How many “normal” yachts are there globally?

[Johan Leopard51]

If one ignores at the high end the super yachts and at the low end the small recreational open boats (hobie and such) and defined a “normal” yacht as being 2 to 10 sleeper, under $5m (good enough cut-off???) : how many are there globally?

It seems hard to find good data. Playing with registers and making assumptions I think around 3 million if include the inland lake yachts.

Why? Partly for interest but also trying to understand why StarLink is being so short-sighted with their packages for us normal people.

If I use a SL Mini bobbing about in Indian Ocean I am probably one of 12 vessels that the virtually idle SL satellite can see and I must pay $250pm for 50Gb not able to pause the subscription, while an RV parked in New Jersey pays $100 for unlimited.

[Shrew]

You make the assumption there are enough satellites for both geographical coverage and bandwidth. (There are not).

If Elon musk is going to send 100's of millions of dollars worth of satellites into space to cover the few hundred customer's in the middle of the Indian Ocean, those looking for service in that area are going to pay for it.

A Starlink satellite has a estimated lifespan of 5 years and SpaceX is on target to put 42,000 satellites in space.

You're considered an Early Adopter. Early Adopters are the ones that pay for it. Think back to the $1,000 Laser Disk Player in the mid 1980's.

Who is short sighted here?

[Kettlewell]

Only a tiny fraction of normal yachts ever sail out of cellphone coverage. Most people who are not voyagers and liveaboards (probably less than 1% of normal yachts) are not customers for Starlink.

[Johan Leopard51]

Shrew, the SL satellites are not geo-stationary, they orbit earth about every 90 minutes. So Satellite 12345 passes over South America quickly, encounters some traffic, then big empty run over Atlantic, then bit of traffic over Africa, then huge empty section. Yes I know orbit paths don’t follow latitudes but you know what I mean.

SL cannot have 5000 over tristate area and 50 over the Indian Ocean even if he stood on his head.

Anyway : does anybody know how many “normal” yachts there are?

[Johan Leopard51]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Only a tiny fraction of normal yachts ever sail out of cellphone coverage. Most people who are not voyagers and liveaboards (probably less than 1% of normal yachts) are not customers for Starlink.

Interesting - mobile phone coverage is only say 6 nautical miles from a mast?

Maybe us wanderers should collect marine garbage in exchange for a SL mobile roam package