Cruising sailors a dying breed?

[coopec]

When I read the posts on the different forums I get the impression most people posting are "older" people. Where are all the younger sailors?
Maybe the answer is that the "millennials" can't afford a yacht and that is why prices of yachts are falling?

Forty years ago there was a boatyard set aside for amateur boat builders and there was 100 boats under construction but now there are none.

This question came up on another forum and it makes interesting reading.

Cruising Sailboats: a Dying Breed?

There was a lively debate in a recent thread [1] where a younger cruiser was looking for other younger cruisers to join together in discussion. The nagging question popped up: WHERE are all the younger sailors? There was quite a banter involving differences between millennials and baby boomers, distribution of wealth, modern distractions, and other factors resulting in far fewer sailors these days...
Alas… who remembers all those thousands of BOATS manufactured back in the day?
The whole discussion reminded me of those Glory Days of sailboat production… the 1970s and 1980s. (perhaps the 60s too?) The timely combination of fiberglass technology, disposable income, leisure time and the oil crisis created a peak in sailboat production. The king of the every-man sailboat, Catalina Yachts, had churned out almost 25,000 sailboats per decade by 1990. Since then, they have averaged maybe 3,000 / decade, with dozens of competitors going under. [2][7]
If you examine more recent sailboat production data, the downward trend continues. In North America, the year 2000 saw more than 20,000 sailboats produced annually. In 2017 there were only 7000. [3] The number of active sailboat manufacturers in North America has dropped by 1/3 in the last 10 years. It's at 92 now. [6]
Sure, the people-question is still a good one, though probably beaten to death in the mentioned thread.[1] One thing discussed was the point that young people are not as likely to be DIY types as their parents, and these skills are usually important to be successful cruisers. [1][5] I had to laugh at that. Sadly, this lack of DIY skill (and interest) rings true for my millennial kids. (Ok, small sample size)
Here are some better people-stats...
In the 1970s, there were 12M people in North America who sailed at least once per year. [3] Now the number is barely 1/3 of that, and unchanged for the last decade in spite of population growing 7%. The number of “core” sailors (8+ sails/yr) is declining each year. It seems that aging baby boomers are turning to power boats and millennials are finding other things to do altogether. [3]
But hold on. This recent assessment of younger people without time for sailing sounds oddly similar to a 25 year old LA Times article from 1992, lamenting the “growing indifference by time-pressed yuppies to the rigorous sport of sailing “. [7] (remember the dreaded “yuppies”?) This trend must not be a recent one, after all. Just replace “yuppie” with “millennial”.

I think the sailboat market downward forces are nuanced, indeed. Articles about the steady sailboat production decline don’t usually mention the fact that those glory decades of sailing late last century leave modern purchasers with a huge number of old (but floating) used boats to choose from.
Whatever the reasons, the downward trend in sailboat manufacturing seems like it is continuing. Another study from 2016 separated the 30’-59’sailboat market (cruiser size) from the much greater <20’ hull numbers for North America. Adding up imports and domestic production totaled less than 500 boats for 2015 vs 1600 boats in 2008. Graph attached. [6]

Perhaps we are now in the Glory Days of USED cruising sailboats.
One wonders, though: Where is the bottom of the sailboat production curve, trending downward for three decades?
A dying breed?

Cruising Sailboats: a Dying Breed? - Cruisers & Sailing Forums

 

[Iliade]

In the UK at least, far more youngsters expect, or are expected, to head off to university than in days of yore. The trouble is that nowadays there are no paid tuition fees, government grants or housing allowances. Hence most leave university saddled with a debt of perhaps £50,000. That, together with starter house prices (in places where it is possible to get a job!) of about twenty times the average graduate starter income, they feel obliged to concentrate on earning money rather than skipping off cruising for a few years.

 

[coopec]

In the UK at least, far more youngsters expect, or are expected, to head off to university than in days of yore. The trouble is that nowadays there are no paid tuition fees, government grants or housing allowances. Hence most leave university saddled with a debt of perhaps £50,000. That, together with starter house prices (in places where it is possible to get a job!) of about twenty times the average graduate starter income, they feel obliged to concentrate on earning money rather than skipping off cruising for a few years.

Good points. We had inflation to help pay off the mortgage and , certainly in Australia, there is no inflation.

As a 4 1/2 year old tiny tot I used to walk one mile (1 1/2km) to school. These days Mum drops the kids off.
We used to play football and cricket but these days young people play on their iPad.

 

[Ningaloo]

Even in the racing fleets the crew are likely to be 50+, quite different when I started in the early 90s.
Outright boat ownership is certainly in decline. More boats are owned by syndicates or bought as an an investment to charter with the odd week (not necessarily on your own boat) here and there.
I bought my first boat when I was 37. I started serious cruising (in my case living aboard 4-5 months a year with no "home" port) age 44. I was one of the youngest members of my first yacht club. Now I guess at 60, I am about average age.
I was intending to continue my current 4-5 months a year cruising but Brexit will make that difficult.
I'm considering my options: Upgrade my 38ft boat to something around 45ft and start crossing oceans, or give up boat ownership and charter in different countries.
But I know I desperately miss not having my own boat.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

They are sailing on their parents boats, at least that's what my 3 are doing .... or they are kite-surfing on boards with foils, windsurfing in surf or engaged in some other adrenaline charged extreme sports that simply didn't exist when the current crop of retirees were teenagers. Sailing a yacht is not the adrenaline rush it used to be, if only because you just need to whip out your mobile phone to know exactly where you are.

The second factor is that building your own boat today is not as cost effective as buying one already made, certainly not as cost effective as it was in the 70s and 80s where the only viable second-hand stock was usually just a pile of rotting timber .... the glut in second-hand boats today means that you can buy a whole, and relatively seaworthy boat, for less than the cost of a new selden mast.

The third factor is the charter market - why buy when you can club together with some mates and charter a 40+ footer for a few weeks somewhere warm? That was also something that wasn't readily available to the current crop of retirees in their youth.

I don't think sailing is declining, there are more marinas and there is more competition for moorings and berths than ever before - there is an ever growing charter market and you just have to look at the Solent on a sunny Sunday, or the number of entrants in the Round the Island race, or the number of ARC participants to realise sailing as a sport or passtime is alive and well.

Times have moved on and people don't sit in sheds, high as kites on solvents, with their arms blotched and itchy from fiberglass, labouring away to save a few bob and go sailing. The sums don't add up any more.

 

[TLouth7]

As a 4 1/2 year old tiny tot I used to walk one mile (1 1/2km) to school. These days Mum drops the kids off.
We used to play football and cricket but these days young people play on their iPad.

That was a deeply lazy and irrelevant comment.

There are plenty of young people racing on yachts, though few as skippers apart from in the smaller classes.

As others have mentioned I think it comes down to cost of entry and the number of other options that are available. I don't think it is because cruising is not seen as exciting; hillwalking is absolutely booming among young people and that has much of the same, slow, appeal. The difference is that you can go hillwalking a few times a year and not feel you have wasted an expensive asset.

 

[Neeves]

When I read the posts on the different forums I get the impression most people posting are "older" people. Where are all the younger sailors?
Maybe the answer is that the "millennials" can't afford a yacht and that is why prices of yachts are falling?

I don't think that the age of people who live on forum necessarily reflects the age of people who are actively sailing.

Jonathan

 

[RupertW]

Well most marinas are still full and boats in them have always been considered to “rarely leave”.
I think the appeal of a keeping and maintaining a 25-30 foot boat kept in the UK and sailed a few miles up the same coast every other weekend is not appealing. But sharing a 45 footer for a eeek with 7 mates and sailing from one turquoise anchorage to the next is hugely popular- we can often hear the fleets of boats full of early twenty somethings long before they arrive.

 

[johnalison]

What seems to be in decline is the practice of buying a small starter boat to mess around in. I was about 31 when I got my first cruiser, a 22' Westerly, though I had sailed for many years. Nowadays, it seems to be commoner to buy a family boat of around 35' when they can afford one, and go from there, usually from a marina. Things are a bit different in the Baltic, where the deep sea merges into shallow or sheltered waters, where small boats are still very popular. I know that there are many forum members with small boats, but I am talking generally.

If you cruise in May-/June, you will get the impression that cruising is an exclusively geriatric pastime. This is a delightfully quiet time whether weather allows, and those of us with months rather than weeks to spare can drift into cruising's hot spots with moorings and anchorages freely available.

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

I think the main trouble is time. My 3 “children” in their 40’s have spouses who work, children to transport to multiple appointments, their own commutes etc.etc.
The last thing they want to do is drive to the coast at the weekend: possibly to sail, but more likely to do boat maintenance.
And Dinghy racing takes up half a day, just like golf: another sport under pressure.
Until, if ever, we get back to an 8-4 or 9-5 economy I can’t see the sport reviving.
The RYA Dinghy courses don’t help either; also too time consuming. They need to develop something like the golf professional model where prospects can dip in to training when they are able rather than commit to a number of weekends or a week long course

 

[lw395]

Some people stay fitter into late middle age and keep sailing dinghies instead of moving up to a cruiser.
Cruiser racing has got stupidly expensive, and isn't drawing mature dinghy racers into bigger boats. Very little racing in true dual-purpose cruisers.

But looking at Fowey etc in the peak of the season, I'm not sure there's any less yachts visiting.

 

[wombat88]

As I see it the problem (whatever it is) is caused by a lack of Hillyards.

If we all had Hillyards in the winter we would be too busy to spend time on the internet grumbling about stuff. In the summer we would be at sea spending ages getting anywhere in a most satisfying and relaxed manner.

 

[Wansworth]

As I see it the problem (whatever it is) is caused by a lack of Hillyards.

If we all had Hillyards in the winter we would be too busy to spend time on the internet grumbling about stuff. In the summer we would be at sea spending ages getting anywhere in a most satisfying and relaxed manner.

Some of the old ones where quite fast,the later 9,12 18 where built down to a cost ,shame the yard and the mud berths went

 

[GHA]

Cruising sailors a dying breed?

Nope, likes of the ARC usually full, anchorages usually have plenty cruisers in them. The boats seem to have gotten a bit bigger over the years though.

 

[dgadee]

"although the data available suggest that activity levels remain below those seen prior to the 2008 financial crisis, the market is nevertheless showing signs of recovery. In parallel to this recovery however, there are some challenges. Amongst those is the estimated increase in average age of European boaters from around 45 to 55 years over the last decade, a trend likely to continue. This is not only due to the general population ageing in Europe. There is also a decline in participation in boating by younger people. The latter is in part due to increasing competition for leisure time from other recreational activities,as well as family and work commitments. Besides these developments other aspects also need attention." EU report on Nautical Tourism, 2017.

It's the average age thing which is the killer - in 10 years the average has gone up by 10. No-one is entering. I owned my first cruising boat at 26, sold it when I had a family but raced for decades on a friend's boat or Flying 15s we owned, and came back to cruising later in life. However, I was always around boats. I don't think that is the case with younger people today.

 

[Aurai]

Liz Rushall has, in partnership with the RYA, put some marketing science behind the issues mentioned/raised and you can soon look her up and watch her presentations. Plus, the RYA is looking at various trends including the ones that go against the ones we do not like.

 

[mobeydick]

Judging by the number of Youtube videos every aspect, nook and cranny of cruising sailing, there are quite a few younger sailors out there. Maybe, though, if others watch these videos, perhaps they don't think they need to go sailing. They have see it all 'virtually'.

MD

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

Liz Rushall has, in partnership with the RYA, put some marketing science behind the issues mentioned/raised and you can soon look her up and watch her presentations. Plus, the RYA is looking at various trends including the ones that go against the ones we do not like.

In that report it says prospective sailors should be able to obtain prompt and effective beginners’ training. At many smaller sailing clubs this cannot happen because the RYA scheme is so beaurocratic and labour intensive that the Clubs only put on one or two courses a year.

 

[dgadee]

In that report it says prospective sailors should be able to obtain prompt and effective beginners’ training. At many smaller sailing clubs this cannot happen because the RYA scheme is so beaurocratic and labour intensive that the Clubs only put on one or two courses a year.

I have helped run and been involved in a kayaking club for a number of years. I notice that fewer people take the sea kayak 'star; qualifications these days - but our club does loads of training outwith the formal system - the latter became very onerous a few years ago. Not sure if people were put off by that or they just take a more relaxed attitude. Younger paddlers prefer the rivers and I think they are more 'star' oriented.

 

[lw395]

In that report it says prospective sailors should be able to obtain prompt and effective beginners’ training. At many smaller sailing clubs this cannot happen because the RYA scheme is so beaurocratic and labour intensive that the Clubs only put on one or two courses a year.

Is it the role of clubs to provide training?
Many clubs are too small to have a cohort of beginners every year.
My dinghy club runs some Saturday morning beginner level training for kids but that's it.
Many clubs put on no courses at all.
Beginners often either learn from their parents, school activity weeks, holidays like Neilsen, or commercial schools.
It often suits people to do a week or a few weekends, rather than doing what's convenient for club volunteers.

If you want prompt training, you need to be prepared to travel and pay for it. Much like many other sports.