Demand for moorings plummeting?

After all, I hear macrame is making a comeback.

I saw today someone on Twitter who has written a Python program that generates embroidery patterns to make QR-codes in needlepoint. The suggestion was that you could hang a framed tapestry of your guest wifi password on the wall for visitors to scan :)

There is another option available in some ports. Dry sailing.

Although not suitable for someone who wants to go off for a sail at short notice (since most yards would want a day or two notice to launch)

Really? My local dry-stack only requires an hour's notice at minimum, though I'm sure they appreciate a little more if possible.

Pete
 
Really? I dare say the demand and the facilities and staff available have a bearing on it.

They say on their website they can "usually guarantee" (which seems a bit of an oxymoron :) ) a launch with an hour's notice. I don't keep my boat there but I do pass through from time to time and the claim seems eminently believable. Three monster forklifts and half a dozen or so staff around whenever I've been there in working hours.

Pete
 
They say on their website they can "usually guarantee" (which seems a bit of an oxymoron :) ) a launch with an hour's notice. I don't keep my boat there but I do pass through from time to time and the claim seems eminently believable. Three monster forklifts and half a dozen or so staff around whenever I've been there in working hours.

Pete

My yard has one tractor, a Parklev and a couple of blokes, and mainly handles sailing yachts up to about 45 feet long. The boss asks for two or the days notice, if possible.
 
The present day Boomers aged 55 to 72 broke mankind's intergenerational covenant which is to strive to make the world a better place for the next generation.

Plummeting participation in British yachting is a minor symptom of the negative consequences of the financial greed of the Boomers, things will get a lot worse. It is a sick joke that the demographic bulge of Boomers represented in this forum cannot face up to the manifest economic damage they caused and instead they blame young people for not being made of the right stuff.
 
Totally agree with you.

In 2018, there are so many other demands on young peoples time...

... You have to be competitive and people expect a quick response and if your not in the game you will be lost in the dawn of time. Expensive but necessary but shows how we continue to live in more complicated times and things are not as simple as they once were.

Well expressed, and you're absolutely right. Although I'm 20 years ahead of you on the decay-curve and am by nature a late-adopter, I do take a keen interest in what my sister's adult children and my partner's adult daughters think and do in their various private lives and careers, and reflect on how their lives are so different to how we were in our 20s and early 30s.

But it doesn't have to be that way. I'm reminded of a phone call I got at work recently, from a mobile number, and the random young guy opened with "I emailed you [via my website's enquiry form] an hour ago and you haven't yet replied!" To which my answer was "Sorry mate, but who are you?"

A typical project of mine takes a month, which equates to 160 hours. My working day is eight hours mental focus and physical exertion, well away from any electronic gadget, broken into four two-hour stints punctuated by tea- and lunch-breaks. Internet stuff and texts and Whatsapp messages from my family, partner or ex-wife are all ignored during working hours, except for a brief check for anything urgent at lunchtime. If the phone rings the chances are 3:1 that its a junk call, so I look at the caller ID before deciding to answer it. If its a real person with something non-phoney to say they can leave a message. If I have a medium or big decision to make, I'll always sleep on it.

---

Re moorings, its fairly quick these days to get a mid-river pile on the Hamble if you're up to 32ft long. Over that, its still a long wait.
 
The present day Boomers aged 55 to 72 broke mankind's intergenerational covenant which is to strive to make the world a better place for the next generation.

Plummeting participation in British yachting is a minor symptom of the negative consequences of the financial greed of the Boomers, things will get a lot worse. It is a sick joke that the demographic bulge of Boomers represented in this forum cannot face up to the manifest economic damage they caused and instead they blame young people for not being made of the right stuff.
Personally I blame the removal of the cane from the backside of most on here below the age of 55 as the root of most ills of our society, rather than those who have achieved and then provided a safe and protected Country for our youth to grow up in, and of course those old enough to vote for the EEC in the first place, now all in their 60's !
 
...rather than those who have achieved and then provided a safe and protected Country for our youth to grow up in, and of course those old enough to vote for the EEC in the first place, now all in their 60's !
Silly me, I forgot that the 60 somethings here personally waded ashore with General Montgomery on Gold & Sword beaches then chased the Nazi's all the way to the Rhine. Now where is my Dads Army boxed dvd set.
 
The present day Boomers aged 55 to 72 broke mankind's intergenerational covenant which is to strive to make the world a better place for the next generation.

Plummeting participation in British yachting is a minor symptom of the negative consequences of the financial greed of the Boomers, things will get a lot worse. It is a sick joke that the demographic bulge of Boomers represented in this forum cannot face up to the manifest economic damage they caused and instead they blame young people for not being made of the right stuff.

I see you're back. 8th incarnation?

One needs to think in more than one dimension about these things. The financial beneficiaries of the boom that followed the re-building of economies after the Second World War had no explicit desire to enrich themselves at the expense of the next generations. They just acted according to circumstances (just as their unfortunate parents who suffered the immediately preceding global conflict acted according to their circumstances); and, by the way, it was probably the most democratic sharing of wealth in any culture in history.

Come back in 25 years...
 
Last edited:
Silly me, I forgot that the 60 somethings here personally waded ashore with General Montgomery on Gold & Sword beaches then chased the Nazi's all the way to the Rhine. Now where is my Dads Army boxed dvd set.
I fully and absolutely appreciate what the older generation did for our freedom, and were then misled by Heath and his cronies as to the new attractions Europe offered. They were lied to, that is very clear.

I would suggest that at very minimum though these would by now be at least 89 to have waded up the D Day beaches.

That said my comments on over 60's were mis-stated, and not clarified sufficiently, and for that I most sincerely apologise - my own Father served that war on our behalf and paid with his own life prematurely not so long afterwards, so believe me I know what was given by his generation for ours.
 
Last edited:
had no explicit desire to enrich themselves at the expense of the next generations. They just acted according to circumstances
This is easy to torpedo...

  1. Destruction of the mutual banking sector in the UK.
  2. Also known as Building Society demutualization.
  3. Also known as a get rich quick scam.
  4. Also known as Northern Rock.
  5. Also known as the trigger for the first run on a British bank in 150 years all played out in realtime on the worlds media.
 
This is easy to torpedo...

  1. Destruction of the mutual banking sector in the UK.
  2. Also known as Building Society demutualization.
  3. Also known as a get rich quick scam.
  4. Also known as Northern Rock.
  5. Also known as the trigger for the first run on a British bank in 150 years all played out in realtime on the worlds media.


With the first three, you have a point.

But, you must ask yourself-and answer truthfully-what you would have done when a big bank bid for a mutual in which you had money, and were therefore likely to be on a big earner.

As most in your position would have voted for the deal, it would have happened anyway, even if you had held the moral high ground and said no.

Northern Rock-totally different kettle of fish. Poor lending, financial meltdown globally, assets-morgaged houses-dropped significantly in value due to the reccession, all leading up to the drama we saw.

But little to do with your first three examples.

IMHO, of course...................
 
Totally agree with you.

In 2018, there are so many other demands on young peoples time. Convenience is valued and expected. There is a world of difference between dinghy sailing and yachting due to the time, money and other commitments involved. Look at the cost and time differential between keeping a dinghy on a lake and keeping a yacht on the south coast that you sail back and forth to France a few times throughout the summer. I can see why the transition numbers are not great. Different things.

I was a climber before I was a sailor and there are huge numbers of people who now go to indoor climbing walls. Very few climb outside.

People in their 20's will need to try their hand at getting on the housing market.

The smart phone is now a necessary item in 21st century Britain for people of working age. It is instant access to digital knowledge and communication, a sat-nav, a notebook, a yellow pages, ability to answer your work e-mails after working hours , a Chart Plotter, a mobile hotspot so you can get wifi in your flat! etc. I no longer pay for a house phone, but pay for 3 iPhones, me, my wife and mother (for fear of her getting lost in the dust). The efficiency in time saved compared to 20 years ago pays for itself. You have to be competitive and people expect a quick response and if your not in the game you will be lost in the dawn of time. Expensive but necessary but shows how we continue to live in more complicated times and things are not as simple as they once were.

In your first paragraph it is a question of cost. If you can afford it then leaving the boat on a mooring or pontoon & using it to go to France or somewhere every ,say, 4 weeks for 3-4 days must be infinitely better than drifting about on a lake. That will become boring after a while.
As for Smart phones - I do not see what relevance that has to do with sailing at all, other than to make access much easier & hence the 3 day trip more possible. Do not tell me that there is any efficiency saving in the time people spend staring at them hour after hour, looking at silly selfies or pointless emails. Perhaps it leads to the dumbed down life that people follow, as shown in your comment about those who no longer aspire to climbing mountains but just climb walls indoors.
 
Last edited:
Silly me, I forgot that the 60 somethings here personally waded ashore with General Montgomery on Gold & Sword beaches then chased the Nazi's all the way to the Rhine. Now where is my Dads Army boxed dvd set.

Was it really necessary to write and post this? It seems irrelevant to the thread and, personally, I find it distasteful and quite rude.
 
Silly me, I forgot that the 60 somethings here personally waded ashore with General Montgomery on Gold & Sword beaches then chased the Nazi's all the way to the Rhine. Now where is my Dads Army boxed dvd set.

Where we 60 somethings obviously failed was in educating young jonjo8 in English grammar. Remove the apostrophe from "Nazi's" and insert one instead in "Dads". It does make a difference to the meaning.
 
With the first three, you have a point.

But, you must ask yourself-and answer truthfully-what you would have done when a big bank bid for a mutual in which you had money, and were therefore likely to be on a big earner.

As most in your position would have voted for the deal, it would have happened anyway, even if you had held the moral high ground and said no.

Northern Rock-totally different kettle of fish. Poor lending, financial meltdown globally, assets-morgaged houses-dropped significantly in value due to the reccession, all leading up to the drama we saw.

But little to do with your first three examples.

IMHO, of course...................

Northern Rock had a political dimension too. A clearly unsustainable business model was encouraged by a Nu Labour Government who's agenda was to butter up the population with an ever booming housing market. It was clear to most people with a basic understanding of economics that it was bound to fail. Unbelievable really. I wonder what Adam Applegarth is doing these days. There were others like the Halifax.

Regarding the decline in sailing, there's no doubt about it, socio-economic pressures. I have crew who struggle to find two ot three hours at weekend. On offshore races they're stepping off the boat in Ireland or the Isle of Man and catching a ferry or plane back.
 
Last edited:
We started using a marina this year instead of trailer sailing for a few reasons, and it has been well worth the expense for the convenience. Karen and I are lucky in so far was we can juggle work days to make best use of the tide and weather. We decided against a cheaper swinging mooring because of the hassle of having to either keep a tender locked up somewhere, or bring it with us each time.
We did consider an inflatable canoe as a tender, but it seemed an equilivant amount of hassle to a grp tub.
Our two oldest 20 something daughters work all the hours, one of them is a manager at a large department store, and at 24 she is a bit of an exception for her generation having already bought her first house. (with no help from us) She works pretty much 7 days a week, then takes lieu days and holiday as mini breaks. She is interested in sailing, but simply does not have time to do anything about it. I cannot see that changing much for her for the next 20 years!
It seems even the old adage of if you have the time, you don't have the money, and vice versa, is also out of the window now. The other thing is the trailer licence bug bear for youngsters, so trailer sailing must also be taking a hit from that.
 
Top