Saving Sailing

[Joe Montana]

This is pure speculation, but I've thought for awhile that there's been a decline (mostly in smaller- to medium-size boats). I've wondered if...

1. People with young families -- usually with two working parents -- just don't have the time, what with organized sports for children, and needing weekends to keep the household running..

and

2. Rising costs are squeezing out the "middle" class -- perhaps meaning that in the future sailing will be what it once was, mostly for the very well heeled.

As I said, it's just speculation -- not based on data.

[Andy Denmark]

Larry certainly hits some of the reasons spot on.

I'm in the administration of my yacht club. My club has several long term rental slips and we've had to reduce our rental rates to keep them occupied. Even so we have more empty slips than at any time over the last 8 years. More boats are going into brokerage, people are struggling to make their required insurance premiums and slip rent, and there are two boatyards here that have had customers walk away from their boats because they couldn't pay their yard bills. Brokerage boat sales are rare and asking prices severely negotiable while new sales are almost non-existent. The good side is the increased number of boats being restored and getting a new lease on life.

When "yachts, sailboats, beachfront property and fancy vacation places" are seen as resources of the "wealthy" that can be tapped disproportionally for revenue to fund an administration that doesn't comprehend basic economics then we have a right to be deeply concerned.

I find that sailing is not so bad when compared to other recreational activities. Look at the real costs of big powerboats, airplanes, horses, etc, and I think our sport stacks up favorably. The $$$ spent for enjoyment realized over the longest activity time make it worth it for me.

Just a few random thoughts .................
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Suzuki rg150 history

[Andy Denmark]

We (Sea Harbour Yacht Club) have seen an increase in slip sales because of the depressed market. SHYC membership automatically accrues with slip ownership. Here's what seems to happen. People buy a really nice boat at a low price due to the sorry state of the market, then get a premium slip at the nicest yacht club in Oriental for the same reason. Sometimes these actions are coupled to a home they've bought for retirement here, also priced low because of the poor market. Couple all this with being in the midst of one of the best sailing areas on the east coast and what's to lose?

We've picked up some very nice members (and neighbors, too) this way.

Having the ability to move in a market where borrowing a lot of money isn't a determining factor seems to be a common denominator with these folks.

For the record, I have no connection with any of these endeavors.

FWIW .................
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F50 GT

[Steve Laume]

Youth sailing programs may be alive and well in certain communities but I am not so sure that equates to an increase in life long sailors.

I started sailing on Indian River Bay, in Delaware, at about ten. This was in a home built pram with a very baggy sail made from an old parachute that I had to jibe to come about most times. My parents didn't sail and there was only one other sail boat in our mooring field that never seemed to go out. I graduated to a Sunfish and basically lived on it most of the summer when I wasn't swimming, fishing or building forts in the woods. The other kids would be playing pick up softball while I was out on the bay. I didn't even own a glove and didn't much care to be standing around in a field waiting for a ball to come my way that I would probably drop anyway and be a loser.

The one thing all the kids did have was the need to work things out for themselves. There were no parents or coaches to schedule games, teach or work out disputes. Teams were made up on a daily basis and if someone wasn't available to play they were not threatened with being kicked off a team.

I learned to sail on my own with no support boat to pick up the pieces. I was certainly not motivated by beating some other kid in a race or gathering a collection of trophies. I could explore anywhere I wanted to within the bay. There was no cell phone or radio to call for help or question where I was or what I was doing. I was the master of my very small vessel and the bay she sailed on.

This in part is what I believe the author might be getting at. Kids not only spend an incredible amount of time indoors with their gadgets but when they do go out to play soccer, baseball or sail it is very well orchestrated and controlled by adults. Sailing programs teach kids great boat handling and racing skills, which I wish I would have been taught at an early age. What is lost is the freedom and problem solving skills.

As far as advancing the sport and creating life long sailors, these youth programs might not be all that effective. Lots of kids go through the youth soccer programs and have to be at practice several times a week with games on the weekend so there is little time for other family activities. Soccer becomes a rather tightly packaged pass time for them. Almost a separate entity. Sailing programs might be seen much the same way. Competing in an Opti at the club is not the same as sailing where ever you care to go. I am not sure it equates to a sailing lifestyle or a life long love of just being out on the water.

I used to Mt bike with an informal group about twenty years ago. We had some beautiful areas to ride but most folks never looked around and would not stop to literally smell the roses. The woods and trails were much like a part of the apparatus used for exercise.

If sailing is really to maintain it's popularity, I believe we need to give our children a greater appreciation of nature and the freedom to enjoy it on their own.

Well there's my buck's worth, Steve.

[Joe CD MS 300]

I agree that raicing sailing programs are not the way to get most kids hooked on sailing as a life long activity. Its the cruising, swimming in little creeks, seeing new places, spending time with their siblings and parents, learning new skills, pulling a bucket of mussels from the bottonm of a creek at mid tide, just having fun without competion, having a beer with dad at less than a legal age that gives then the appreciation for sailing (at least the kind I do).

[Joe Myerson]

Steve & JoeCD,

Your descriptions of yourseves and how you started sailing are a lot like my own; I didn't start racing until I was older, and while I enjoyed it, it was usually as crew and mostly just for the fun of being afloat.

My dad and I taught ourselves to sail (he had two lessons from a neighbor and quickly passed all his knowledge on to me). We had rather funky, hand-me-down boats--first a Beetle Swan and later a wooden Hustler, both courtesy of Dad's partners. For me, it has always been the pleasure of discovering my own skills, feeling one with the ocean and the elements and developing a sense of confidence.

Still, when I watch the local kids, especially the really young ones, learning how to sail their Optis, I can't help but think that the youth program is helping produce young, committed sailors.

And most of my sailing neighbors here in Cataumet learned to sail through the same club-based program, and they're still at it.

Give young people a chance to sail--be it on a Sunfish, an Opti or a Beetle Cat--and there's a good chance they'll be hooked for life. Unless they'd rather be indoors staring at a computer screen.

--Joe

[Dixon Hemphill]

I can't offer a good reason for the decline in sailing but I sure can substantiate the fact that it does exist. Take my marina in Annapolis as an example. There are about 100 slips there with about 80 % sailboats, the rest powerboats. During the week when I sail between 9AM and 4PM I see two maybe three other boats underway. On weekends there may be as many as 5 or 6 boats underway during those hours. The remainder of the approximately 75 sailboats seldom if ever go out!

I really can't imagine why people who own boats don't use them!
Is my marina different from the others? I think not.

[Joe CD MS 300]

I can't offer a good reason for the decline in sailing but I sure can substantiate the fact that it does exist. Take my marina in Annapolis as an example. There are about 100 slips there with about 80 % sailboats, the rest powerboats. During the week when I sail between 9AM and 4PM I see two maybe three other boats underway. On weekends there may be as many as 5 or 6 boats underway during those hours. The remainder of the approximately 75 sailboats seldom if ever go out!

I really can't imagine why people who own boats don't use them!
Is my marina different from the others? I think not.

I don't think that has changed much in the last twenty years. I can remember waking the docks at almost any time and hardly seeing an empty slip. Now that I have a boat I don't get the chance to use it as much as I'd like but I'm still glad to have it when I can. Hopefully that will change when I retire.

[Joe Myerson]

Dixon:

Back when I had a job with an office at a marina, I remember talking with the dockmaster, who told me that at least 20 percent of the boats at his facility never left the dock.

This conversation was BEFORE the economic collapse.

I suspect some of those unused boats are the ones that are no longer in the water at all.

At that particular marina, most of the boats in question were powerboats (most of them Se*R*ys--I can't bring myself to type the name), but the same thing probably applies to sailboats.

--Joe

[Neil Gordon]

At that particular marina, most of the boats in question were powerboats (most of them Se*R*ys--I can't bring myself to type the name), but the same thing probably applies to sailboats.

I suspect that the sailboats getter more use than the power boats. That's my observation, in any case, and I spend a lot of time at that particular marina.

We sailors have several advantages:

1. Longer season. The power boats (fishermen aside) are more likely to be looking for beach weather.

2. No fuel costs. Yes, we have sail replacement from time to time, but in a lean year, that can be delayed. So going away for a weekend to an island costs me zero. My power boat neighbors would be out sever hundred $$$.

3. More likely to cruise (and therefore more likely to be gone for longer periods of time).

4. Less an in-port entertaining platform. By inclination, some of the power boat owners don't intend to go out and are quite happy not to.

[bobdugan]

The tiller and throttle captains.


Young Ben Bowditch


A cabinful of cousins.

[wsonntag]

Lots of good observations in this long thread. I'd add or confirm a few - yes, tough economic times have reduced all boating; and sailing, except for those communities where deeply rooted through tradition and proximity, is not cool among young people. Crew is in but sailing somehow just does not seem to have the necessary team building, school program or bling factor for coolness. It once was cool, when individualism, adventure and the aesthetics of sailing were appreciated. Now experiencing nature means popping out to the REI, buying cool camp gear, a kayak or hopping on your mountain bike and going trekking - perhaps in some ways all simpler than sailing. Families with younger children, with kids in school and sailing - let's not forget that getting a child through K through 12 is now a 24/7 campaign. An effort that is so pre-programmed with expectations and activities that no helicopter parent worth his tuition or sports camp check can find time away the 24/7 demands for sailing. Get a kid into athletics in late grade school and surely by middle school, its all over for independent family activities. I can't imagine my parents putting up with the tyranny of school programs today and their reach into family time. We were always expected to be aboard for the weekends and if school schedules had intruded, a call would have been placed to the Superintendent by many families. Now, watch how the marinas are used - before the summer they're empty but for us die-hard sailors pottering about in the spring, there are a few big summer family weekends, Labor Day then poof, its all over, fall school, sports etc programs prevail. No wonder the boat of choice in now a jet ski or a 26 to 30 something foot "athletic shoe" plastic powerboat, turn the key for those few summer weekends, put it on a trailer early, store it cheaply and hope you can make the payments and pay for fuel.

Oh well, enjoy my friends, because the climate change scenarios I am seeing from the global observations platforms of the earth science community are going to make most of this truly irrelevant in our children's or grand children's lifespans.


Less Kvetching - More Sailing!

[M. R. Bober]

...

Oh well, enjoy my friends, because the climate change scenarios I am seeing from the global observations platforms of the earth science community are going to make most of this truly irrelevant in our children's or grand children's lifespans.


Less Kvetching - More Sailing!

Au contraire. If the global warming/rising ocean levels models prove correct, sailing--boating in general--will likely become more a part of the lives of those who come after us. To quote Bill Cosby, "Noah, how long can you tread water?"

Mitchell Bober
Sunny Lancaster (where deafness precludes the hearing of discouraging words), VA

[Neil Gordon]

If the global warming/rising ocean levels models prove correct, sailing--boating in general--will likely become more a part of the lives of those who come after us.

I don't think that coastal cities with billions in developed real estate will be abandoned and go underwater. The dike building business is the place to be!

Perhaps we'll see cities like NY be more like Venice... with yellow gondolas paddling up and down the avenues.

[Steve Darwin]

Bob - Thanks for the pics. Very cute. I have four young cousins, ages five to thirteen, who are in training to become sailboat crew. (I'm not getting any younger and need to plan ahead!) Fortunately, they all love to sail. - Steve