ridiculously so......boat?...what boat?

"Hey, too bad about your yacht. I'll send you a few bucks if I can get a date with Taylor"

Evidently this works for the gals and Bobby has no problem obtaining sexy crew. At least 2 now have their own channels.

[marshmat]

Originally Posted by Souzag818

I agree. Why spend precious ticks of the clock watching someone else sailing, when you could be doing it yourself? Then being asked to donate my hard earned boat dollars...

Well, in our case, we're cooped up in the frozen wilds of Canada from October to March. The boat's all tarped up and, if I crawl under the tarp to work on her, my fingers freeze. It's dark when I leave for work and it's dark when I get home.

So a bit of YouTube sailing - the likes of Delos, where the editing and production quality is good enough to rival most of what's on ordinary evening TV, or Free Range Sailing where the obvious lack of budget is made up for in many other ways - is nice for keeping us sane through the winter. For a channel that's putting in many hours a week of shooting & editing, and doing quality work, and not taking ad revenue, that really is a job; they're creating value that I enjoy and I'm ok with throwing a few dollars their way. Some channels have built very strong, supportive social communities around their project as well.

I'm less of a fan of the ones that have gone heavily commercial, soliciting corporate sponsorships and pushing products all the time. Likewise for the ones that spend so much time on gratuitous shots of hot women that there's no time left for any actual content, and the kid-friendliness of the channel is in question. And while I recognize that a lot of YouTubers are just doing this as a hobby and maybe hoping to make a few bucks, the reality is that good video production takes skill, equipment, and time. There's a pretty big leap from posting assorted random home videos and vlogs / monologues, to the effort and talent needed to really tell the story of a place, its people, etc. in an engaging way.

At some point you need to decide whether you're sharing snippets for friends & family, and maybe accepting some spare change, or if you're making a proper semi-professional production with real costs, real revenues, real skill in this kind of work, and a real time commitment. Having production quality in camp 1 while pursuing financials appropriate to camp 2 is not a great look.

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

We don't know all of the circumstances yet so this is somewhat of a general comment, but always, and I repeat always have your sailing boat setup and ready to be able to SAIL in bad weather.

I've never understood the option of taking down the sails and motoring when the going gets tough.

Bobby has a big heavy boat and he should be able to set a heavy weather staysail or other combination and just hunker down.

As he said, disasters never have one sole cause and are normally a combination of snowballing factors, but what I normally see in these situations is that many of those factors end up being 90% self inflicted.

Let's see what comes out as the story becomes more common knowledge.

I watched his advertisement where he says he’s not going to beg and then tries to sell us on watching a video of his 48 hour singlehanding disaster and in it he’s sailing and talks about the winds being 25- 30-36 knots (with no harness or PFD in sight yet) but the next thing he says is that his transmission blew up. I guess that maybe the winds were right in his face and he didn’t want to beat into it? But given that it was only a short, 48 hour hop it makes me wonder why at the beginning he’s so convinced the nice weather would last. I can understand being surprised by unforecast weather in a longer voyage but along the east coast of the US I’m sure a forecast was available that would have predicted those winds occurring not long after his departure. So why did he seem surprised by those winds and plan accordingly?

I’m also not sure why he’d even file an insurance claim given that his issues weren’t caused by an accident but instead were a mechanical malfunction. I had to have my transmission rebuilt a couple years ago because it wouldn’t reliably shift into reverse and it never occurred to me to call my insurance company. So maybe his insurance claim came from whatever caused all the water in the bilge. Maybe someone who is willing to pay the $$ to see his 35 minute video (I’m not) can explain it but from what I could see, he’d ought to be embarrassed that he got himself into the situation and doubly embarrassed to expect someone else to pay for it.

[Souzag818]

Originally Posted by marshmat

Well, in our case, we're cooped up in the frozen wilds of Canada from October to March. The boat's all tarped up and, if I crawl under the tarp to work on her, my fingers freeze. It's dark when I leave for work and it's dark when I get home.

So a bit of YouTube sailing - the likes of Delos, where the editing and production quality is good enough to rival most of what's on ordinary evening TV, or Free Range Sailing where the obvious lack of budget is made up for in many other ways - is nice for keeping us sane through the winter. For a channel that's putting in many hours a week of shooting & editing, and doing quality work, and not taking ad revenue, that really is a job; they're creating value that I enjoy and I'm ok with throwing a few dollars their way. Some channels have built very strong, supportive social communities around their project as well.

I'm less of a fan of the ones that have gone heavily commercial, soliciting corporate sponsorships and pushing products all the time. Likewise for the ones that spend so much time on gratuitous shots of hot women that there's no time left for any actual content, and the kid-friendliness of the channel is in question. And while I recognize that a lot of YouTubers are just doing this as a hobby and maybe hoping to make a few bucks, the reality is that good video production takes skill, equipment, and time. There's a pretty big leap from posting assorted random home videos and vlogs / monologues, to the effort and talent needed to really tell the story of a place, its people, etc. in an engaging way.

At some point you need to decide whether you're sharing snippets for friends & family, and maybe accepting some spare change, or if you're making a proper semi-professional production with real costs, real revenues, real skill in this kind of work, and a real time commitment. Having production quality in camp 1 while pursuing financials appropriate to camp 2 is not a great look.

I'm guessing I'm older than you are, but I have no problem going sailing in the winter. I just don't do it where I live in the PNW, where it's cold and rainy for the same time period(Oct to March). I close up my boat too and go to Mexico, or Hawaii, or New Zealand, anyplace warm. I have been sailing long enough that I have friends in warm places that I can rendezvous with and spend 4 or 5 weeks enjoying the sun, away from the grey, rainy PNW. Heck, even if I can't join up with a friend, I've found there are always sailors who want crew, even if it's only a week or two. At my age, the ticks on the clock seem to be happening quicker, and I'm not gonna waste any watching someone half my age, who found some girl with big boobs, tell me how awesome his life is and ask me to pay for it. I worked hard all my life so that my life would be awesome, but I'm a different generation than most of the you tubers. I'm more of a Sea Dog kinda guy

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by Saleen411

Indeed. Based on the Sailing Doodles channel comments, many if not most of the guys are focused entirely on the gals. Ridiculously so......boat?...what boat?



"Hey, too bad about your yacht. I'll send you a few bucks if I can get a date with Taylor"



Evidently this works for the gals and Bobby has no problem obtaining sexy crew. At least 2 now have their own channels.

I think that’s common on these “sailing” channels that are more about bikini babes than actual sailing or cruising. Like someone else mentioned sex sells but to an audience that’s more interested in a fantasy involving hot chicks away from their boring routine than actual sailors interested in a sailing channel. The sailboat is just a backdrop for the real subject of these channels, what’s behind the bikini. I would be willing to bet that only a tiny percentage of Bobby’s subscribers are cruising sailors but big numbers are necessary for him to make a living so he’s selling something more people are interested in than are interested in sailing. I can’t blame him. He seems to be enjoying life without a 9-5 job, but from what I’ve seen of him by watching a couple of his YouTube episodes I wouldn’t really consider his channel to be primarily about sailing.

[Souzag818]

Originally Posted by Saleen411

Sex sells and Bobby is no dummy. What's sad for him is except for Laura, it APPEARS that his bikini babes are just that...click bait ornaments. I could be wrong obviously and maybe every night is an orgy, but I doubt it. He ran off to Thailand at one point because he said he wasn't "dating" the 2 girls on board.

I gotta hand it to him though....I have NO idea how he gets these gals.....

WANTED.....Hot 20 something bikini babe with BIG hooters to sail with middle aged YouTube dude. Willingness to prance around topless a bonus.

It appeared that life definitely didn't suck for Bobby.

Laura was no different than the last crew. Fake boobs, alcoholic, left to do her own channel...

[SnakeEyes]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

I think that’s common on these “sailing” channels that are more about bikini babes than actual sailing or cruising. Like someone else mentioned sex sells but to an audience that’s more interested in a fantasy involving hot chicks away from their boring routine than actual sailors interested in a sailing channel. The sailboat is just a backdrop for the real subject of these channels, what’s behind the bikini. I would be willing to bet that only a tiny percentage of Bobby’s subscribers are cruising sailors but big numbers are necessary for him to make a living so he’s selling something more people are interested in than are interested in sailing. I can’t blame him. He seems to be enjoying life without a 9-5 job, but from what I’ve seen of him by watching a couple of his YouTube episodes I wouldn’t really consider his channel to be primarily about sailing.

So basically he is sort of a pimp?

[Olly75]

I made the mistake of paying for the doodles video.
Basically a lesson on how not to do a passage with some bad luck but the majority self inflicted- no emergency bilge pump..., was feeling sorry for the guy until the end when he spent ten minutes moaning about insurance not paying up (most damage was self inflicted and his policy was for the Caribbean not the east coast usa)
Also hes going to sell the boat as he cant be bothered dealing with the refit (which isn't that bad) and is thinking about getting a motor boat instead. But thanks for the donation.....

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by Olly75

I made the mistake of paying for the doodles video.
Basically a lesson on how not to do a passage with some bad luck but the majority self inflicted- no emergency bilge pump..., was feeling sorry for the guy until the end when he spent ten minutes moaning about insurance not paying up (most damage was self inflicted and his policy was for the Caribbean not the east coast usa)
Also hes going to sell the boat as he cant be bothered dealing with the refit (which isn't that bad) and is thinking about getting a motor boat instead. But thanks for the donation.....

He mentioned his transmission blew up but how did that lead to water ingress, or were they unrelated problems? Where was the water coming from and was the water the primary source of the expensive damage or were there additional issues we don't yet know about?


If he's not going to fix the boat, I can't believe there's much of a market for it as it is now and if he does manage to sell it, it'll be for pennies on the dollar. Not sure how much $$ he's got invested, but once repairs are made it's got to be worth a lot more than the cost of the refit.

[mvweebles]

The folks on Project Atticus have decided to get a new boat. They have started a Kickstarter campaign and are seeking gifts from strangers. Seems they "suddenly" found termites in their main bulkhead and are asking for someone else to fund their boat

I cannot bring myself to share the link. There are so many people struggling right now and while I know these types of videos provide escapism, the idea of paying for someone's boat just doesn't set well with me even though they seem like a nice couple.

I think I'm done following sailors for a while.

Peter

[Olly75]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

He mentioned his transmission blew up but how did that lead to water ingress, or were they unrelated problems? Where was the water coming from and was the water the primary source of the expensive damage or were there additional issues we don't yet know about?


If he's not going to fix the boat, I can't believe there's much of a market for it as it is now and if he does manage to sell it, it'll be for pennies on the dollar. Not sure how much $$ he's got invested, but once repairs are made it's got to be worth a lot more than the cost of the refit.

It was rough and his second anchor came off the bower (said it was tied on) anchor dropped and rode gpt caught on the prop, he thought it was a fuel problem and gave it more throttle, transmission over heated and melted a water pipe. Resulting water took out most of the electrical system, genny amd engine submerged.

He also had to cut away his dinghy after one davit snapped.

Boat is for sale for 45k.

[Saleen411]

Originally Posted by Olly75

It was rough and his second anchor came off the bower (said it was tied on) anchor dropped and rode gpt caught on the prop, he thought it was a fuel problem and gave it more throttle, transmission over heated and melted a water pipe. Resulting water took out most of the electrical system, genny amd engine submerged.

He also had to cut away his dinghy after one davit snapped.

Boat is for sale for 45k.

Geez....lost his dinghy too? That was a BRAND NEW Highfield dinghy with a console and 30 or 40 hp motor. I wouldn't be surprised if it was sponsored.

Bad luck for Bobby. I wonder how many folks who are donating for repairs KNOW that they may actually be donating for a new boat.? hmmmm

Maybe nobody cares...

[tradrockrat]

Man! This week sure shows how blurry the line is on these reality youtube channels.

I totally get paying a small fee for the fun of watching their shows that they work so hard on to share with us - let's be honest - they are selling a product, and we are buying it. That's a fair trade, IMHO. Same reason I'm ok with the ads on YouTube - the vast majority of us watchers are not patreon members, but we contribute through ad revenue. Again, that's fair, IMHO.

But you lose your boat through negligence or suddenly discover that your 2K boat has problems?!?!? That's a shame, but that's not a responsibility of anyone but you. That's what the rest of the world calls bad luck, not a GoFundMe cause.

I feel that's when they cross the line into asking for something for nothing, and it feels like entitlement to me.

I actually really like Atticus and I was proud to contribute a little to their outreach of the islanders a few months ago - that was some real good they did. But no...I won't be buying you a new boat - I spend that money on MY boat.

[calmissile]

I think I only watched a couple of Doodles videos and was not impressed with the T&A clickbait. Maybe in my younger years.

I did however have an interest in what went wrong and what I might learn from the incident. I did contribute $5 to watch the video and have no problem with paying a few bucks for the knowledge.

What I learned was a couple things. First, it appears to me that the davits are a little flimsy. In retrospect, I suppose the argument could be made that the dinghy should have been secured on the deck. The forecast was for nice weather so I would guess that many sailors would have elected to have it hanging on the davits, flimsy or not.

One of the things I was particularly interested in was the report of fire in the title of the video. The cause of a fire was not addressed in any detail but an earlier experience in my life might give rise to an explanation. It also might have caused me to not be adding throttle when the boat is not responding correctly to it.

Some years ago I was driving my big heavy Chevy station wagon slowly up a long steep mountain pass on a one way dirt road covered with snow and ice. Suddenly, I saw smoke coming from under the hood. I was able to pull off the road into a widened spot. The fire got much worse very quickly. I ended up quiickly removing all the camping gear and set it on the road. I expected the car to burn to the ground. Eventually, there was a big noise and steam came pouring out from under the hood. I finally was able to open the hood and examine what happened.

The dipstick for the transmission had blown out of the holder. The fire raged until it eventually melted the radiator hose. When it blew, it put out the fire. In a nutshell, that was the sequence of events. The cause of the transmission fire must have been the long heavy load placed on it during the climb up the mountain and the transmission cooler being inadequate. When the transmission blew out transmission fluid all over the engine I expect that it was ignited and fed the fire. Luckily, the radiator hose blowing was what put out the fire.

Was a little lucky in a sense that it was a big block 5 main engine and found someone that would tow the car off of BLM land before they fined me for abandoning a vehicle. Fair trade in my mind.

So, I postulate that the rode caught in the prop caused the excessive load on the transmission. Unfortunately, the skipper did not shut off the engine at that point. I expect that the transmission may have done exactly what mine did in my car and the transmission fluid caused a fire until it blew one of the water lines which then started filling the bilge with water.

Just a theory on my part, but think that may have been the sequence of events in this case.

Another worthwhile takaway for my part is too make sure the anchor(s) are fully secured for stormy weather.

[geoleo]

Originally Posted by SnakeEyes

So basically he is sort of a pimp?

Sort of?