Reality of family boat ownership and decline of boating

[rwoofer]

I've been a sailor since childhood and owned sailing boats up to 44 foot and even a motor boat. With the start of a family I downsized to my current 20 footer to keep sailing, principally due to its ease of maintenance as I have little ability to sneak off at weekends to work on the boat. It also more fun to sail than bigger boats.

I suspect that I started off with a fairly typical family situation of a few trips with friends and a few family trips a year. To make that work means convenient moorings, which means quite an expense - a year in a marina is over a third of the cost of the boat. As the kids (3 girls) get older the number of trips is reducing due to them getting interested in other things. The balance of boat enjoyment to cost and hassle is starting too look pretty poor. One solution is to moor somewhere cheaper than Gosport, so been looking at places like Poole or Medway or even the East Coast. The problem is that where it is cheaper it is also far less convenient, which makes the chances of getting the family out even slimmer. The end result is that I'm now considering getting out of boating altogether.

I think I'm not alone in finding the whole enjoyment/cost/hassle factor of boating just not working any more. I certainly know of some others that have bailed out already. On top of that the baby boomers will be starting to move out of boating as well. This isn't a good outlook for the pastime, but what really surprises me is the lack of industry interest in making sailing attractive and workable for the modern family. Is sailing doomed to decline?

 

[JumbleDuck]

This isn't a good outlook for the pastime, but what really surprises me is the lack of industry interest in making sailing attractive and workable for the modern family. Is sailing doomed to decline?

The charter side of the industry works very hard indeed to make sailing attractive and workable for modern families. I agree that sailing in British waters may be in decline.

 

[rwoofer]

I've chartered in the Med in the past, but I've never found it workable in the UK because of the unreliability of the weather. If you wait for a weather window, then everything is already booked.

 

[Stemar]

There are cheaper places than Gosport to park a small boat. A detached pontoon at Wicor Marine, Gosport Boat Yard for moorings with a water taxi so you don't have to faff around with a tender, Or a walk-on pontoon at Fareham, though you may need to be able to take the ground. I have a club mooring at Hardway and the mud's soft enough there that a fin keel would just sink in and float on the mud, so anyone's drying moorings might suit.

 

[rwoofer]

I used to keep the boat at Hardway before moving to Gosport and found the tidal limitation too restrictive. That is the problem with families, you need to work around commitments. Wicor and GBY both seem expensive for what you get, with there own different restrictions ruling them out.

I kind of know the arrangement I have is already the best I can get, which is why I've kept it for the last 5 years. It's just the best option is no longer looking viable. To be honest I'm surprised no-one in industry has been looking at how they might start reducing prices. We know from other countries eg. France that you can have convenience and lower costs. I can only guess that there are still sufficient profits that utilisation is not yet the biggest concern.

 

[Spyro]

I sold my boat in August and had fully intended to get another but if I'm honest I'm not missing the financial burden and stresses of owning and maintaining a boat. Marina fees alone of £3500 a year was getting a bit much to justify. Yes I know a mooring is an option but that's just more hassle and stress. I'm a bit in limbo at the moment and as it's winter in no rush to make a decision. My wife may be getting her wish of owning a motorhome. It's one of the options.

 

[oldharry]

I used to keep the boat at Hardway before moving to Gosport and found the tidal limitation too restrictive. That is the problem with families, you need to work around commitments. Wicor and GBY both seem expensive for what you get, with there own different restrictions ruling them out.

I kind of know the arrangement I have is already the best I can get, which is why I've kept it for the last 5 years. It's just the best option is no longer looking viable. To be honest I'm surprised no-one in industry has been looking at how they might start reducing prices. We know from other countries eg. France that you can have convenience and lower costs. I can only guess that there are still sufficient profits that utilisation is not yet the biggest concern.

I think that about sums it up: like any hobby/sport, unless you are working at building up a racing record, life and family means that it has to work in with other commitments. Tidal restriction and rising costs for a growing number of people make it all increasingly difficult to justify the investment in time money and effort of keeping and maintaining a boat. I understand exactly where Rwoofer is coming from. The best compromise of cost v/s accessibility is becoming less and less viable. As I get older I would dearly love a Marina berth, but the cost compared to my £250 a year S Coast swinging mooring, with its limited tidal access and the hassle of getting the dinghy out is simply not justified against the amount of time I spend aboard. The amount I use the boat is further compromised by poor accessibility, but the amount we would use the boat even in a Marina berth simply does not justify the tenfold or more additional cost.

Chartering is all very well, but I too enjoy having a small (24ft) boat I can go and potter about in on a fine summer afternoon. But not if the cost runs into several £1,000s a year.

 

[Bobc]

As our girls got older and had their own circle of friends and their own activities to do, we found the same. So we sold the boat and I went back to dinghy sailing until they were old enough that we could go sailing without them.

 

[wombat88]

'Cash rich time poor' apparently. I have given up with bigger boats and marinas etc and returned to dinghy sailing. A couple of hours in a dinghy cruising round the harbour or a little further afield perhaps seems to fit the bill.

 

[johnalison]

There are many things that have changed with regard to sailing over the 45ys I have been cruising. You can now get a far bigger and better fitted out boat for the same equivaent cost, and this, with better equipment makes offshore cruising easier and more comfortable than it ever was.

On the other hand, our waters are less peaceful than they were, and it often involves hassle to find a berth for the night in a marina or anchorage.

Now for the critical bit. Many people will give up almost everything to be able to go sailing, and put up with great expense, to them, discomfort and inconvenience for the rewards of going to sea (or canal). When we started, I had to drive us with two fractious children up to two hours or more for the chance to sail about two weekends/three. We tucked ourselves into tiny boats with no heating or facilities, later using a swinging mooring with a 10-min outboard trip each time. We still thought it worthwhile, fun, and with benefits to all of us. I don't see boating as an entertainment package but a challenge and a source of disorder in an otherwise regulated life. Many people have come into sailing in recent years because it can be pretty easy, with comfortable and simple boats, handy harbours, reliable forecasts and controllable costs (sort of). If some find that moving outside their comfort zone makes yachting unappealing, that is inevitable.

 

[Charlie Boy]

A major factor for young people at the moment is high housing costs. Running a boat with it’s initial outlay and then ongoing annual costs is an expense that many can’t commit to. Combined with kids wanting to stay indoors on their computers, wives who want to do something dry and risk free etc etc. and the whole thing goes into decline.
Even my kids, who I suspect would love to take over our boat when the time comes, don’t really have the time or location to learn about what’s needed, let alone pay for the upkeep.

 

[newtothis]

Okay, so sailing is in decline, but you can't find an anchorage/berth for love or money and marina costs are endlessly rising?
Something doesn't add up. If there was no demand for marinas, then the prices would go down. There don't appear to be many signs of that, so it follows that boating is not in decline.

 

[V1701]

This year I bought a 1969 Bowman 26 & "sailed" her from Cardigan Bay to Brighton. In the first two weeks I had off work in June two of us got her to Falmouth. We had four nights at Milford Haven marina waiting for a weather window to cross the Bristol Channel and left her in Falmouth for three weeks. The weather was pretty crap, we had full oilies, hats & gloves on all the way. In July I did a four leg single-handed trip from Falmouth back to Brighton, first night anchored in Start Bay (SW corner of Lyme Bay) which was lovely & totally deserted. Day two anchored opposite Portland Harbour with a few large ships, no other small boats. Day three Gosport Premier marina & day four last leg to Brighton.

I'm not complaining (well a bit ) but over the whole trip I managed to sail for less than 10 hours, used most of my years annual leave and am paying more than half what I paid for the boat for an annual berth in I suppose a mid-priced south coast marina. So it's no wonder that such propositions are not very attractive to most people, downright impossible for anyone with kids to even contemplate. Frankly it was easier, much better weather, I got more sailing in and the overall costs were cheaper when I had a boat in the Aegean (on a mooring with a lift out every other year). The weather in the UK to be fair has been particularly bad this year especially when compared to last year and it hasn't helped one bit. As with many things it's trying to balance the time/money equation, I'm hoping to have a "gap year" in 2021 when I'll be 55 which is why I got the Bowman 26 & she'll probably end up being left somewhere in the Algarve or Spain when I come back to work...

 

[Teko]

I keep my 40yr old 27fter on a walk ashore pontoon at Fareham that drys to mud.
I'm 30 with 2 boys of 4 and 7. The wife, kids, dog and myself tend to only sail when the weathers fair and tide works. I pay around 2k a year for the boat storage and each year think I didn't sail as much as I could of liked think I had 20 days sailing on my boat this year. Work, endless kids birthday party invites and poor weather keep us off the boat. As the boys get older I'm sure football teams will take over Saturday mornings. I enjoy sailing and tinkering with the boat but in honesty it demands more money then I can really afford

 

[rwoofer]

Dinghy sailing on my local reservoir is what I'm moving too. None of the adventure or different experiences. As "newtothis" points out prices are going up contradicting my observation (and the RYA's) that participation is going down. Are marinas just holding on to their old business model in the hope that the good days of the noughties will return?

 

[capnsensible]

Could it be that people are just getting T̶o̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶f̶t̶ fed up with UK weather?

From what I've seen of marinas around Southern Europe, most seem quite full. Also online courses are for sure extremely popular.... I got insider knowledge on this! So Mebbe people are just looking for warmer and more settled weather?

 

[Wansworth]

Back in the 1960 most yachting was in dighyies with cruising boats swinging on moorings then came glass fiber and boats entered into the consumer product era and with the help of the yachting mags yachting became popular and was attainable for many in humble Siluettes and hurleys.With kitsand bare hulls it was possible to get a bigger boat over a few years grafting.Over the years boats have become bigger as wealth increased.Then came the crash of 2008 .Those with still a good income just sailed on but a significant part where getting older and finding running a boat expensive and so the decline as its now an expensive pastime even when smallish boats are quite cheap,although very old.Yachting is now a very consumer led pastime with ever more environmental restrictions making it less attractive to modern generations who don’t have a heritage of cold wet unheated cramped sailing boats

 

[DownWest]

Waiting lists for the local marinas are quoted as being long, but two people I know have got calls within a week that the waiting time of 2/3 yrs has magicly gone down to nothing. Boats were 27 ft and 21 ft. The yearly fees are 2,400 and 1200 respectivly (Minimes, La Rochelle) But much less than that (1/2?) In Rochefort with a tidal gate.
Personally, I trail/sail, with a choice of spots along the coast. So zero mooring costs. Currently a Faering, but the next one is a 17ft6in mini cruiser that I am taking pains to sort out so rigging and launching is under 20 min.
Since the costs are very low, I will keep going until physicly unable. Sailed since I was very young (4 with father) and a veriaty of boats since then.
Bit different here from UK, if I fancied a bigger boat, I could use a drying spot up a creek not far away. Prob usable for half the tidal range, but free.

But the rest of the arguments are true. The world has changed and young people make different choices, as they have many more than when most of us were younger. Not terribly logical to spend years building a boat, when one can buy a 'runner' for a fraction of the price. Or not bother at all and rent one in an exotic location, without any ongoing costs or risks.

 

[jordanbasset]

In the Ionian the marinas are full but most of them are charter yachts. Many people have less time and money and I suspect more are chartering for a week or two in the sun, rather than have the expense and time commitment of owning their own boat.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

On the East Coast there seems to be less and less boats on swinging moorings.

I think some move to marina berths which may explain the waiting lists but some just leave sailing.

If the children have gone, the mortgaged paid up and the pension not too bad marinas start to look more appealing. You then need the health but a bloke has to have interests and social contact otherwise it's game over.