Declining numbers of Sailors

[Babylon]

I wonder if other EU countries follow this trend.

I would say that the Dutch cruising sailors are much younger than the UK equivalent .

That accords with my own observations - and considerably friendlier!

On the question of kids and young adults just sitting in darkened rooms overdosing on screens, that's not what I see around here. Cubs and Scouts have waiting-lists, the roads are littered with lycra-louts (ok, mostly middle-aged men), local football and rugby clubs are major hives of activity on Sunday mornings, etc.

Declining' number of (younger) sailors? My first flat in the late 80s was £92k (in central London!), my educational costs were free (two degrees), and people kept throwing jobs at me. I think a large part of the answer can be found in the fact that younger adults face the opposite nowadays: ludicrously high property costs, massive debt on leaving higher-education and a chronic sense of temporariness about their careers - if they can lever themselves out of internship-slavery and get a proper job in the first place!

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Saying "I am too old for that," quickly becomes a self fulfilling prophecy .

Too right shipmate !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Some also have difficulty coping with the freedom of sailing. No double yellow lines etc.

Land based disciplines often don't transfer well. Plus, perhaps there are also too many decisions to be made.

I found this when I first started cruising and was a bit confused but quickly came to love it.

 

[jimbaerselman]

Relevant to this thread is this post about Sailing membership clubs and associations:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?488421-Are-you-a-member-of-a-Sailing-Club-and-why&p=6217257#post6217257

Apologies if that material was already covered in this topic. Reading through 25 pages to check was a bit too much of a burden!

 

[mjcoon]

Some also have difficulty coping with the freedom of sailing. No double yellow lines etc.

Don't the "No mooring" signs have yellow lines? (Or doubled black ones!)

Mike.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Don't the "No mooring" signs have yellow lines? (Or doubled black ones!)

Mike.

I think you're getting confused with those inflatable double yellows often seen in the Solent.

 

[roblpm]

That accords with my own observations - and considerably friendlier!

On the question of kids and young adults just sitting in darkened rooms overdosing on screens, that's not what I see around here. Cubs and Scouts have waiting-lists, the roads are littered with lycra-louts (ok, mostly middle-aged men), local football and rugby clubs are major hives of activity on Sunday mornings, etc.

Declining' number of (younger) sailors? My first flat in the late 80s was £92k (in central London!), my educational costs were free (two degrees), and people kept throwing jobs at me. I think a large part of the answer can be found in the fact that younger adults face the opposite nowadays: ludicrously high property costs, massive debt on leaving higher-education and a chronic sense of temporariness about their careers - if they can lever themselves out of internship-slavery and get a proper job in the first place!

Dont want to hijack the thread but most people on here seem to think that if the kids didn't go on any foreign holidays and got rid of their iPhones that they could easily afford a house, university education and a private pension. Just slacking......

 

[Babylon]

Dont want to hijack the thread but most people on here seem to think that if the kids didn't go on any foreign holidays and got rid of their iPhones that they could easily afford a house, university education and a private pension. Just slacking......

The same folk then who most young people find opinionated, uninspiring, ill-informed and self-satisfied. Perhaps this image-problem is also a factor in the 'decline' of sailing in the UK?

A random selection of friendly, interesting people I've met and not forgotten over the last few years of cruising in the Channel: a hilarious crew of tough old men (and one young woman) in St PP who invited me aboard their heavy old racing yacht for a snifter the night before they left back for the Humber, an elderly French single-hander in Newton Ferrers, a lovely open-minded English couple in their late 40s I met in the CIs and become friends with, a friendly young-ish Belgian father in an aluminium yacht waiting for the tide, a young Dutch couple anchored in Newtown Creek before heading west, a young-ish Dutchman in Lymington waiting for his pregnant wife to fly over, etc.

Then there's the 10,000 miserable dull, flabby English sods in their big white yacht cockpits or big white motorboats hiding behind their copies of the Daily Mail, darkening the doorways to pubs, stinking out the dank facilities ashore, fuking up your shore-lines - not to mention the competitive older men in dinghy clubs with sacks of fried potatoes on their shoulders.

If I were in my 20s or 30s now, and had enough money and free time to justify yacht cruising, I'd find little to attract me to it.

 

[RupertW]

The same folk then who most young people find opinionated, uninspiring, ill-informed and self-satisfied. Perhaps this image-problem is also a factor in the 'decline' of sailing in the UK?

A random selection of friendly, interesting people I've met and not forgotten over the last few years of cruising in the Channel: a hilarious crew of tough old men (and one young woman) in St PP who invited me aboard their heavy old racing yacht for a snifter the night before they left back for the Humber, an elderly French single-hander in Newton Ferrers, a lovely open-minded English couple in their late 40s I met in the CIs and become friends with, a friendly young-ish Belgian father in an aluminium yacht waiting for the tide, a young Dutch couple anchored in Newtown Creek before heading west, a young-ish Dutchman in Lymington waiting for his pregnant wife to fly over, etc.

Then there's the 10,000 miserable dull, flabby English sods in their big white yacht cockpits or big white motorboats hiding behind their copies of the Daily Mail, darkening the doorways to pubs, stinking out the dank facilities ashore, fuking up your shore-lines - not to mention the competitive older men in dinghy clubs with sacks of fried potatoes on their shoulders.

If I were in my 20s or 30s now, and had enough money and free time to justify yacht cruising, I'd find little to attract me to it.

Good post although I don't ge the big white cockpit jibe as most affordable boats and comfortable boats are white and a bit bland.

I see huge numbers of young people sailing and cruising. - outnumbering us oldies - but they are chartering a cheap flight away from the UK. Once you have chartered its hard to imagine getting a decent experience in the U.K. Your generational image of sailing is a 10 guys and girls leaping into turquoise water with music pounding, then hoisting a super bright spinnaker and racing a dozen other boats to a big all night beach party. Our generational image is being Jack Hawkins in duffle coat pounding through the North Atlantic then having a pint of mild in a snug, so we learnt to love waterproofs, rain, and pubs with fires.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I see huge numbers of young people sailing and cruising. - outnumbering us oldies - but they are chartering a cheap flight away from the UK. Once you have chartered its hard to imagine getting a decent experience in the U.K. Your generational image of sailing is a 10 guys and girls leaping into turquoise water with music pounding, then hoisting a super bright spinnaker and racing a dozen other boats to a big all night beach party. Our generational image is being Jack Hawkins in duffle coat pounding through the North Atlantic then having a pint of mild in a snug, so we learnt to love waterproofs, rain, and pubs with fires.

I couldn't agree more, and indeed have much the same myself. Complaining that young people don't go sailing in the UK is like complaining that they don't see Rothesay, Cleethorpes or Weston-super-Mare as thrilling holiday destinations. And that's before you consider the grumpy obnoxiousness of many of the older (ie typical) British sailors, so well described by Babylon.

 

[Babylon]

Having already at a stroke alienated myself from at least 51.89% of the forum (draw no inferences there), I'd add that there's equally little to attract young people to cruising these shores - crowded, expensive marinas and town-quays, the same multiple-retailers everywhere, expensive food (not always that good), obese people in run-down pedestrianised centres (getting fatter because they've been given mobility scooters by the council and can no longer walk), fantastically-pissed idiots after dark (and frequently before that), etc.

We can say what we like about the continentals, but they're a damned sight more stylish, authentic and friendly - and have a greater proportion of families and youngsters sailing that we do.

 

[Seajet]

Babylon,

while there are young British people taking up cruiser sailing their numbers are admittedly lower nowadays, and much of what you describe is sadly true - and the French are much better sailors than the average Brit, much less slapping on the engine at the slightest headwind, much more of a national sport with sailing on TV and a very go-for-it attitude.

Also much better behaved but that's a comment on society rather than sailing.

In 1982 ( I remember that as the Falklands War was on ) we sailed to Fecamp, visiting the very welcoming sailing club; unfortunately it coincided with an annual cruise / race from a southern English mobo / yacht club.

The Brits were drunk as skunks and acting in a very obnoxious, boorish way; we were embarassed to be British and left.

Then my chum and I walked around the town, a group of youngsters were gathered chatting around a fountain, one was showing off his juggling skills; a young girl spotted us and stood in front smiling, " Vive les Anglais ! "

She was being genuine not ironic, we felt about two inches tall.

I've always said the British know how to fight, the French know how to live.

 

[Blue Sunray]

The same folk then who most young people find opinionated, uninspiring, ill-informed and self-satisfied. Perhaps this image-problem is also a factor in the 'decline' of sailing in the UK?

A random selection of friendly, interesting people I've met and not forgotten over the last few years of cruising in the Channel: a hilarious crew of tough old men (and one young woman) in St PP who invited me aboard their heavy old racing yacht for a snifter the night before they left back for the Humber, an elderly French single-hander in Newton Ferrers, a lovely open-minded English couple in their late 40s I met in the CIs and become friends with, a friendly young-ish Belgian father in an aluminium yacht waiting for the tide, a young Dutch couple anchored in Newtown Creek before heading west, a young-ish Dutchman in Lymington waiting for his pregnant wife to fly over, etc.

Then there's the 10,000 miserable dull, flabby English and Welsh sods in their big white yacht cockpits or big white motorboats hiding behind their copies of the Daily Mail, darkening the doorways to pubs, stinking out the dank facilities ashore, fuking up your shore-lines - not to mention the competitive older men in dinghy clubs with sacks of fried potatoes on their shoulders.

If I were in my 20s or 30s now, and had enough money and free time to justify yacht cruising, I'd find little to attract me to it.

Minor correction needed I'm afraid.

 

[st599]

The original post mentions the Olympic successes getting people involved - well from the last Olympics we are going to become a nation of cyclists because there was no meaningful coverage of the sailing - just an ex winner bobbing about on the water before or after a race. There was no coverage of the actual racing with discussion upon tactics etc etc. The BBC however managed to waste hours in a velodrome between races talking about what colour the riders hair is going to be!!

The BBC are given the feeds, they don't produce them.

 

[Seajet]

I'm sure they do choose though; sailing does not generally appeal to women as it's roughing it, not glamorous, and the current oh so PC females who run the BBC have never heard of Claire Francis, Naomi James or probably even Ellen Macarthur, but a few minutes of lycra clad bums going in moronic predictable easy to explain and film circles is a doddle, box ticked.