Why don't more young people get into cruising?...

[Ajax]

2) Hard work: A 28 year old we had on the boat loved it, but moving the ropes and working the winches was too hard.

This is my favorite gripe to laugh at.

I'm 50, fat and gray and I relish whatever physical demands sailing places upon me. I want to exert myself. Sailing is like piano- it is a skill that you can spend a lifetime refining that you can take pride in. Listening to some millennial bitch about the effort involved always makes me laugh.

Non-sailors only see the effort, not the reward.

 

[Israel Hands]

That's a great idea. Maybe we could start a thread about that!

or write a book

 

[Steam Flyer]

This is my favorite gripe to laugh at.

I'm 50, fat and gray and I relish whatever physical demands sailing places upon me. I want to exert myself. Sailing is like piano- it is a skill that you can spend a lifetime refining that you can take pride in. Listening to some millennial bitch about the effort involved always makes me laugh.

Non-sailors only see the effort, not the reward.

I think a lot of younger people would be perfectly happy to become disembodied brains in a jar, never actually move, never actually do anything, just hold up a "smart" phone to the glass.

 

[slug zitski]

Big time.
When fiberglass happened there was an avalanche of new boats; by now the harbors are filled with boats that are owned but not used any more; no market for many of them...but not as cheap as they might seem. Start going through the list of stuff that has to be replaced or upgraded to return the boat to being an attractive sea worthy vessel. The better designs of the older boats can be worth the cost and work of restoring because what you can end up with is an excellent nearly new boat at a much lower price. But there are many boats not worthy of that effort. Guys with knowledge should help newbies pick worthy boats for restoration.

Unfortunatly many of those old boats used inferior materials and techniques …stuff like sheer clamps , mechanically fastened teak decks , deck layout

many that I see are just junk and should be destroyed to clean up the waterfront and make way for good stuff

 

[Kris Cringle]

I think a lot of younger people would be perfectly happy to become disembodied brains in a jar, never actually move, never actually do anything, just hold up a "smart" phone to the glass.

I'm glad to say, I've yet to meet any of these younger sloth-like people. Where are they?

 

[Crash]

I'm glad to say, I've yet to meet any of these younger sloth-like people. Where are they?

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Chances are you raised yours "right" and they hang out with like-minded folks.

 

[Ajax]

I'm glad to say, I've yet to meet any of these younger sloth-like people. Where are they?

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Yes, yes we're all aware that in your tiny corner of the world, your children and their acquaintances beautiful, intelligent, active people with promising futures and unlimited potential.

I love you man, but there's an entire world happening outside of the living Norman Rockwell painting that is Rockport. A lot of it is dysfunctional.

 

[Crash]

Yes, yes we're all aware that in your tiny corner of the world, your children and their acquaintances beautiful, intelligent, active people with promising futures and unlimited potential.

I love you man, but there's an entire world happening outside of the living Norman Rockwell painting that is Rockport. A lot of it is dysfunctional.

Geez, Ajax, did your cat pee in your coffee this morning?

The world is full of young folk who hike, ski, mountain climb, mountain bike, camp, overland/4 wheel, surf, kite sail, etc. But sailing (for the most part) is marketed to the world as a "luxury lifestyle" and not as an adventure sport. So the active ones never consider it, as a sport worth their while. Clubs (for better or worse) amongst that age group are perceived to be full of old people...most yacht clubs and country clubs are, in fact, full of mostly old people. We need to change the image of our sport and pastime...

 

[slug zitski]

Yes, yes we're all aware that in your tiny corner of the world, your children and their acquaintances beautiful, intelligent, active people with promising futures and unlimited potential.

I love you man, but there's an entire world happening outside of the living Norman Rockwell painting that is Rockport. A lot of it is dysfunctional.

Young people have completely disappeared from the waterfront

when I was a kid , after school i would ride my bike to the shipyard to work …all those kid jobs like wash boats, pick up trash , coil hoses …

the most common job was to patrol the waterfront with a long handle dip net and scoop up trash

many kids, roving gangs of them , would always be around looking for after school work

 

[Ajax]

Geez, Ajax, did your cat pee in your coffee this morning?

My post wasn't limited to sailing but I realize that truth isn't always appreciated around here so I'll just drop it.

 

[giegs]

If I sold all of my bikes, climbing gear, kayaks, cataraft, skis, and so on, it'd barely cover the entry cost of a smallish older cruising yacht. All of those things have more young folks engaged so there's an easier community to glom onto with all that variety.

Thinking about it some more, getting friends who are into bikepacking and packrafting into sailing would probably be easier than other groups. Climber friends have already expressed interest in doing some boat based walling up the inside passage, but it'd be a means to an end for most of them. We've been doing it on smaller water for years.

 

[Kris Cringle]

Yes, yes we're all aware that in your tiny corner of the world, your children and their acquaintances beautiful, intelligent, active people with promising futures and unlimited potential.

I love you man, but there's an entire world happening outside of the living Norman Rockwell painting that is Rockport. A lot of it is dysfunctional.

I love you too! I was thinking you were right, we are pretty isolated up here in Rockwell land.

But hang on; If you raise two children, watch them and their friends go to school for 12 years, then watch them both live and go to college overseas, see them 'grow up' as they locate in big cities working their first jobs, and now back in Rockwell land, how many other kids do I know that I have met along this long path?

I think I know personally, as many 'kids' as most people. Maybe more. Now I know them as adults.

We still see some of these kids that live overseas, live and work in cities. We're still connected to many of them years later and know what they're about.

Sadly, I know one of the local Rockwell kids that was murdered last year in a drug deal gone bad(in a city). Bad things happen to a few kids. I do see that.

But the generalizations about millenials (and now Gen-z), the phones, the laziness, I've never seen that, yet.

We had a Rockwell photoshoot last week,...

 

[Steam Flyer]

All true, sailing is more expensive than many sports; to me it's not likely to be the main reason but added to the greater amount of work, it's a serious disincentive. A couple of ski trips could pay for a year's upkeep on a fairly nice boat -and- you have a boat at the end of it rather than just happy memories.

But happy memories are much easier to maintain.

 

[Israel Hands]

All true, sailing is more expensive than many sports; to me it's not likely to be the main reason but added to the greater amount of work, it's a serious disincentive. A couple of ski trips could pay for a year's upkeep on a fairly nice boat -and- you have a boat at the end of it rather than just happy memories.

But happy memories are much easier to maintain.

You've got a point - younger people are about "the experience" and not about the responsibilities and upkeep of ownership.

 

[Steam Flyer]

You've got a point - younger people are about "the experience" and not about the responsibilities and upkeep of ownership.

The other thing is, young people don't grow up with any mechanical skills, or at least very few that I've encountered. Don't know a Phillips head from a soldering iron, literally. Not trying to be judgemental, they just don't have any experience. I worked with youth sailors teaching basic repairs and maintenance, to the point we could do so with limited time and no exposure to toxic chemical.

I think it's lack of confidence in these tasks holding them back as much as anything.

 

[Alaris]

The other thing is, young people don't grow up with any mechanical skills, or at least very few that I've encountered. Don't know a Phillips head from a soldering iron, literally. Not trying to be judgemental, they just don't have any experience. I worked with youth sailors teaching basic repairs and maintenance, to the point we could do so with limited time and no exposure to toxic chemical.

I think it's lack of confidence in these tasks holding them back as much as anything.

I learned that stuff from my father. Whose fault is it they don’t know?

 

[Cruisin Loser]

My son and his wife are living in Boston. I'd like for them to take sailing lessons with some friends with the goal of being competent to borrow Daddy's modest little cruiser. Most of his sailing was in Maine but I'd move her to Massachusetts to accommodate them. Or buy them their own little boat. I want my grandkids to sail.

He's very outdoorsy, grew up camping, skiing, fly fishing, and cruising in the summers. Unusual, I think, for a computer geek.

 

[Fah Kiew Tu]

The other thing is, young people don't grow up with any mechanical skills, or at least very few that I've encountered. Don't know a Phillips head from a soldering iron, literally. Not trying to be judgemental, they just don't have any experience. I worked with youth sailors teaching basic repairs and maintenance, to the point we could do so with limited time and no exposure to toxic chemical.

I think it's lack of confidence in these tasks holding them back as much as anything.

Yeah - I did some machining for a new yacht owner the other day. Thought I'd save him some money on the bill by letting him do some of the final fitting work himself. Simple stuff like drilling & tapping flanges for locking grub screws etc.

But no - didn't have the tools or confidence so I did all the final fitup of the shaft, flanges, flex coupling etc and told him what grade & size bolts to get to put it all together. He has a friend assisting with the actual install which was fortunate because I rarely want to get involved in crawling around in other peoples' cramped engine spaces trying to fit stuff.

I gave him a list of tools I thought he should keep aboard so even if he can't use them right now, he could learn and half the battle is having the tools anyway.

FKT

 

[Fah Kiew Tu]

My son and his wife are living in Boston. I'd like for them to take sailing lessons with some friends with the goal of being competent to borrow Daddy's modest little cruiser. Most of his sailing was in Maine but I'd move her to Massachusetts to accommodate them. Or buy them their own little boat. I want my grandkids to sail.

He's very outdoorsy, grew up camping, skiing, fly fishing, and cruising in the summers. Unusual, I think, for a computer geek.

My son is an IT geek, knows his way around tools. I'd not let him loose on my 'new' DS&G lathe but that machine is more than capable of tearing off an arm if you're careless. But the smaller lathes etc, yes, he can operate them safely.

My daughters, their request for a housewarming present when they moved out, a set of battery power tools. My youngest daughter is far more capable than her husband, something he cheerfully admits. I bought her a nice powerful 240V hammer drill last year when she was complaining that the battery powered one wasn't doing the job.

One thing for sure, if my kids express the need for a tool to get something done, it'll arrive in short order. Decent tools and the knowledge to use them make building/maintenance a pleasure instead of a shit-fight.

FKT

 

[Steam Flyer]

.... half the battle is having the tools anyway.

Or not. At least a dozen 14~15 years olds have told me how goddam stupid and pointless it is to have 3 different sizes of Phillips heads/tips, of course they're total models of patience and probity in everything else...

But I do think a modest amount of experience with oversight, help with terminology and other un-obvious details, can go a long way. I always tried to structure our "maintenance experience" sessions to end with at least one triumph where things go back together and WORK!! This can can really be exhilirating for kids who have never done much of anything real or useful.