How old are you?

Hi Mary,
I am older than the average so far. I am also already in 2003 before most of you. Just want to let you know that it's not too bad.
Keep up the good work Mary and Rick.
Happy New Year to everybody.

Are there really 12% in the 81-85yrs. age bracket?

I was wondering the same thing. I think I should ask them all to report to me individually by e-mail to verify.

I personally would love to know if they are still active in sailing? My father was still flying in his 70s (with a copilot) so perhaps I can look forward to sailing in those golden years. I would like to think that age alone would not deter us from sailing.

bob klein

Ted Cross from Tacoma, WA was an active Hobie sailor for the past 30 years. He did several Midwinters West in Mexico, I think his last was two years ago. Last year Ted turned 80 and finally sold his Hobie 17.

Caleb Tarleton H-17

I know a feller in Beaufort NC whose seen a couple years (but not in heart) and STILL sails his two H17's and a H16.

He gave me a new mast when I broke mine... quite a guy.

Only 10 percent are under 30. Only 37 percent are under 40. That was a big surprise for me - At 43, I guess I'm pretty average on this scale.

Jonathan

The numbers look interesting. Why is it that there are so few people under 30who are sailing cats? I suspect that it is the cost that is keeping them away.Its too bad, because getting young sailors is key to our sport.
Dave

I wouldn't say the results show the age distribution of catamaran sailors. Rather that they show the age distribution of the folks participating in this board. It interesting though - I thought there would be a younger mean.

Actually, it looks about right. Back when we started doing seminars in 1989, from then through most of the '90's, the average age of the sailors who came to our seminars was 39 (and that's for all different kinds of boats, not just catamarans). It's starting to move up a bit, but still holding pretty close to that age. You have to throw out the 81-85ers because even though you can sail forever, there are not really that many people that age sailing beach cats in the United States).

And you have to remember that the younger generation probably isn't able to vote in this poll, because if YOU "vote," your wife and your children can't, since it is one entry per computer.

In fact, Rick could not even vote for his age bracket, since I had already voted for mine, and because of that, the 61-65 bracket still has NOBODY.So just for the record, he is at least one in the 61-65 bracket.

I don't know for sure, but I think that is true of all kinds of sailboats, and I think it has always been that way. Even the people who are sailing as children and teenagers usually drop out for a number of years. College plus maybe grad school, then starting a career, paying back student loans, etc. If no college, then usually marriage, children, trying to buy a house, etc. As you said, it usually comes down to money during that period in the 20's.

A lot of young, single adults who come out of sailing programs or racing teams opt to crew on big monohulls -- free ride, free food, free beer, and sometimes even a bunk for the night.

I think it's pretty common for people to not get back into sailing (or start sailing) with their own boat until they are somewhere in their 30's. So when we talk about getting more young people into the sport, actually people in their 30's ARE the young people.

And, on the other hand, we also lose a bunch of people in their 30's for sometimes as much as a decade while they are going through child-rearing years, and some re-surface when they are in their 40's.

If we are talking about sailboat racing, it is much more demanding timewise than most other sports when you figure that to attend a regatta, you often have to leave right after work on Friday and don't get home until late Sunday. So time can be as big an issue as money. So you need to be at a point in your life where you have disposable income and available time.

Okay, those are just age-related factors. There are lots more factors that determine when and if people get into sailing or leave sailing, but that's for another thread.

Whoops, just thought of another age-related thing -- people in their teens and 20's sometimes are involved in more physically demanding, and body-damaging, sports (e.g. motocross). When they get to the point where they cannot do those sports any more, they turn to something like sailing that they are able to do for the rest of their lives and still have the challenge of competition.

I took a look at the entrants in last year's Worrell 1000 and found an average age of 37 (for what it's worth).

Mary,

You are describing me to a tee. I started sailing at 15, small monos and crewed for my dad on H16 and TheMightyHobie18. I went off to college, then grad school and didn't step foot on a boat. After travelling for a while, I finally settled down a couple of years ago. At the time, I was involved in windsurfing. I eventually got bored of that and bought a TheMightyHobie18 last year. I am really excited to be back in the sport now at 32.

I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying. It was very hard for me to find the time to sail during college and even harder while traveling. Now that I'm settled, I'm back in the sport. Having said that, I never would have gotten 'back' in the sport had I not started in the sport. It is nice to see so many people getting in the youth movement to introduce youngsters to sailing.

Happy sailing!

Kip
Boise

I'm getting ready to leave college, and intend on crewing on big mono's, but my love will always be my cat. I don't know about you Mary, but when I sail, its always "bodily damaging"

re: Golden year sailing

We have a local cat sailor who is 75 yrs old. He is retired and gets out several times a week on his H-16 during the summer. He just got in to sailing a few years ago and loves it. He prefers leisurely sailing, but I have had him out on my boat flying a hull several times. I still feel sorry for the time he was out with me and we were double trapped downwind, hit a wave and he went flying up into the bridal foil before we flipped. My mother in law in her early 60's goes out with him some times. (See attached photo)

On the opposite side, I know another cat sailing couple in there mid to late 20's. We were at a 40th birthday party for another cat sailor. They were amazed that he was still sailing actively at 40.

Mary, This may be for another thread, but when you mentioned how time consuming it was to attend a 2 day regatta it got me thinking. We have found in our fleet that regatta attendance is down and this year we are going to try to focus the fleet to commit as a group to attend a limited selection of local (1 day) and divisional (2 day) regattas. I wonder if we couldn't generate more regatta attendance if we had more 1 day events. Then one can do the chores at home as well as race on the weekend. These would inevitably be more local events as one wouldn't want to travel too far for only one day of sailing.

I understand why there aren't many sailors under 30, yet its kind of discouraging. I began racing with my dad religiously when I was 10 on nacra 5.5sl's and I remember there were so many young adults that were racing on everything from hobies and prindles to nacras. Now, in my early 20's, everyone else that races with us is at least late 30's. I consider myself fortunate, I have raced on hobie 18s, 17s, nacra 5.8s, 6.0s, and all the Inters. I purchased a Formula 18 at the end of last season, but the boats that most young people can afford aren't being raced anymore because they are viewed as not competetive. At one of our regattas someone actually told me that they wouldn't come back and race with their boat again because it was a hobie 20, and even though they were a decent sailor, they didn't feel competetive. The point I'm getting to is people have to start and learn somewhere, and sometimes the high preformance boats aren't the place to do it. But the boats such as the hobies, prindles, and now even the nacras seem to be being phased out. I guess I'd just like to see more young people getting into sailing and not feeling so left out because they can't afford speed.

Leah

Coming from the monohull side, my h17 is plenty fast right now... but you're right, I find myself desiring the faster boats. Hell, I'm even caught in a "keeping up with the jones'" with my friend Robert and his SX, makes it kind of fun; but I understand what you're saying. I really don't feel like showing up at some open class event, especially a distance race where there are all-carbon tornado's and inter20's and getting my butt handed to me by superior sailors and superior machines. This is especially disheartening because I am so young, and feel that distance races are the way to race catamarans.

Let the flames begin but I have to pull out the stops on this thread.

Much (not all) of today's teens and young men have more diversions and an inclination toward "smaller sports" and less ambition to aquire a catamaran than previous generations.

Among the ones that ARE participating in a sport, the equipment is cheaper and more portable than a boat: wakeboard, surfboard, bicycle, skateboard, kneeboard, boogie board (did I mention all the boards?), joystick games.

An incredible portion of todays younger people are too fat to hoist themselves onto a boat.

If it requires reading a book the majority of today's youth are just plain turned-off by that fact.

Today, lotsa teens and twenty-somethings continue to live in Mom's nest as long as they can. There is no longer a stigma attached to staying with Mummy. They're not the type to get their own crib much less a boat and vehicle to haul it around.

I have umpteen neices and nephews. The number of them that would get on a beach cat in a heartbeat can be counted on my fingers with both hands amputated. (Mysterious to me but somehow understandable to their Mom's.)

It's sad but true that, under 30 and into the 30's, young people with access to water that can float a boat are more interested in a less strenuous and hassle-free lifestyle than it takes to support a sailboat of any type.

I don't paint the whole population under forty but a disturbingly number of today's young americans are leading a "maggot lifestyle": plump, white, duh, and sheltered. Maggots don't sail.

From a boomer's perspective I have to wonder if the cool of a multihull is viewed as a kind of geek thing these days.

i'll agree that there are many much faster boats than hobie, nacra, and prindles. i'd like to see what one of those really light, fast, and thinly glassed cats would look like after 10 or 20 years of sailing up onto a beach. i beat the hell out of my prindle 16, andt it has held up extremely well. some of us just enjoy pulling up onto a quiet beach, having lunch, and then taking a few fast runs up and down the beach, and if you ask me, you can't beat one of these workhorses for doing just that. sailing is supposed to be fun, and not just competative. i bet i have just as much fun running up and down the beach against another hobie or prindle (nacra too) as anybody else in a race.

I'm not sure if this has happened to anyone else but when I tried to vote it said a vote had already come from this IP address. This is not the first time this has happened to me on this forum. No, I haven't turned this box on for about two weeks so no one else could have voted. Any ideas?

Mike

After reading all these treads, I think it is all the more remarkable that Keith Notary won the US Tornado Nationals at the age of 14 in the 70's, and how unlikely it is for a teen nowadays.

statistics is not my favorite subject, but if you throw out the 81-85 category, you have a classic bell curve.

Dean,

Off topic, sorry, but just read your bio and see you sail a Rave, they have just come over to the UK and I was wondering what they were like. How easy is it to get up on the foils?

Well, I am 28. I started sailing cats and some dingy's when I was 13 at the same beach I still call home. 15 years later, I am the second youngest sailor on the beach most weekends. I went to college and grad. school.

From my perspective, there are 4 pretty good reasons there are not more "young" sailors:

1. I travel to Australia for work from time to time and have found that the US takes "careers" much more seriously. The goals most college students have relate to a future career success, not really future lifestyle success. Many are focused on getting a management job and status symbols. I say work to live, not live to work. Success isn't the corner office. Success is getting a company to bankroll my life... ha ha ha.

2. Unbelievably horrid marketing on the part of beachcat mfg's and dealers. I take a lot of first-timers sailing every summer and the majority are so suprised how fun it is and that they could get a cat for less than $2000 for recreation. What the heck happened to the "Hobie Lifestyle". Why does Nacra's website look like a 12yr old made it? Geeezzz... come on. They both have great products!

3. Mediocre racing classes. I have always been of the mindset that if you want to run a race, you go by boat size, not make/model. Divide the race up into >17' and <17.1' and keep it open to all types of boats. The guys that are serious about racing will have the latest and greatest stuff. The people that are out for fun will do their thing and most will get out of the way of the serious people. Toss out those boat ratings. Toss out the standard race course. Do something inventive.

4. Sailing is a lifestyle. It is spiritual. To lump it in with football and baseball is really dumb to me. It is up to us as seasoned sailors to convey that message every chance we get. Wind may make the boat go forward, but sailors make the lifestyle go forward.

Great post! Great observations!

you're only 28? Can you prove it? I never thought that way when I was 28, but I wish I had... would have saved me some time.

Keep up the INclusive rather than EXclusive attitude.

John

Well John, the internet is a tricky place... ha ha ha

In April I will be documenting a complete overhaul of a Nacra 5.2 on the internet. Part of the documentation will of course, be photos and I will be in some of them so I will keep everyone in the loop. Nothing like photographic proof of age... ha ha ha

I was burnt out for a while on sailing, so I picked up windsurfing, but as far as I am concerned, a beer, a babe and a boat is heaven to me.

flouder: I'm kind of sort of documenting the overhaul of my H17, the hull refinishing at any rate. Its fun, and it gives me the feeling that I'm helping out other people along the road too.