Have Sailing Uma lost their way?

[adwuk]

If you have seen their latest video, it looks like they are moving into the yacht design business. The first step is a survey on what people want from a yacht, which you can access from their website. Its a big step to go from a general arrangement (where their survey is oriented) to a detailed design, so I wonder who they are working in partnership with.

 

[Sybarite]

Well there is that?

I saw a program on how much these people were making from their blogs. Top of the list was La Vagabonde with nearly $3M a year which was almost twice as much as number 2, SV Delos.

 

[Sybarite]

If you have seen their latest video, it looks like they are moving into the yacht design business. The first step is a survey on what people want from a yacht, which you can access from their website. Its a big step to go from a general arrangement (where their survey is oriented) to a detailed design, so I wonder who they are working in partnership with.

Dan and Kika are both qualified architects.

 

[adwuk]

Dan and Kika are both qualified architects.

Great background for drawing a GA, agreed.

 

[steveeasy]

Why does anyone sign up to be a patron, and why is it called Paterson?. It seems they're all wittering on and self absorbed, and frankly marginally interesting.

Yeh why on earth do people send payments each month, sometimes large amounts, so those people can spend it on themselves without doing any real work at all. but they do. They go even further with huge gifts. they think they know them, but they dont. What a funny world it is. of course there are good exceptions and indeed people can do as they like.

Steveeasy

 

[Kelpie]

I saw a program on how much these people were making from their blogs. Top of the list was La Vagabonde with nearly $3M a year which was almost twice as much as number 2, SV Delos.

If it's the same video I've seen I would take the figures with a large bucket of salt. There's a lot of assumptions.
I saw a video claiming that Florence are making over $300k a year. Maybe they are, but it doesn't really pass the sniff test. They've not seen any of their friends or family since they left 4+ years ago. Your think if they had that sort of money they would have made a trip home at some point.

 

[JRCO26]

Yeh why on earth do people send payments each month, sometimes large amounts, so those people can spend it on themselves without doing any real work at all. but they do. They go even further with huge gifts. they think they know them, but they dont. What a funny world it is. of course there are good exceptions and indeed people can do as they like.

Steveeasy

I agree and disagree ha ha

I have flicked a token few quid over the years to Dylan KTL, and Kevin from 'How to Sail Oceans'.
I look at it like this: Book authors that write about sailing would find it very tough if the books they write were given away free..

And all the Youtube quality sailing channels are, is a video version of a book - in some cases. In other cases, and this is where I agree with you Steve, is the frankly unbelievable fools that send money to the likes of La Vagabonde and similar "YouBoob" sailing channels -- 'Kardashian' like "sailing"reality tv channels. Dumbfounding anyone would give those type a penny...yet they get sent millions each year.
People are free to do what they want with their money I guess - but it is very, very strange.

 

[Baddox]

Why do people pay for Netflix or for a ticket to a cinema? When I’ve dropped a few pounds towards some of the film makers it’s for a combination of the entertainment provided, knowledge shared and a sense of vicarious living.

 

[steveeasy]

Why do people pay for Netflix or for a ticket to a cinema? When I’ve dropped a few pounds towards some of the film makers it’s for a combination of the entertainment provided, knowledge shared and a sense of vicarious living.

Yes your quite right and good on you. Still we are all different. the couple who renovated a steel sailing boat in Brazil, How utterly crafty they were to live off handouts. Cahoha and the utterly bizarre intro with the couple dreaming of a sailboat, He gets posher by the week. sometimes its little different than going cap in hand door to door. Still Sailing Yaba, they really roll their sleeves up. Perhaps its about earning respect. a work ethic goes a long way. showing my age and yes prejudices. we all do it in some way. I have great respect for those who just want to share thier genuine experiences without click here for this and click there for that.
Steveeasy

 

[newtothis]

I agree and disagree ha ha

I have flicked a token few quid over the years to Dylan KTL, and Kevin from 'How to Sail Oceans'.
I look at it like this: Book authors that write about sailing would find it very tough if the books they write were given away free..

And all the Youtube quality sailing channels are, is a video version of a book - in some cases.

To a point. I see it more like television, where the free viewing of content is paid for by ads. If your sailing writer were getting a skim off the full-page ads the publisher sticks in the book at random intervals (often half-way through a sentence), would you be so keen to pay them for the privilege of reading it?

 

[mjk7uk]

"The Duracell Project" is worth a look more down to earth than some.

 

[[2574]]

The latest boat design survey initiative rather confirms for me that they have lost their way. To condemn the entire boat building industry as only backward looking and not thinking about what a yachtsman/woman wants from a yacht is ludicrous.

 

[Kelpie]

I agree they are overstating the case a bit.
Modern production yachts are not, as they claim, trying to please everybody and failing. They are carefully designed for the charter market and are very very good at fulfilling that brief.

 

[Bru]

Or they could gjust get a job. Scary thought that.
Steveeasy

They've got a job. Making YouTube videos

And to be at all successful at it, it's a full time job too - for example, until his channel got big enough to be able to pay somebody to help with the editing, Leo reckoned on spending 40 to 50 hours a week on editing and uploading the videos (on top of all the hours he was spending, largely alone in the early days, on the boat)

It's the same all across any form of creative endeavour, people (not unnaturally) tend to assume that the 20 minutes, half an hour, hour or whatever they're exposed to is the be all and end all but it never is

 

[jac]

They've got a job. Making YouTube videos

And to be at all successful at it, it's a full time job too - for example, until his channel got big enough to be able to pay somebody to help with the editing, Leo reckoned on spending 40 to 50 hours a week on editing and uploading the videos (on top of all the hours he was spending, largely alone in the early days, on the boat)

It's the same all across any form of creative endeavour, people (not unnaturally) tend to assume that the 20 minutes, half an hour, hour or whatever they're exposed to is the be all and end all but it never is

I think people underestimate the skill and time involved. I am a fan of Sailing Fair Isle (and a Patreon for that matter) and the gulf in quality / production vales between them and some others is astounding. I suspect though that being a professional cameraman /producer/ editor and TV presenter for their entire working lives gives them an edge in that they know what works and have a lot of high end equipment to turn that knowledge into output

 

[Blueboatman]

You have to have content
Relevant interesting content

I suppose the “bum tube” yotties’ over reliance on their women fronting every episode works well enough..
But Uma - say- has pioneered and documented the electric engine learning curve as well as the travel adventures .. I think one of them spends a solid day a week at least . at the chart table /editing suite to produce one episode , come rain shine or storm..
That’s a work ethic.

Able journalists can ( and do) write about anything, but week after week , describing peeling layers off an onion ain’t going to draw people back… and you end up where the sailing magazines got to: it’s April , let’s antifoul ….

lots of people launching into YouTube boat buying channels , but precious little new angle , so all the time the passive watching public are getting satiated and may take their Patreon pay per view to another area of interest..

 

[Wansworth]

So recipe for success…….wife or partner who is massive on home front,boat that is boarderlineseaworthy,homespun philosophy……plus a cat

 

[mattonthesea]

I am interested to see how they fare in their next venture. I took the survey out of interest. I'm not that experienced a researcher but I did notice that the questions quite often seem to be of a positivist attitude. They funnel you down a set of assumptions that Uma have already made. Also, I didn't fit into some of the possible answers, but I had to answer. So the data is skewed into their way of thinking and and there is potential for it to be invalid.

I then wondered about their intentions for the the outcomes of the survey. It's obviously not for the charter market. Are they going to produce a plan for each permutation of the results; and are they going to to produce these permutations for each model of yacht on the market? For the smaller-sized yachts the additional cost of interior design would be too much. And, anyway, these ones are very well designed inside for a couple plus guests. (Thinking of a feeling 32 that I visited). As mentioned earlier, the medium-sized/cost boats are mainly taken up by the charter market; and they are catered for very well in their design.

That leaves the top end range. I find it hard to believe that anyone in that price bracket would decide to buy a boat from the boat builders and then decide to go somewhere else for their interior design. Where, then, is their market?

I wish them luck. I am well aware that just because I don't see see the market doesn't mean that they won't be successful. They are entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs see a gap in the market, or efficiency in the cost and quality equation. Perhaps they've seen the equivalent of identifying that computers didn't have to be typewriter shaped, or cookers an isolated unit. If they have then I look forward to reading about the new Uma designs in the yachting press in the years ahead.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I take the view that as long as the content has some interest for me I will watch but none of the" sailing" videos would entice me to pay for them as they don't have that sort of value for me. As an example I watch a traditional joiner who videos his work and spends as Bru mentions a lot of his spare time editing and uploading it, he sued to do it and still does without expecting any remuneration but he was struggling financially a while back and a large number of those that watched including myself chipped in to help him out and have done so occasionally ever since, his site makes a point of the fact that he does it simply to pass on his knowledge.
Now back to sailing videos, I started watching Uma a short time ago when their sailing was of interest to me I northern waters and dipped into their back catalogue out of interest in their electric drive. However as they departed Iceland and headed to Scotland I lost interest as there was no real content and that by the seems of it has persisted. Another one that I watched for a while was the guy renovating the Warrior 34 or 38 in fact completely rebuilding it but I stopped when it became a channel of see how much whizzy tech I can install in a small yacht and what beautiful cushions my girl friend has made. I do watch Leo but more for the joinery aspect than anything and that will get quite interesting with the internal fit out.

 

[Bru]

You have to have content
Relevant interesting content

Yup. And generating that content is a BIG job, regardless of the medium

Not only have you got to edit the video down, you have to produce the material in the first place which means filming everything, everywhere as far as possible (I do dislike channels that feature a talking head for a lot of the time telling you about what they've done but haven't filmed! It's excusable when filming would have been impossible or inappropriate but otherwise not)

And you've got to source, select and mix down background music, maybe produce graphics etc. etc. etc.

I have, as you might by now surmise, considered upgrading my currently moribund (thanks to Covid) but in the past fairly popular blog into a vlog and I'm far from certain I want to commit the level of time and effort needed. My understanding having spoken to one or two vloggers is that every single minute of uploaded content represents a mimimum of an hours solid work, often a lot more. At, if you want to be sucessful, a minimum of 20 minute vidoes ideally once a week, that's in excess of 20 hours a week, every week. Hmm!

I'm not convinced I can, or want to for that matter, generate that much content week in, week out, that would be at all interesting ... and I'm not the least bit bothered about making money from it if I decided to do it (not that I'd turn money away of course!)

Back in the dim and distant, as a semi-professional folk musician, I used to get quite annoyed with people objecting to paying £60 to £80 quid for a two plus hour gig with two musicians. Comments like "I don't get paid £40 an hour" went down like a lead balloon and were followed by a pointed pointing out that performing on stage for two hours plus involved getting ready for the gig (a good hour plus), travel (variable), loading in and setting up (an hour), striking down and loading out (about half an hour), travel home (variable) and unloading the van so that two hours was anything between six and eight hours.

Then deduct vehicle expenses (try insuring a vehicle for use by professional or semi-professional musicians! Not popular for some strange reason and in our day Admiral were the only mainstream insurer that would insure you, for a price), equipment insurance and replacement (in our case we had about £4k worth of instruments and £3k worth of PA gear if we took everything), the evil necessity of Public Liability Insurance etc. etc. etc.

The bottom line is that at our (all too brief) peak as performers, we were making a very modest "profit" and for many years it was really a self financing hobby, if that

Getting back on point, I do follow vlogs about sailing around the UK especially if the people and the boats concerned are "real". I start to lose interest when they set off into the sunset for the Med or the Crabibean or whatever and I also start to lose interest if they "sell out" and start getting expensive kit on the cheap or for nothing whilst still trying to claim they're sailing on a shoestring. I don't blame them, who wouldn't take advantage if the chance offered? But I do lose interest

And I've zero interest in the mainstream "sun, sand and bikini clad girls" content of the big bucks earners. Again, good luck to them but it doesn't pop my cork at all