Sailing Trends: Your Perception?

[dlochner]

Must be I am. I've been sailing since before the 80's and I haven't seen that drastic 90% drop in sailing, anywhere on the coast(or on Lake Champlain where we sailed for over a decade).

Has anyone else been sailing since the 80's and seen a 90% drop in sailing in their area? I'm curious. I believe the data.

Twenty or so years ago, my club held an annual regatta we would get 40+ boats, this year it was under 20.

Ten years ago our Wednesday night beer can racing would 20 to 25 boats, this year maybe 10.

Not the 90% drop, but a significant drop. This is on Lake Ontario.

 

[25yearslater]

Much as DLochner my marina/marine park is $950 for a slip with power and water and card key gate. $650 for winter storage at a nearby marina. I have had some success with a Meetup.com group. I shut it down this year after two years due to a lack of participating boats. Most sailors are sailors in name only. These are the dock queen owners. While I may be at the other extreme and have been labeled go in anything Joe. I can tell you I have shifted a dozen people of all ages over to a facebook group to keep the active ones sailing. Just because sailing is slow doesn't mean it can't be exciting. Being out in several thunderstorms every year with wind screaming through the rigging and rain stinging the face or even an 8 hour bash to windward can provide some excitement the adventuresome seek. Many of this gang are now crewing for various racers at a variety of yacht clubs. What I take away is they want to sail but don't want the responsibility for the care and feeding of a sailboat or the stress of command. Strangely I often do very little aboard anymore other than monitor the activity and make suggestions when required.

 

[shemandr]

Much as DLochner my marina/marine park is $950 for a slip with power and water and card key gate. $650 for winter storage at a nearby marina.

You maybe in Upstate NY but those prices are a long way south of here.

 

[ggrizzard]

The earlier comments about Millennials seems to fly in the face of the plethora of 30 yo and younger couples vlogging about their boat purchases, rehabs, refits, upgrades, cruises, day sails, passages, destinations, trials, tribulations, disasters, successes, joys and disappointments. They are everywhere!

 

[dlochner]

The earlier comments about Millennials seems to fly in the face of the plethora of 30 yo and younger couples vlogging about their boat purchases, rehabs, refits, upgrades, cruises, day sails, passages, destinations, trials, tribulations, disasters, successes, joys and disappointments. They are everywhere!

And wanting us to support their adventures through Patreon!

 

[Will Gilmore]

BTW, the reason I ask is that I belong to a yachting association and am trying to figure out what kinds of programs to put together

Rick, my son was recently looking into a yacht club membership. He did not grow up sailing and is interested in learning to sail. He's close to his grandfather who has sailed the world and at 81 has given up sailing just when my son might have some time to learn from him. My father lives a mile from me in the mountains, my son lives in DC. What he found about yacht clubs was a cooperative network among clubs that allowed for the use of facilities and club boats at other cooperating clubs across the country. He liked how that sounded and was poised to get his membership. I'm sorry but, his mother and I talked him out of it because he's just out of school and working a new job. He was, is, not fully settled in and has no savings nor a fleshed out plan to start getting any. We both felt he would enjoy a yacht club membership once he was more financially stable.
I was impressed with the fleet sharing program. I could also see something working kind of like renting a ryder van where you rent the vehicle at one location (club) and drop it off at another.

The sailing trend around here - as far as I can see - is, the more things change,...

Tom, my experience includes growing up on the water in Florida, sailing to Maine where I spent the Summer of '76 on Hurricane Island, moving to NH in '78 and traveling back and forth many times since then. I can tell you that as strong as the boating community is in Florida and any where else, state-side I've been, there is no place with the maritime heritage and identity like Down East. I've commented before about noticing the lack of masts in the bays and harbors around Miami in recent years. The Gulf coast is better but nothing like the forest of spars I grew up seeing. During a recent trip to Mount Desert Island, I can say sailing is still strong but, I only saw three private sailboats from the top of Catallac mountain and the Bubbles over looking the Cranberries. It was a beautiful early fall day too. There should have been a dozen. Camden, I'm sure, sees no shortage of sail powered crafts. However, where there use to be a dozen sailboats waiting for moorings in the rest of the country, there are now dozens of powerboats.
I'm not sure I care to have more people into sailing. I'm into it and that seems enough. However, I would like to see less people into powerboats. Sailors are different, they are more thoughtful and engaged with their world than powerboaters. It's probably a good thing those people don't take up sailing. I don't really know but I like that I doing run into a sailor everytime I turn around, it keeps sailing special.
But then, when people ask about what it's like to move from Florida to rural NH, I tell them it's awful, the summers are short, the winters are long, cold and hard to drive in. They would hate it here. There are no stores, nothing to do, it takes over 3 hours just to get to Boston. They should stay where they are and be grateful they don't live here.
- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[jssailem]

While there are multiple YouTube videos by young adults. These are but a pebble in the pond. If you could interest some of these folks they might serve as spokes people. At the same time this could back fire and the transparency thinking of this age would expose the attempt in negative light.

 

[Meriachee]

The magic number is eight good weekends a year up here. If one were starting from scratch, and understood the dynamics of a simple cost benefit ratio outside the office, the overwhelming response would be to do something else. The same, @Crazy Dave Condon , thought applies to model railroads. Exceptionally limited runs, and $300 engines these days, is nothing short of a limiting factor. But then you gotta do something for the 10 months we can't boat.

 

[Kings Gambit]

What he found about yacht clubs was a cooperative network among clubs that allowed for the use of facilities and club boats at other cooperating clubs across the country. He liked how that sounded and was poised to get his membership.

It doesn't work quite that way, exactly, in cases I'm familiar with. As a member of a yacht club in location A, you may be able to visit yacht clubs in locations B and C as guests through various reciprocal arrangements. As a guest, one may indeed be allowed full use of the club's facilities--at least the landside ones. But that privilege is typically restricted in the number of times per year one might be welcome at another club as a reciprocal guest. One visit per quarter per guest is sometimes cited as "appropriate." It also may depend on your boat travel--outbound and then inbound along the same route staying one night at the same yacht club in each direction, etc. As for learning how to sail for someone who does not own a boat and who is an adult, it's better to join a sailing school (rather than a yacht club) and rent their boats, IMHO. These abound around the country along the navigable waters. Quarterly membership and small boat usage/rentals should not be too onerous for someone with a decent job.

 

[Kings Gambit]

But then you gotta do something for the 10 months we can't boat

This sounds like a place where you need good (active) chess clubs. Playing chess is cheap, engaging, and generally a good way to pass hours of time while being mentally stimulated. Just ask King's Gambit!

 

[Kings Gambit]

Hey--here you go!!
www.chess.com/club/edmonton-chess-club

 

[Meriachee]

Hey--here you go!!
www.chess.com/club/edmonton-chess-club

Actually, the dark makes a nice setting for pushing the limits of the camera gear. Time lapse is a topic of interest;

 

[jssailem]

Meriachee, looks like what ever the bridge is spanning is frozen. Seems early in the year.

 

[Will Gilmore]

This sounds like a place where you need good (active) chess clubs. Playing chess is cheap, engaging, and generally a good way to pass hours of time while being mentally stimulated. Just ask King's Gambit!

King's pawn to King 4.

- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[danstanford]

"
Off hand, I would first ask, what are millennials about?

One trait many of them share is the environment. As a rule, this generation is trending toward energy efficiency.

Tom, I agree that bashing the millennials is something I do to much, I have 5 of them plus I attempt to employ more of them. My experience disagrees however with the assertion that they are environmentalists. I have never see a sector less likely to recycle, turn off lights, or pick something up of the ground to recycle. It is sad really and I can only hope they morph as they age, like I did.

 

[25yearslater]

If we can be honest, let's face it, sailing is just a plain stupid way to travel. How so? Even fast boats are slow compared to the gas guzzlers. Howling winds, dead calms, biting flies, the general discomfort, the constant trimming all add up. That's why steamships were invented. The vlog crowd show their behinds and we went hear, saw this, ate that without really showing the day to day drudgery or thrills. It's all pretty much the same other than their physical endowments. In short boring. I have pretty much demonstrated that sailing can be done on the cheap by recycling an older boat, low cost docking and storage with all the costs out of my pocket. All cash transactions. So what I have noticed, and this cuts across generations, is there is always an excuse for not sailing. Never a reason, but an excuse. Too cold, too wet, too dark, too hot and so forth and so on. The glory day of the seventies and early eighties were as much about FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) as a real desire to sail. We should have seen a large number return to sailing as money became less of an issue otherwise. The plus side is sailing has never been more than a niche endeavor. We really can't expect it to attract huge numbers. My own experience has been out of every 100 I introduce to sailing perhaps 5 or six will continue to pursue it. Eliminating the cost is one way to get people involved and relieving them of responsibility is another. The bass boats and runabouts along with our nemesis' the jet skis are selling quite well. Are we as sailors doing enough to entice young people to give this a try? Are we selling it even though it is an anachronism? Perhaps we as a community have been a bit too insular and have found excuses for not throwing caution to the wind and inviting more people to give it a try.

 

[Will Gilmore]

Are we selling it even though it is an anachronism?

Anachronism may be exactly what sells it. All this movement forward, modern planing hulls of 50, 60+ feet. HUGE sums of money thrown away by people, organizations mortals can never hope to be. Get on the homestead band wagon, sell the beauty and elegance of sail. Sailing IS the destination.
- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[jssailem]

Truth to what 25years is saying. Same teams to Will about the “beauty “.
But there is something more to both of these.
The vlog is a millennial thing. It appeals in the same way Facebook. You can have 100 friends but never meet a single person. You can sail on a boat, see beautiful places and scantily clad individuals but never leave your bed room. For that you can pay “patron”, get acknowledged, get a tee shirt, be thanked all while in your pajamas. Then go on instagram and share your virtual experience.

Sailing means you have to get up and get out. Turn off the phone and get physical.

Dan, I too hope they morph. Or maybe the world of the Matrix is our future.

 

[Will Gilmore]

I predict that the Go pro is going to benefit activities like sailing. When sailing becomes a real novelty to show-off to all your chair-bound friends that you're the REAL hipster getting out there and daring to think sailing was cool before sailing was cool, then sailing will revive.
I'm still not sure why we sailors really care to include more people into our fold.
- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[jssailem]

Will, some do it for money. Other to share the fear or joy of a “dolphin “ experience. The OP started the thread to get ideas for his leadership role in boat/club associations.

For now I’m taking off to the boat. See ya.