Where are all the sailors

[Daydream believer]

Believe it... I would say I'm working at least 30% more hours now than I did when I started work 30 years ago... I think people are time poor these days.. they simply can't justify the amount of time owning a boat entails...

i have worked for organisations that now have a 36 hour limit on work hours. That would have been unheard of 50 years ago when I started out. Then the family firm was open for people to work 7 days a week & most worked at least 5.5 days
Whilst a lot of immigrant labour ( no I am not trying to be anti or pro immigrants just pointing it out)will willingly work all the hours they can get a lot of our working population will not/do not work long hours
Some do - yes- but i suggest not so many as one might think
i am a member of a model flying club & it always amazes me how many of " working" age actually spend so much time mid week flying
I would suggest that we do actually work less hours than our fathers
What does happen is that, possibly, we spend more time traveling to & from work which makes the day longer
I would also suspect that the " management" level ( for want of a better phrase) do work long hours to go with the responsibility & in some cases it is these people that can afford more expensive boats but may be time poor

 

[Fantasie 19]

I disagree but I defend to the death your right to say it...

It is ultimately pointless to quote statistics so I won't, as there are probably as many polls and statistics disproving as proving the thesis - I can only comment from my own personal perspective, and fellow workers (IT industry)..

 

[Tam Lin]

I think there might be something in the working longer hours idea. My experience is that I was working far longer hours at the end of my career than the beginning. Now that I am retired I have no time at all!

 

[Resolution]

Not sure about the number of hours worked today, but I am sure that there are many more forms of entertainment on offer to young people. So the likelihood of them spending lots of hours at one activity only are much reduced.
I would agree with roblpm in post #11 that currently there is a fair amount of activity in the sportsboat sector. In my club this has been particularly significant. A few years ago the club purchased some J80s for use in club team racing and also for charter by members. This has worked spectacularly well, we now have many more younger members than before and an ever-expanding list of sailing activities centered on these boats. So much so that the club fleet is being added to this winter. Whilst the boats themselves are not rocket -exciting, users can step on, race for a day with their mates and step off without further responsibility; perfect for busy young men and women. All at a ££ cost of course, but cheap in time terms.

 

[Greenheart]

I was a member at Bosham SC, 30 years ago when my hours meant weekends-only for sailing. It was always very busy with keen dinghy-sailors of all ages - I expect it still is.

Personally speaking, I never had the faintest interest in racing even back then, although club-membership seemed almost exclusively to encourage competitive engagement...

...and even now, when most of my present club's members are racers, I'm mainly there because the dinghy-park is securely gated, and within a 30-minute journey...

...but it's shocking how neglected many boats are, and several each year are seemingly forgotten by their owners, then given away by the club to hard-working club volunteers.

I suppose my buying the biggest old dinghy I could afford, plus my disinclination to use it for the purpose intended, reflects the fact that I really wanted a yacht, not a wet, comfortless demanding machine on which to exercise competitively for brief periods when others' sporting instincts could be relied upon to coincide. But if, like mine, most people's appetite is increasingly for leisurely day-sailing fun, I'm not surprised that pure-racing machines requiring committed helm/crew combos, lie unused for whole seasons.

On the other hand, there mayn't have been a better time to buy a big old racing dinghy, and rig it for relaxed cruising. Costs are low, versatility is high and every mile sailed is instructively rewarding. I sometimes wish my club included more picnic-sailors. Perhaps some racers will discover there's far more fun in sailing than going round in circles.

 

[Daydream believer]

Perhaps some racers will discover there's far more fun in sailing than going round in circles.

That, Dan, is where I disagree with you. I have had dinghies sailboards & keelboats for years & having sailed about up & down the Crouch & Blackwater very many times I certainly feel it gets very boring.
But doing a race gives the sail some purpose. Being able to prove I can sail a boat better/worse than someone else & then engage in friendly banter about it afterwards is - for me at least- is something to be cherished. if i want to go cruising i have a cruiser & prefer to "go somewhere" as i have done many in the past
But to each his own & if you enjoy messing about in your osprey then good luck to you - But would it not be nice, just occasionally, to know you can do it better than the other blokes in the club

 

[Seajet]

' Sailing up & down ' is certainly boring, as is going around in circles to suit some Race Officer; heading for somewhere with a purposeful intent is what makes the difference, I often don't know where we'll end up but we do our best in the conditions and arrive with a sense of satisfaction no car driver or short course racer will get.

I remember remarking to a reservoir sailor that the races on his pond must be clockwise before lunch and anti in the afternoon, to prevent them all becoming wound up dizzy.

 

[fergie_mac66]

' Sailing up & down ' is certainly boring, as is going around in circles to suit some Race Officer; heading for somewhere with a purposeful intent is what makes the difference, I often don't know where we'll end up but we do our best in the conditions and arrive with a sense of satisfaction no car driver or racer will get.

def +1

 

[oldgit]

Hoo Freezer on the Medway.
Gone probably... forever.....simply lack of interest.

 

[thegasmannick]

im in a club on the river orwell and our club has the same if not more members but we lack numbers attending events and work partie`s / a few of us have to come to the decision club needs to be modernised if a lot of area`s ie event`s enticement and member`s getting involved by using email`s and just good old talking to member`s and helping other member`s with boaty and other trade`s within club and it is slowly working but it is hard work

 

[Greenheart]

...having sailed about up & down the Crouch & Blackwater very many times I certainly feel it gets very boring. But doing a race gives the sail some purpose...to prove I can sail a boat better than someone else is something to be cherished... ...if you enjoy messing about in your Osprey then good luck to you...

Hmm. I don't think we disagree very much. I'm certain I would enjoy an offshore race which wasn't taken too seriously by its competitors, and which didn't start and end in the same place, or even on the same day...and equally I'm sure that repeated going up and down in the same area is very limited in interest, whether one is racing or cruising...

...dare I suggest that small-river-sailing, whilst doubtless challenging, is inevitably a bit samey?

Another point though - cruising is often competitive in a sense - because as long as there are other people doing it around you, there is every opportunity to observe & criticise (hopefully under one's breath) - and learn en route. So I reject the idea that anything other than racing is a lesser pursuit, or just "messing about"...it's only limited by ambition and by the time one can commit to one's ventures. If I'd only been able to go sailing as a racer on a pond circuit, I could never have developed enough interest to get started.

My point regarding dinghies was that if (as you've noticed) the racing scene isn't seeming to engross very many of the next sailing generation, then some of the familiar dinghy designs (albeit tweaked somewhat) could provide at least a proportion of the satisfaction of cruising yacht-ownership, without the crippling immersion in expense.

Regarding competition, I think I must be blessed by not caring, or wanting to prove myself. I'm content to have the only Osprey at the club, and one which is so old and altered as to be beyond the horizon of the handicap-chart, even if I met another. Certainly it's nice to sail briskly, which the Osprey always does, effortlessly - but race? What, spoil a fabulous day of relaxed fun in the boat, by restricting myself to a tedious course strewn with other racers? :hopeless: I'd really rather go for a walk. Let's agree to disagree... :encouragement:

 

[Seajet]

Mark Twain; ' Golf is a good walk spoiled ', same applies about dinghy racing !

 

[Greenheart]

I didn't want to quote that line, though I suppose I must confess I believe it.

But if the future of clubs is the issue, they must surely appeal on as many levels as possible. The tradition of club racing, for kids, must be akin to the way schools always have sports fields - there is an ineradicable expectation that at least some of them will always want to run about after a ball for some reason, getting filthy and out of breath...

...personally I always preferred a good long cross-country run, and plenty of mates saw it the same way - we had just as much exercise without running in circles, being yelled at. As soon as it was possible not to be restricted to the school grounds, the exploring instinct was far stronger than any appetite for one-upmanship. I reckon it's the same on the water, and I'm sure a significant proportion of young sailors will vastly prefer passage-planning and cruise-preparation to any amount of all-too familiar round-the-cans racing.