Why do so many Brits go sailing.

[Ships_Cat]

Only 1% in UK,
2% in France,
3% in Netherlands, and Australia,
6% in USA,
8% in New Zealand,
14% in Finland,
16% in Norway.

Would be interested to know where those figures come from.

Not disputing them but in NZ in the city where over a third of the country's population lives it is said that 1 in three persons owns a boat. I suspect that may be a bit generous but the 8% for the country seems quite low.

In 1999 the surveys undertaken as part of a report prepared by the Pleasure Boat Advisory Group (the report came out of investigations into safety, etc for the rewriting of the navigation rules here) came up with 14.6% of NZ'ers owning at least one boat and 41% had been on a pleasure boat in the previous 12 months.

Which means if the figures in that report are correct, meaning the 8% is wrong by almost a factor of 2, then maybe all those quoted for other countries are wrong too.

John

 

[Twister_Ken]

USA figures - there's an awful lot of inland water in the US, and a lot of Binliner-style speedboats and houseboats go salt-free sailing. Maybe that's why the septic numbers look higher than expected.

See what I mean, this is Arizona...

 

[BrendanS]

I'd guess the NZ figures wrong too. You only have to see the number of trailered boats heading for the coast on a Friday evening! I'd have put the numbers for Finland and probably Norway higher too. Huge numbers there have boats, and the archipelagos are wonderful boating, and lots head off for little sheds on small islands in the short summer

 

[Ships_Cat]

And I wonder about the Oz ones too.

I doubt whether the take up there is as much as NZ and I don't know their actual figures for pleasure boats. But in Queensland which has about the same population as NZ (although would be the most boaty part of Oz) there are approximately 50% more small commercial vessels than there are here in all of NZ.

John

 

[beancounter]

Why? Well, pick from the following:

a) A (possibly misplaced) romantic attachment to a (sadly disappearing) maritime past;

b) An enjoyment of spending holidays in cramped accomodation (viz. our attachment to camping and caravanning);

c) Our national masochistic delight in confronting adverse weather conditions;

d) The Boy Scout/Girl Guide ingrained in us hankers for "healthy outdoor activity";

e) For blokes, the boat is a combination of garden shed and garage where they can hide away from wifey and tinker with things mechanical.

 

[Wansworth]

sTARGAZER I thought it was all jacuzzies and leatherette,whats this "potting shed" syndrome!

 

[beancounter]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought it was all jacuzzies and leatherette,whats this "potting shed" syndrome!

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahh - you haven't seen my shed...

 

[guernseyman]

It seems only fair to post the source of my figures of boat ownership in a selection of countries. It's a 77 page report of Australian origin:

http://www.ccb.vic.gov.au/BCAPVolOne.pdf

 

[jenku]

Sweden: 15% of households own boat, according to 2004 statistics. That would be around 6-7% of population.

Coastline: 3,218 km (Quite some big inland waters though).

 

[DeeGee]

Re: Dunno, but I wish they wouldn\'t!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just think how nice it would be if 90% of those who go sailing, didn't!

Do your bit to improve sailing for everyone - encourage a yacht owner to take up golf, fishing, bird watching, curling, hang gliding, scuba diving, rock climbing, gardening - anything except messing about in boats!

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that's what I would call an excellent idea!
Sad thing is that when Mobo's stop messing about in their boats they tend to take up sailing instead! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[/ QUOTE ]Surely, 90% of those who go sailing don't? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Kristal]

Re: History

You forgot the bit about chasing girls - my grandfather has never forgiven the Americans for eyeing up my grandmother.

Which reminds me - someone told me the reason there are so many antique shops in Woobridge was to distract the US airmen from impregnating any more farmer's daughters...