What is the yacht sales market doing?

[langstonelayabout]

Have also had the experience of a professionally serviced engine packing up just after launch as air was getting in as a hose wasn’t tightened!

It's a conspiracy. I had exactly the same with the new Beta installed in my Catalina 270 a few years ago. Lovely engine that had been professionally installed in a shoddy manner.

By one of the marine professionals that the MCA wants us to trust and pay to do all of our boat maintenance and renewal to. (see the other thread on this subject)

 

[JumbleDuck]

People that want to sail every week?

Maybe, but that's generally not yacht territory. The tradition of "the summer cruise" goes back at least a hundred years in sailing.

 

[JumbleDuck]

It's a conspiracy. I had exactly the same with the new Beta installed in my Catalina 270 a few years ago. Lovely engine that had been professionally installed in a shoddy manner.

Lucky old you. My two year old Nanni is currently undergoing repair after it's fourth (I think - I am losing count) failure since I bought the accursed thing.

Don't. Ever. Buy. Nanni.

 

[maby]

Maybe, but that's generally not yacht territory. The tradition of "the summer cruise" goes back at least a hundred years in sailing.

Possibly, but even if you don't want to sail in the depths of the winter, having to rely on a chartered boat in the Med does restrict most people to two or three weeks of sailing per year. That certainly would not be enough for us, for example - we need our own boat which can be reached within a couple of hours and at no more expense than a tank of petrol.

 

[DoubleEnder]

Possibly, but even if you don't want to sail in the depths of the winter, having to rely on a chartered boat in the Med does restrict most people to two or three weeks of sailing per year. That certainly would not be enough for us, for example - we need our own boat which can be reached within a couple of hours and at no more expense than a tank of petrol.

I’m with you Maby. But I think we are a shrinking group.

 

[SiteSurfer]

I'm very lucky to have a serviced mid river pontoon berth - so the benefits outweigh the con's, and as a result we can afford to sail a lot more than if it was in a marina and having to work more to pay for it. On the way out through Portsmouth Harbour we pass both walk ashore pontoons which have recently been converted away from mid river (Wicor) and multiple multiple moorings which both have boats on that I never see move.

I'm not convinced that the issue is so much wealth or age - but a simple lack of time these days. I'd suggest that most folks who can afford a yacht (at an age less than retirement) are probably going to have less time to enjoy it, and hence want something shiny when they can - buy a new car for the reduction in maintenance principle - and ignore the growing market of boats that possibly want a bit of work.

 

[lw395]

Maybe, but that's generally not yacht territory. The tradition of "the summer cruise" goes back at least a hundred years in sailing.

As does the tradition of racing.
When I bought my first yacht, there was far more interest in low budget local racing.
Now people in their 30s do not seem to be drawn to owning an old cruiser-racer and racing it.
If you race a boat Spring and Autumn, then cruise it in the Summer, it's easier to get value out of owning your own boat.

But the racing that is reasonably well supported tends to look very expensive these days.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Possibly, but even if you don't want to sail in the depths of the winter, having to rely on a chartered boat in the Med does restrict most people to two or three weeks of sailing per year. That certainly would not be enough for us, for example - we need our own boat which can be reached within a couple of hours and at no more expense than a tank of petrol.

And for you, then, owning a boat is clearly sensible, but I don't think you are, or would ever have been, typical.

 

[JumbleDuck]

As does the tradition of racing./QUOTE]

Good point. I had forgotten the racers.

 

[maby]

And for you, then, owning a boat is clearly sensible, but I don't think you are, or would ever have been, typical.

There are plenty of people in our marina who visit the boat most weekends - at least during the warmer weather.

 

[NotBirdseye]

I think sailing is quietly dying. Slowly the numbers of unused mooring buoys are increasing.

It's silently dying because clubs won't get with the times and use things like 'email' and most clubs seemed to have turned into special cliques, "Well if don't already know you...we're not really interested." Is the general impression I'm being left with.

Then there's the lack of access. It's either the RYA Residential highway or the...you're staying at home way. I for one don't have time to do a residential course (about two days to begin with most places I've looked at even though RYA says you can do it over many days) and often stupidly expensive. The only guy I know who teaches at an affordable price is booked outta the wazzoo at the moment.

Then the problem, is unless you have the time to do the RYA residential course, you're not going to be able to rent a boat (most Chartering places seem to demand at least that much). Buying a boat to take you and your family costs about another mortgage so unless you're basically fifty and have already saved up thousands of pounds...

Oh, want to start up something local to try and get people together? Guess what the RYA's position is? "Oh we know we're really weak here...but... no we're not interested in helping you unless you're already a club."

I'm stuck until at least October before I can continue the lessons it seems... (unless I want to pay £400 for about an hours worth of sailing). *shrugs*. I suppose it could be worse, but honestly, I can see why it's dying. It's just affordable and inaccessible for the vast majority.

 

[lw395]

... I can see why it's dying. It's just affordable and inaccessible for the vast majority.

Well 40 years ago, families would have spent some serious number of days wages just to sail a Mirror around the bay.
Nothing is cheap nowadays, but you could buy a dinghy and base it at a club for less than a lot of people spend going to the gym or playing squash etc.
I hear a lot of people saying sailing is expensive, most of them seem to spend more on cars than I do on cars and boats combined.

 

[maby]

...

I hear a lot of people saying sailing is expensive, most of them seem to spend more on cars than I do on cars and boats combined.

I think sailing is perceived as expensive for much the same reason as many other things are perceived as expensive these days - people are not willing to come in at the bargain basement end and work their way up. My first car was an old banger that cost a few tens of pounds - and it was many years before I could afford anything much less than ten years old. When my wife and I bought our first house we had absolutely nothing - no furniture, no fridge, no washing machine.... we spent the first couple of months there sleeping on a second-hand mattress on the floor and cooking on a single ring camping gas stove. Our first boat was thirty five years old and cost £250 on eBay... These days, an entry level sailing boat is considered to be at least 30 foot with three cabins, a luxury galley and fully equipped shower. Unsurprisingly, anything filling the bill will be a significant number of tens of thousands of pounds.

 

[Wansworth]

What’s happened between the early 1970s to now that changed,now when a little 23 footer are virtually given away and stuff abounds on eBay etc it would have been paradise in 1970 ,probably its really since we where young the world has moved on and become more sophisticated and not so content with simple pleasures and activities,why is for sociologists to answer.

 

[NotBirdseye]

Yeah, you see, I got bit quite hard when I went bargain basement hunting for cars. I learned a valuable lesson. Don't buy privately, buy from someone who has got something to lose. As for house buying, I wish I wish I could buy a dingy flat in the back end of wales with nothing in it. Unfortunately, mortgage provider says no, thus I'm stuck renting (albeit a larger house at a cheaper price than the mortgage company was prepared to offer).

I really wouldn't mind if the boat was sixty years old, provided it had a bed, toilet area and would float for more than a few days at a time (being having to be hoisted out to be drained). I'd still need somewhere to moor it though and that's much harder that it seems but I have 'issues' that restrict the locations (I care not for amenities).

Clearly I'm learning a valuable lesson here. Sailing is clearly not for people like me. (But I'm being stubborn and insisting anyway).

Edit:

Wansworth, some of us want to do more with boats for longer periods of time .

 

[Seajet]

This thread is totally misleading, bogus.

I know over a hundred cruiser owners at my club for a start, in Chichester and Langstone harbours, with good boats who are all keen to work on their boats themselves and help chums around - we are an all volunteer club inc working on the half tide moorings ( some have deep water or marina berths in summer ), but I'd suggest most except me are hardly scrabbling peasants, members include specialists for Rolls Royce and a fair few airline pilots.

We have new young cruiser members, usually with young families from various professional backgrounds for whom help from engines to sailing is always forthcoming if they need it.

This talk of ' everyone is giving up and chartering 'is just from a biased few, proper boat ownership is alive, well and doing better than for the last couple of decades.

 

[JumbleDuck]

This talk of ' everyone is giving up and chartering 'is just from a biased few, proper boat ownership is alive, well and doing better than for the last couple of decades.

It could be that your club is successfully attracting people from a dwindling pool of do-it-yourself yacht owner. I was in a gliding club which doubled its membership (gliding is booming!) over a five-year period where participation over the whole of the UK fell by 20% (gliding is dying!).

 

[Kukri]

I think there’s a waiting list at Pin Mill

Yes, there is, but that is because it’s a specially lovely spot and because of Gus and Sarah at Kings. Woolverstone have vacant buoys round the corner...

 

[Oletimer]

Our boat yard doesn't appear to be 'dying'. In fact, I'd say it was the exact opposite. It's a friendly helpful atmosphere that's a pleasure to be in, with a mix of owners both young and 'seasoned'

 

[Babylon]

...and the so called 'younger' generations are, in their own words, 'time poor'. No longer can they sneak off early on a Friday for a weekend's cruise.

And if they did, they'd likely be killed by a vehicle within a block of leaving the premises because they were zombied into their phone.

I'm not convinced that the issue is so much wealth or age - but a simple lack of time these days.

That is because the glass thing we're all looking at right now constantly sucks time and attention out of us.

When the source of information was just print and (limted) broadcast media, and the locus for conversation and interaction was still places like the dining-room table and the pub, people were much freer to focus on getting on with real-world activities like a full-day's work and a full-evening's hobby, etc.

I'm not saying this is the only factor at play in these messed-up times (actually when were times not messed-up?), but its no surprise that the valuable resource all the technology behemoths are after is our attention.