SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

How many young people (say 35 or under)out there

80K views 440 replies 321 participants last post by  stovebolt 
#1 ·
I'm curious how many of us there are out there, I'm 29 and have a 32.5 Irwin. I plan to go long term cruising in the carribean within the next three years and in my marina I have only meet one other under thirtyish sailboat owner. I'm in the Clearlake, Texas area, can ya'll give me a shout wherever you are?
Matt
 
#2 ·
I just turned 30....

...... here in San Diego. I have a 28 foot Cal Jenson that I was lucky enough to gain owner ship of. I have put every extra cent I have had into her over the past year and now she's ready to sail on a moments notice, which was my goal. There is still a lot to be desired though as always. I have sailed down to Mexico already but my big dream is to spend months sailing down Baja and coming back up in the Sea of Cortez and just roughing it. I lived in Tijuana for 2 and half years and have gotten my taste of Mexico but now I wish to return via mi valero. Anyone else here in SD?
 
#170 ·
...... here in San Diego. I have a 28 foot Cal Jenson that I was lucky enough to gain owner ship of. I have put every extra cent I have had into her over the past year and now she's ready to sail on a moments notice, which was my goal. There is still a lot to be desired though as always. I have sailed down to Mexico already but my big dream is to spend months sailing down Baja and coming back up in the Sea of Cortez and just roughing it. I lived in Tijuana for 2 and half years and have gotten my taste of Mexico but now I wish to return via mi valero. Anyone else here in SD?
I'm from San Diego too :)

I'm 21. I have no boat yet :(
 
#178 ·
Aging



Oh, dude, you have no idea. The journey from 30 - 39 was a LOT longer than the journey from 39 - 47. It happened in the blink of an eye.

Once you get over the hill, you tend to pick up speed.
 
#4 ·
I'm 31 and have been interested in sailing for a couple of years.. interested in boats and water much longer..
I have a 22 starwind sailboat at a marina near the ocean and love to goof around in it, it's big enough for me right now..

That being said, my wife and I (GF at the time) drove across the country a few times with a 10' Scamp camper behind our car when we were in our 20's .. and everyone we met was in their 60's, 70's and 80's :)
 
#5 ·
I'm 24 and have owned my 32' Morgan 323 for 2 years and a small 25' sloop for one year before that. Got bit bit by the bug during one summer when I took a sailing course early in college. After I graduated and started work and making some money I bought the 25' sloop and loved it but it felt a littel bit too much like camping out so I sold it 2 years ago and bought the Morgan.

During the weekends I cruise all over the long Island Sound with my girl friend and some of my buddies. We eventually would love to sail down to the bahamas for a year or so taking our time going down the coast to see the sights. The only trouble is I would have to time it when I was in between jobs because I only get about 2 weeks or so with the current company I am with.

I do have to say though I hardly know anyone around my age who sails and if they do they just crew on others boats. I would love to meet more people my age that have their own sailboats. All my buddies have powerboats so there is always a good crowd to raft up to and go cruising with but no other sailors.

Picture of my current boat "Capricorn"
[/URL][/IMG]
 
#6 ·
Chef no offense intended, as long as were out there doing it. Allthough some young single ladys on the dock would be great.LOL.
Brakes don't let size get you down, I sailed a 14' hobie cat then a 16' prindle cat in the small West Texas lakes around the land locked area I'm from when I decided that I wanted to go cruising. For the experience thing while saving enough money for a little bigger boat.
 
#7 ·
I am 29 here. Been into sailing since I was 22.........was told shortly after that 'cruising' was uncool. It was for when you are old and retired......until then you are just mean't to sail your boat in circles around cans while drinking beer.....

We are part of a local yacht club that has a cruising division that meets once a month and we are easily the youngest there by about 20 years. Having said that it takes a certain type of person to be a sailor, so some of the 60 year olds we know from cruising are 'younger' and a hell of a lot more fun than some of my 25 year old friends :)

It is good to know that people our age are out there pursuing their dreams as well. We are not all addicted to shopping Malls, Playstations, and spending our weekends following Britney's Twitter Page :)
 
#140 ·
I have to completely agree with chall03's above quote. I'm 23 and am just moving aboard my 1964 32' Islander that has just been fully restored, a 9 year project with my father.

It seems so many of our peers want to zip around in their flats boats and sportfishers. I still get the last laugh when I pull up to the fueling dock and don't have to pull out a line of credit to fill my tank.

All said, when you get ready to do your cruise, let the rest of us know, who knows, maybe us young folks can pull our schedules together and take the islands by storm!
 
#8 ·
I am 37 and my wife is 34 and we have two small kids. We own a S2 9.2a and sail up on lake Erie. I found it interesting last year when one of the club members asked me "What boat do your parents own?" They were shocked when I said we are full member and that 30 footer over there is ours. I would say we are easily 10-15 years younger than the next youngest member with a sailboat.
 
#11 ·
Well, I am 25 years old and own a Ranger 23 (as it says in my sig). I am currently doing some electrical work to her, along with rebedding chainplates, etc. I am selling it after this season and then buying a bigger (about 34ft.) bluewater boat that I will move aboard in the next two years or so. I will begin rigging it for a voyage that should take me around the world. I say should because I don't have any timetable and am doing it just to see the world. My goal is to be gone within six years and two months (the goal was seven years, ten months ago). That'll put me in the Caribbean by winter time. Big goal, but that's where I stand.
 
#12 ·
While I am approaching twice your legal age to qualify as 'young', I do want to comment on this thread. When I was a kid (back before they discovered dirt) by and large the families that we encountered in sailing were around my parents age (meaning in their early to mid-30's) The children of these families grew up to be the sailing boomers my age.

To some degree, this reflects the giant growth in the number of people getting into sailing during the 1960's. I think this growth reflected a lot of factors:
-new boats were comparatively cheap as compared to the salaries of the day,
-fiberglass boats with dacron sails were comparatively low maintenance
-many adults of my parent's generation had grown up in the wake of the depression and WW II and had a sense of adventure and an idea that they could accomplish almost anything they tried to do,
-families tended to do 'active' activities together.

Growing up, there were boats that were readily available at comparatively cheap prices relative to the kinds of starting salaries that a young person might earn (and college tuitions were cheap as well so we all ended up with seemingly small loans when we finished school).

In my case for example, I was able to buy a series of very cheap boats, some wood, some glass, some daysailors but some were cruising boats, and all were less than $400.00. (To put this in perspective, at that time if you worked for minimum wage you would earn roughly $2.1 K a year, so these boats cost something less than fifth of a years income at minimum wage. Today, minimum wage is roughly 5 times what is was back then, and so it would be hard to imagine that you could buy a comparable boat for $2,000 today.)

But I also think that there were a whole range of cultural shifts that took place after the 1960's that began to mitigate against young people getting into sailing. In the early 1960's, when sailing really grew as a popular sport, shore lives were technologically pretty simple; comparatively few homes or cars had air conditioning, TV's were just become popular, and play was outdoors in nice weather; very basic pitch-a-tent type camping was still very popular with young families and so it was not much of a stetch to get into sailing.

But as tastes shifted, and shore life became technicalogical, there was a huge away from being out on the water and if families took up watersports the shift was towards power boating. With that shift fewer kids were exposed to sailing at a young age.

And sailing is not the easiest sport to get into if you have had no exposure to sailing when you are young in life. Sailing requires a fairly large amount of knowledge to do safely and to one degree or another it requires a certain amount of physical strength and dexterity. It sould be noted that there have been serious efforts to reduce the amount of both the mental and phyical barriers to sailing through ever increasing electronic, and mechanical complication. These days even comparatively small boats carry motor driven windlasses, and roller furling headsails and mainsails that greatly reduce the physical strength requirements, inboard engines, and electronic chart plotters and autopilots that reduce the level of skill required to find your way back home in all conditions.

Even the racing world seems to have fewer young people. I have noticed that the age of the people who crew on race boats has progressively gotten older. 20 years ago, race boats crews were generally in their teens, twenties and into their mid-30's. Now they are more likely to be gray hairs or shaved heads.

I don't know where I am going with this, except that Irwin 32.5CC is probably right that there are a lot fewer young folks out sailing. I think that he is right that he is the exception and not the rule, especially when I consider that 29 year old would be interested in that particular model boat, but that is another story. Who'd a thunk it?

Jeff
 
#13 ·
Corey, hold on to your dream man, I really hope it does come true for you. If it does, Stay safe.

Thanks Jeff, A good analysis as always. I think you probably have hit the nail on the head. It is a shame, I am always taking friends my age and often younger out sailing and they love it, yet at our club we have seen a dramatic decrease in numbers in the racing fleet, and the cruisers are ALL retirees, not one cruising family. We would be the only couple under 50 easily.
 
#14 ·
Wow Jeff I never thought of it that way. It makes perfect sense though and it's too bad because at this rate by the time I am in my 40's there will be even less sailors!

Your post reminded me of that scene in Jaws 2 (which I know was a terrable movie) but when the teenagers were all at the bar making plans to go on a big sailing trip out to the that island the next day. Then the next day about 10 of them set out in 4 or 5 different boats and it was their way of having fun and their main activity they liked to do.

If they did a remake of that scene in todays age, the kids would either be hoping in a power boat or jet ski or talking about a full days worth of xbox!
 
#15 ·
I am 28 and just bought my first "big" boat, a Bristol 27. I have noticed that there aren't nearly as many young people sailing as well. I think it may have something to do with the outrageous cost of owning a boat these days. As was pointed out earlier, the cost of boats used to be much more managable, now you can't find anything that floats for under $10,000. Most young people would rather put that investment into a house and get their land based life started. It seems the sailors in their twenties and thirties have different priorities :)
 
#17 · (Edited)
I think it may have something to do with the outrageous cost of owning a boat these days. As was pointed out earlier, the cost of boats used to be much more managable, now you can't find anything that floats for under $10,000. Most young people would rather put that investment into a house and get their land based life started. It seems the sailors in their twenties and thirties have different priorities :)
Yet we all seem to find the money for 42 inch LCD TV's, Ipods and new cars :)

I think it is actually more priorities than cost. There are cheaper boats around, but maybe the issue is they just aren't good enough for Gen Y?
We want it all now. We want our first boats to recent model production boats with all the Gadgets and comforts?

Congrats on buying your boat though Jonny. Whereabouts are you??
 
#16 ·
I'm 29 and my wife is 26 and we just bought a 2008 Beneteau 343 in December '08. I took an intro to sailing course as a work diversion about 5 years ago and was hooked at the feeling of wind powering movement over water. When we moved down to S. Florida, we bought a house with a dock behind it...and now we have a boat to fill it.

This was our first big boat, and suffice it to say we are a bit overwhelmed by it right now. Just getting familiar with all the systems and maintenance...its very overwhelming. But eventually, we'll master it and get out there more. Hopefully, I will be able to take a couple month sabatical and just get out there soon.
 
#102 ·
I'm on a Boat... Or will be soon.

I'm 29 and my wife is 26 and we just bought a 2008 Beneteau 343 in December '08. I took an intro to sailing course as a work diversion about 5 years ago and was hooked at the feeling of wind powering movement over water. When we moved down to S. Florida, we bought a house with a dock behind it...and now we have a boat to fill it.

This was our first big boat, and suffice it to say we are a bit overwhelmed by it right now. Just getting familiar with all the systems and maintenance...its very overwhelming. But eventually, we'll master it and get out there more. Hopefully, I will be able to take a couple month sabatical and just get out there soon.
Similar situations we are in. I'm 28 and my wife is 26 and we are also looking to get a boat. Where are you located in S. Florida. My inlaws have a place with a canal dock in Lighthouse Point and we're looking to get a boat. Would like to take 6 months off from work to do some Caribbean sailing similar to yourself.

I've been looking at the 343s and 373s. Do you have any lessons learned you might be able to share? Any expenses turning out to be much higher than forecasted?

Regards,

Gene Nix
 
#18 ·
My wife and I are both 33 years old with two young (4 & 6) girls. We've been "out there" on the Great Lakes for two seasons now, building our resume and reducing our debt so we can throw off the docklines indefinately and head south, and then maybe west. We're one of only a small handful of boats at our large marina that has young kids and parents in their early thirties. In fact, we're the only sailors that fit that criteria. Many of the others are powerboaters.
 
#19 ·
Well, I blow through your top age bracket by 6 years, but we are definitely on the younger side of sailors in our area. Perhaps we are just fortunate, but in our marina there are several families with younger kids. Most of the families have parents in their 30s to early 40s and there are a couple of single guys who are right around our age or a bit younger.

That being said the vast majority of boats in the marina are owned by those a good 20 years older than we are.
 
#20 ·
My wife turns 35 in two weeks. She was foredecking at the age of 5 as her father designed and sailed small boats in Lake Ontario. She's currently crewing down south and accumulating sea hours ahead of a planned circumnavigation starting in a couple of years. My son is 7 and is starting Opti sailing next month.

I'm the weakest link. Despite having a father who was a professional mariner (admittedly before I was born), I didn't regularly sail until I bought my first boat (33 footer) shortly after my 38th birthday. Ten years later, we're getting ready to leave before I turn 50.
 
#21 ·
The "Young" guys

I'm 41 and new to my SA. Around the docks, there are about 4-5 of us in the same age range that are referred to by other, mature members as those "young guys". Its pretty funny. There seems to be a small but steady influx of us in recent years though so I hope that continues to trend that way.

But the "old guys" still usually smoke us around the cans on Wednesdays. We'll get 'em eventually (when our young kids are old enough to crew). Maybe they are stacking our PHRF numbers against us.
 
#22 ·
Im 30 and my wife is 28.I have yet to see any sailboat owner in my marina in my age group.We are on our second boat, a 33 footer.I have been asked a few times who owns the boat and keep getting "advise".
Meanwhile, I have been around boats and sailing longer than they have.
 
#23 ·
Bought my boat in 2007, I just turned 26. Now, pushing 28, its hard to find young people who enjoy the detail oriented challenges that sailing provides. It's extremely dynamic, expensive, and slow. My generation isn't about slow or long attention spans.

I don't make a bunch of money and sailing takes a lot of it, but its worth it to me. Everytime I set sail, I feel like the richest guy on earth.
 
#24 ·
age

I justed truned 47 and my wife is 45 and we still get referred to as the "young couple with the sailboat at our marina".
 
#25 ·
Under 35

I'm 30, and just purchased my first large boat (32') about a year ago. Of course, the boat is older than I am... :)

I think in addition to the 'would rather video game' factor, economics plays a major role. Many people who I graduated with spent a large part of their 20s paying off college debt (myself included), and then for the last ~5-10 years houses have been historically very expensive as a percentage of income (and rising). This doesn't leave a whole lot left over...
 
#27 ·
I am 37 and my wife is 40. We have 2 boys age 13 &10. We have been sailing our 30' catamaran for about a year and had a 30' Catalina before this. I have not really thought about our 'young' age. I did always notice we are always the younger parents at school functions and such. My boys take sailing classes at the local Yacht Club and noticed they need a infusion of young people. We were only ones walking through the club without white / blue hair. When I inquired about membership I was told of a $7000 initation fee and monthly dues:eek: I was also told I should hurry because they were getting to raise the initation fee. No thanks...i can pay a lot of slip fees and buy gear with that money.
 
#28 ·
Tell you what though, there will come a time when all the older folks begin to sell off their boats in large numbers and because there aren't enough younger sailors to buy them all, there will be excess supply and the market for used boats might get very buyer-friendly.

I'm 30, living on my 30 footer right now. I like talking to the salty guys around the marina. Wish there were younger people (especially ladies) cruising around too but they would have to leave the sub-woofer and beer bong at home.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top