Attracting youth to sailing

[RupertW]

I see far more sailors on cruising boats in their 20s and 30s than older - but on charter boats where it's a great communal party and holiday. In other words on a harbour with may half the boats owned with just two people on board the other half are older people with 2 couples on board plus the remaining boats with 8 or 10 young people. Often in a flotilla so 100 young cruising sailors appear around us older quieter owners.

So I think the UK sailing route through clubs etc is not flourishing like the warmer charter market but the young cruisers are out there in big numbers with no concerns about close quarter handling of 40 and 50 footers.

What I wonder is how many will move from that to owning boats as a family and onwards. Buying big ex charter boats is not expensive but doing them back up and keeping them certainly is so with children, mortgage etc. I suspect it's more likely to be family charters in good years. What I don't expect is that any will want to be on a sub-30 footer in a grey climate because that won't fit in with their idea of what real sailing is.

 

[Resolution]

I see far more sailors on cruising boats in their 20s and 30s than older - but on charter boats where it's a great communal party and holiday. In other words on a harbour with may half the boats owned with just two people on board the other half are older people with 2 couples on board plus the remaining boats with 8 or 10 young people. Often in a flotilla so 100 young cruising sailors appear around us older quieter owners.

So I think the UK sailing route through clubs etc is not flourishing like the warmer charter market but the young cruisers are out there in big numbers with no concerns about close quarter handling of 40 and 50 footers.

What I wonder is how many will move from that to owning boats as a family and onwards. Buying big ex charter boats is not expensive but doing them back up and keeping them certainly is so with children, mortgage etc. I suspect it's more likely to be family charters in good years. What I don't expect is that any will want to be on a sub-30 footer in a grey climate because that won't fit in with their idea of what real sailing is.

RupertW
Presumably this is what you are seeing in Croatia? I reckon you have hit the nail on the head. Almost none of the 20 to 35 year olds that I know want to incur the cost and hassle of owning a modest old yacht in grey Britain, when they can have all the fun by chartering in better climes, with little cost and no ongoing responsibility.
That is all BC. (Before Children)
Once the anklebiters arrive, parental time is as stretched as is their wallets, so very very few are are able to indulge any wish to go sailing. Maybe the odd Neilson or Mark Warner (are they still going?), but boat owning is as likely as porcine aviation.
So back to the poor old British Yacht Club, what should the blazers be doing?
Speaking as one of the 57OFs* my suggestion is that if we want youngsters around to replace us in time, we should help to make available short sharp racing in exciting sailboats (dinghies or J70/80 s) on a subsidised basis, and we as cruising boat owners should make much more effort to invite younger members out with us to get the experience in bigger boat sailing. How you make that invitation attractive is a tricky question, but there are ways.
Peter

* Ref. Will Carling

 

[Yellow Ballad]

As a family we're in our early 30's and have had a little lad 3 months ago. We've just bought our first "big boat" and joined a friendly sailing club. SWMBO hasn't really sailed but is up for the odd day and is quite happy to let me get on with it. I dinghy sailed as a youngster, had to give up when my father was made redundant. I returned in my early 20 for 2-3 years but then gave it up when I started thinking I needed to get on with my life. I met a lovely woman, moved in together, got married and had a baby. This has been over the last 7 years or so, luckily she's a good one and has let me buy a boat now instead of waiting till my 50's+.

We haven't bought a house yet as we, despite saving as much as we can, prices always seem out of reach. Now little one is here and the wife's on maternity, she will probably go back to work part time, meaning we won't be earning enough to get a mortgage. I'm sure baby No.2 will come along in the next few years putting a house purchase another 3-5 years away. Really I shouldn't have blew a big chunk of our deposit money on buying a boat and saved it for then but we seem to be letting our lives pass us trying to get on the massively inflated property ladder. We decided we need to live a bit and enjoy the time we have, hence buying the boat, and it's only really been possible as the club fees are affordable. If I had to put in in a cheap marina/council/swinging mooring it would push it out of what we can afford. I was brought up sailing and I want to bring my lad up doing it as well, I don't know anyone who's sailed that's really turned out to be a bad one.

Youth dinghy sailing is the way forward for cruising clubs, with crewing opportunities on cruisers for child and parent, the parent getting "crewing" membership in with the cost of the youth membership. If the parent decide to buy their own boat then boat owner membership is required. If you don't have something to occupy the parent they probably won't bring their child, I don't think many kids pester their parents to take them sailing.

A big thing that really annoys me about sailing clubs are joining fees, for clubs to want to encourage new members, why then ask them to pay for the privilege?

Another thing I've always thought would be a good family introduction is buying a couple of club boats and offering a free boat for a year with membership, four families, one boat. Two families every other weekend, they get say a 10-12 slot or a 12-2 slot. The next weekend the other two families get the same, they each know when they can use it. If they get fed up with the arrangement then they will soon buy their own boat or after the year/six months decide it's not for them and the space is opened up to the next family membership.

Clubs need to invest in a decent website, not just one knocked up by a member for free (unless that member really knows what they're doing) There are so many bad websites, that look dated and old information on them it puts people off, people research on the internet and this is where they get their first impression. With social media any club can advertise free sailing tasters throughout the summer/family BBQ events, drum up enthusiasm etc etc but it has to be updated daily not just every now and then, even if it's just sharing something sailing related.

But I've never sat on a committee, so I no idea what it's like to run a club so please feel free to ignore any of the above.

 

[Seajet]

Our club in Chichester Harbour has a high proportion of keen Juniors, they have 2 fleets of beginners & advanced boats ( I lost track of dinghies a while ago but I know Feva's are one lot ) - the Juniors can simply sign the boats out and borrow them for races, with rescue supervision and prior / ongoing training of course.

I thought there was a gap between youths in dinghies and crusties like me in cruisers ( it was usual to begin cruiser sailing in one's teens as I did in the late 70's ) - but happily a fair few young dinghy bods are operating fast cruisers, which is as it should be; some have to share, which is a whole learning experience in itself !

 

[JumbleDuck]

A big thing that really annoys me about sailing clubs are joining fees, for clubs to want to encourage new members, why then ask them to pay for the privilege?

I think the theory is that it weeds out the less keen ... which is, as you say, completely at odds with encouraging new members. It's a bit like clubs which say "Yes, we have moorings, but you can only apply for one after you have been a member for three years" as if people should not join a club for the facilities it offers. Curiously they never say that you can't use the bar for three years after joining.

Deep down I suspect that a lot of members of all sorts of clubs - not just sailing - don't really want new members, because that might mean change,

 

[Seajet]

I think the theory is that it weeds out the less keen ... which is, as you say, completely at odds with encouraging new members. It's a bit like clubs which say "Yes, we have moorings, but you can only apply for one after you have been a member for three years" as if people should not join a club for the facilities it offers. Curiously they never say that you can't use the bar for three years after joining.

Deep down I suspect that a lot of members of all sorts of clubs - not just sailing - don't really want new members, because that might mean change,

I once joined another sailing club, and I was quite honest that my motive was to gain a deep water mooring for my fin keeler.

I was told ' welcome old boy ' but I soon found I was treated as a second class member, on a rough day the much vaunted launch was ' too tired ' to come and get my self & elderly Mum, resulting in our using the Zodiac with waves breaking over it.

I'm sure a well known bigwig in that club would have got unhesitating help.

When they asked me for even more money the next spring I'd already made other arrangements and politely declined, ' your ferry service is a fairy story '.