Where does the young cruiser roam?

[medevicerep]

Check out The Adventures of Tarka – Sailing the world on a 27-foot sailboat. He’s a twenty something that quit his job, bought a 27 foot Albin Vega sight unseen and is sailing around the world while posting videos on YouTube. He also met a beautiful young Dutch girl in the Caribbean who is now sailing with him. He should have some excellent advice for you.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by john61ct

...How much time have you spent socializing with people twice your age over your lifetime? 3x? ...

Well, maybe it’s me who’s the odd ball. The times I’ve spent socializing with twice my age are uncountable. It used to happen all the time, but getting less so as I get older. It’s harder to find people that are 2x51 .

I still hang out with plenty who are decades my senior, and many whom I could be father or (gulp) perhaps grandfather to. I don’t perceive that I am unusual, but my crowd is self-selected (of course).

[rbk]

Originally Posted by 907Juice

Yeah, I’m on the younger side of genX. I enjoy people who like to have a few drinks, play cards, and listen to good music. I don’t care about age, but I do care about youngins partying until 3am. I turn into a pumpkin around midnight.

Haha, we need to meet somewhere someday. We’ve been cruising SE Alaska for 10 years and are now in our mid thirties with two kids. Generally we don’t care how old the cruiser are we hang out with are and we find it’s the ‘well seasoned’ rowdier crowd we can’t keep up with, always drinking on the docks causing a ruckus staying up late

And don’t ask me about Facebook or Instagram or any of that sh-t, I have never used and never intend to.

[907Juice]

I’m moored out of Seward. I had a buddy who sailed out of Sitka but that was years ago. Chatham straight and all the bays are beautiful.

[Lihuedooley77]

Andi, Don not dream your life, live your dream. .

If i would have listened to my folks and others, that I should work in a cubical and be Mr. Businesman, I would not have had this grand life of nearly full on adventure, having two parallel careers of professionally sailing world wide, and a commercial pilot, flight instructor charter pilot and fighter pilot. I never asked anyone, if I should do something, I just did it. Most took work , study, and commitment. Sometimes years.

B.S with all of that, I wanted to actually live life to the fullest. And at nearly 79 years of being on the planet, we are still fit and active sailing , hiking, traveling NOT ON CRUISE SHIPS. bare boating , and in fact, heading back to the BVI in May 2019.

So, you can do what ever you want in life , if you want to work toward that goal.

How can you sail and meet young people ?? Go to where they are !!

Well, if you can kind open up a wider spectrum and expand your cruising into watermen, surfers, stand up paddle boarders, bartenders, crews on catamaran tour boats, and beach lovers, ocean lovers, and all round fun loving folk, you will widen out your demographics. Not just cruising, and sitting at the slip or on the hook.

Some thoughts :

Kauai Island, and sail some of the other hawaiian islands.

We lived on Kauai for about 10 years, and there are lots of young people around who enjoy island and beach and boating lives. That is why they moved there . These are not dull people, they are enegetic, bright, active , fit, positive and are having a grand time.

I would imagine some of the neighbor islands are the same.
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Australia: Have skippered boats there, and with the tour, sailing, Scuba , etc boats, they have young crews. They have lots of young people working in all types of tourist related fields. The aussies are great, and so is their country.
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Personally, we love sailing the BVI, and there are expats working for the charter boat industry, crews, office, etc, and many of those are from, England, New Zealand,
Australia, and the U.S.A. Also, in the same area are the U.S. Virgin Islands. Easy sailing.
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Don't forget the popular surfing areas. Surfers have a respect for those who respect the ocean. When we lived on Kauai, one day at Lawai beach I was taking story with a couple of adult surfers, and they asked me about my back ground. I never was a board surfer.

But, I was raised in orange county, Ca. body surfing the beaches there, no board surfing, but also at the time of this discussion I held a U.S.C.G 100 ton Masters Lic., and for many years had sailed many fantastic places in the south pacific, caribbean, australia, and both Erica and i are PADI certified, and my first dives were on a 120 ft live aboard dive boat for 4 days, SCUBA diving the great barrier reef and the coral sea.

Now, that was just sharing factual experiences, and they shook my hand , and said * You are a "Waterman " . I felt, that was quite a complement Even tho I had never board surfed. We connected with each of us having our own way of enjoying the ocean Mutual Respect.

Point being, where ever you go, showing respect for everyone, it will not be hard to relate to others who have a great passion for the ocean, surfing, boats, and islands.

So,, you can expand on your demographics, and meet and share life with many other people , you age.

Erica and I travel and sail world wide, and also get out , and find great places , at home and internationally.

I have a a couple of sayings,

" All you have to do is say HELLO , and you will find how interesting this person sitting next to you is, and also how much you have in common. " Problem is today , that people are engrossed in their electronic crutch devices and do not communicate, thus, no people to people sharing real adventures."

So, get our there, and meet those young people that you wish to relate.

another saying " Listen to what they have to say , do not interrupt , and then share you factual experiences, ideas, goals, and a grand story or two. Whammo, you have a new acquaintance , or even friend.

We " Treat everyone with respect " . Do not "lie or ******** them. "


" Friendship is precious cargo . " Very special .

" Share true aloha with everyone " , where ever you are on the planet. "

" Smile " We need more smiles , and happy eyes and true hearts .

There you are , go where the action is, boating, surfing, stand up paddle boarding, charter companies, snorkeling , beaches, and bars, and even ., maybe share with us positive well seasoned cruisers and sailors once in a while.

The other thing that looms up......THAR AINT NO FREE LUNCH. Life and implementing dreams takes effort, hard work, study, and making a living , and having some savings .

I can be done, just get up off the okole, and flat do it.

[_andi_]

Hi,

thanks for all the answers. I'll refrain from discussing the why behind the question.

Concerning the question why less young folks sail I guess there are two main reasons:

1. Money. Economy changed. Folks nowadays look up at Homer Simpson or Al Bundy for owning a house, having 1-2 cars, a stay at home wife and 2-3 kids.

1a Time. Need more of that to make money thus less time for sailing.

2. Other means of travel got cheaper, Flying for example. And Campervans. At least in Europe there's plenty of folks getting into minicampers lately, a mode of travel not to different from sailing but much cheaper.

I guess these reasons also lead to places where more young folks are, for example pacific mexico makes sense bc it's affordable, beautiful and not too far from the states.

Ah, and I already spent like 2.5 seasons cruising, so I'm not completely new to the game. I just thought it might be a good idea to buy a boat someplace else (Panama in this case). But as said before, I guess I'll shelf that plan for a decade or so and go back "home" which funnily enough is far off the beaten track for cruising.

[conchaway]

Sorry to say, most young people are sitting in dark rooms texting.

[Chotu]

Raft up at Yachtweek. 😁

[rbk]

Originally Posted by 907Juice

I’m moored out of Seward. I had a buddy who sailed out of Sitka but that was years ago. Chatham straight and all the bays are beautiful.

We sail out of Skagway. Going to try and circumnavigate Chichagof this summer or make it up to Lituya bay. Have always wanted to make it up to PWS but just never seem to make it. I also turn into a pumpkin around midnight, lol

[Mithril Bham]

Used to be BVI. Not so much cruisers and young people working on the boats.

[unbusted67]

We were young four years ago and we found a ton of young cruisers in the Abacos. Pretty sick!

[Argyle38]

Originally Posted by _andi_

But as said before, I guess I'll shelf that plan for a decade or so and go back "home" which funnily enough is far off the beaten track for cruising.

Well if you wait another decade, you'll certainly find more people in your age group.


But you're certainly correct about the financial aspect, but that's always been the case. Older people always have more money than the young, just a factor of how much time it takes to work and save. It seems (from reading) that there was a time, from around the mid '70's to the late 80's when there were more 'younger' folks out cruising compared to their older counterparts. I think this is mostly because boomers were more adventurous then their very fiscally conservative parents (generally speaking of course).

[john61ct]

The huge increases of average people's wealth, growth of the middle class etc was peaking then

We foolishly thought history had changed and that progress would continue.

Alas we're returning to La Belle Epoque, tiny % of obscenely wealthy holding all the cards, struggling underclass barely making it growing fast, and the middle ever shrinking.

[MrWesson]

I'm 34 and have a trawler. The answer to where I roam is not far..

Just the nature of things but I try to make overnights and daytrips.

[CSY Man]

I started this sport 33 years ago in my 20s: Moved to the Virgin Islands and bought a boat to sail and live on.
People of all ages in the marinas and in the anchorages, all good people and we had lots of fun and I learned a lot from all of them, especially the greybeards who had been there and done that before me.
It never ever occurred to me, or crossed my mind to look for younger cruising grounds, life was perfect with cool folks of all ages doing the same thing we did.
Perhaps you should try a different sport, skateboarding maybe?