At what age do you start sailing less miles.

[LONG_KEELER]

Even taking into account the Covid years , I seem to be doing less miles, or more accurately my voyages are not so far as they used to be. I'm still having plenty of days sailing on the boat though. Physically, I don't feel much different as I did 20 years ago. I read somewhere that you lose 1% of your Testosterone for each year after aged 30. [Unwelcome content deleted.]

What are other folks experiences.

 

[Gixer]

Age 25 when I got married and then less again at 30 when my kids came along…

 

[Barnacle Bill]

I want to know that the "Unwelcome content deleted" was!

I'd love to sail more, regardless of my age, but very constrained now by my growing family and their demands on my / our time .... (A bit like Gixer.)

Still, when they're older it may change again.

 

[jamie N]

After a period of illness, I'm actually spending far more time at the boat, albeit at the marina, and am sailing (planning to anyway), tomorrow.
Following a traumatic period, there's a bit of "eff it, my rules now", which has channelled my available energy towards sailing and 'messing around' on my wooden boat, as against things that I've less desire to fulfill.

 

[xyachtdave]

I can report buying a house with a hole in the roof and a non working 'everything required for modern life' keeps you away from the boat!

Now that's finished I'm fixing a boat with non working essentials instead...!

 

[Daydream believer]

I have been hitting 2000M PA for some years now. But the last 2 covid years, has restricted my sailing to circa 650M both years. Now, at 75, I am well out of condition.
I am going to give it a go, but if foreign cruising is curtailed due to entry/exit problems the other side of the channel, then it is a round UK SH again. But that may be a step too far. In which case 2000M may be a thing of the past.
I just get so bored sailing locally.

 

[Sandy]

I did the greatest number of miles in 2021 and hope to improve on that figure in 2022.

 

[capnsensible]

Even taking into account the Covid years , I seem to be doing less miles, or more accurately my voyages are not so far as they used to be. I'm still having plenty of days sailing on the boat though. Physically, I don't feel much different as I did 20 years ago. I read somewhere that you lose 1% of your Testosterone for each year after aged 30. [Unwelcome content deleted.]

What are other folks experiences.

A few years ago I joined a friend of mine in Antigua and we delivered a yacht to Tahiti. As one does. Oh yeah it was a Bavaria too.

Anyway, he was 72 at the time. The year after we got back, he ran a charity marathon in a very respectable time. He has a small yacht that he sails in the west country now.

 

[Frogmogman]

A few years ago I joined a friend of mine in Antigua and we delivered a yacht to Tahiti. As one does. Oh yeah it was a Bavaria too.
.

Didn’t the keel fall off, and the rudder break ?

 

[Neeves]

Bad timing with the question, not your fault

My great, great grandfather sailed to the Crimea in the 1850s, then India and finally China in 1859/60 and his son from India to the UK in the mid 1860s, no inboard diesels then, when he was a few months old. My Grandfather 'sailed', again to the Crimea, in 1918/19 and none ever sailed again . Does this count?

With covid we have ben restricted and could not sail outside New South Wales. Historically 'destinations' were either Queensland or Tasmania, roughly 1,000nm to either. We have not been anywhere - pottering here and there. Our longest passage has been maybe 2 hours.

I confess pottering about does not offer me a challenge, unlike washing the car, or weeding.....??

Raise the thread in one years time.

However I do find that things I did 20 years ago can now be hard work. Being male I don't let this stop me and have sore knees to prove it. Maybe I'll eventually learn.

Jonathan

 

[johnalison]

Bad timing with the question, not your fault

My great, great grandfather sailed to the Crimea in the 1850s, then India and finally China in 1859/60 and his son from India to the UK in the mid 1860s, no inboard diesels then, when he was a few months old. My Grandfather 'sailed', again to the Crimea, in 1918/19 and none ever sailed again . Does this count?

With covid we have ben restricted and could not sail outside New South Wales. Historically 'destinations' were either Queensland or Tasmania, roughly 1,000nm to either. We have not been anywhere - pottering here and there. Our longest passage has been maybe 2 hours.

I confess pottering about does not offer me a challenge, unlike washing the car, or weeding.....??

Raise the thread in one years time.

However I do find that things I did 20 years ago can now be hard work. Being male I don't let this stop me and have sore knees to prove it. Maybe I'll eventually learn.

Jonathan

I find myself in a similar position. My mind wants to do the extensive summer cruising we did a few years ago but although I am still capable of managing the boat I can sometimes recall how tiring longer passages were, say 12-18 hours, which is what we confined ourselves to in later years. In my case, my wife’s new knee and other problems forced me to abandon Continental cruises, and Covid removed the incentive to make other arrangements to any extent. We all differ a lot in ability and stamina and I think it is better to enjoy what we can rather than look with envy at what others do. I suppose that I did fairly well by still going abroad in my later 70s, even if others have done much better, but I never had a policy of continuing until I dropped, more of muddling on and waiting for fate to determine the outcome.

 

[The Q]

I retire in 9 months , My amount sailing will increase vastly..

 

[LadyInBed]

Your "Unwelcome content" boggles my mind!?
After I was made redundant from a proper job and then became a contractor, my sailing days increased dramatically, as I took the decision not to 'live to work'. I could work for a year or 18 months then take a summer off to sail. When I retired, my time on the boat didn't increase a great deal more, but my mileage did as I could do longer passages.
With the Pandemic, I feel that I've been robbed of two years sailing and now Brexit has fully kicked in I feel robbed again of cruising time, as I much prefer to 'go foreign' than to be ripped off sailing the UK coast.
When I pack it all in will be when I'm incapable of launching the dinghy and climbing over the stern rail of the boat.

 

[Neeves]

I retire in 9 months , My amount sailing will increase vastly..

You have a lot to learn

You will find that you become so busy you will not understand how you ever found time to go to work. Consequently your time sailing might be no different than today.

But then we are all different - it will be interesting to compare notes in 5 years time.

Jonathan

 

[geem]

We have done more sailing in the last 8 years than any other period. I retired at 50 so still fit enough to sail. 34,000nm on the clock since hanging up my work boots and just completed another Atlantic crossing.
We have a lot more planned. We keep fit by running and kitesurfing mainly. We try to avoid processed food and sugar. We hope a healthy lifestyle will see us enjoying the sailing life for many more years to come

 

[Neeves]

When I pack it all in will be when I'm incapable of launching the dinghy and climbing over the stern rail of the boat.

My views exactly, though our transoms are only 50mm above the waterline - so I might last a bit longer

Jonathan

 

[Koeketiene]

Owned a boat now for the last 23 years.
Usually averaged about 1.2K NM p/a.

- Had a stroke early 2015 - sailed less in 2015-2016.
- Sailed less in 2018-2019 due to further health complications and boat engine woes.
- Apart from the delivery trip Holland -> Brittany in 2020 of my 'new to me' boat these last two years I have been restricted to sailing in local waters because of Covid.

Hope to make up for the 'wasted years' this year with a longer, offshore trip before decrepitude and senility catch up with me.

 

[geem]

Owned a boat now for the last 23 years.
Usually averaged about 1.2K NM p/a.

- Had a stroke early 2015 - sailed less in 2015-2016.
- Sailed less in 2018-2019 due to further health complications and boat engine woes.
- Apart from the delivery trip Holland -> Brittany in 2020 of my 'new to me' boat these last two years I have been restricted to sailing in local waters because of Covid.

Hope to make up for the 'wasted years' this year with a longer, offshore trip before decrepitude and senility catch up with me.

Because of being stuck in the Caribbean due to Covid, we sailed back to the UK in 2020. We then sailed to the Caribbean again in 2021. Bizarrely, we did more sailing because of covid than we would normally do

 

[LONG_KEELER]

I retire in 9 months , My amount sailing will increase vastly..

I can recommend retirement . It's brilliant

 

[The Q]

You have a lot to learn

You will find that you become so busy you will not understand how you ever found time to go to work. Consequently your time sailing might be no different than today.

But then we are all different - it will be interesting to compare notes in 5 years time.

Jonathan

I've given up living to work some time ago, I've, a few minutes ago, turned down overtime..

SWMBO will be at her Weaving Group on a Tuesday, Art Group on a Wednesday, (plus special events).
I will be sailing Saturdays and Sundays (plus special events). Thereby doubling pure sailing time, just by adding the Saturdays. Then WE including the dog, because I'm no longer working will be able to use the motorboat more often on other days..