I keep my boat at the last marina with de-masting facilities on the southern end of Lake Champlain. The waterway serves as an access route to the Hudson River via the Champlain Canal, and thence the Intercoastal Waterway, which in turn leads to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. The route serves not only the US, but also Canada as far west as Lake Superior.

The marina owners claim that in years past, they would demast over one hundred boats that were headed south for the winter, and re-mast an equal number returning in the spring. This number has decreased to a relative handful. New York State has begun curtailing the Fall schedule on the locks because of declining user numbers.

I had a conversation with a dealer who focuses on trailable sailboats 20' and under, as well as paddle-powered craft and small motor boats. He claimed that in the years he's had his business, he's seen a sharp decline in sales of boats capable of even weekend cruising. People that are interested in the water are satisfied with spending a few hours, and then returning to the land of wi-fi.

The vessels that get  the most action at our marina are those with the simplest sail plans. Two catboats go out frequently, as well as a Drascombe Lugger. The thirty-plus foot rigs with multiple headsails spend the season largely at moorings, although a handful head south for the winter. Our aging boating population would benefit from re-examining their rigs. While a Marconi rig might give a few seconds edge on a triangular course around the buoys, traditional rigs such as the gaff, lug, and of course junk rigs pay fairly large dividends in ease of use in actual cruising.

Michael Thompson wrote:

 Boats are increasingly cheap to buy but expensive to maintain. We get lots of new sailors planning to acquire 30ft+ boats inquiring about membership. I try to talk them down and explain how the economics of sailing works. We don't want members who will walk away from (ie abandon) their boats in a couple of years, which is another thing that happens pretty regularly.

Good for you. It's good for the would-be-disappointed and it's good for your club.

Looks like I'm bucking the trend, down here.  Some other Kiwi members are also building a Gary Underwood 'Shoehorn', but there are nowhere near as many home-build projects here as there used to be.  But with the knockdown price of so many -particularly smaller - second-hand boats, there's not much reason to build your own, unless you want to, or want something out of the ordinary.

Certainly in the UK, sailing is still seen as something of an elitist sport.  The assumption by many is thay you need to be rich to take part.  

I came into sailing through my father's interest.  In turn his interest was spurred on by coverage in national newspapers.  The golden globe, the mirror dinghy, the observer transatlantic race etc. etc all pushed by national media outlets.  It seems rare to see any sailing coverage in the press these days, and when you do see any (in the British press at least) it's about the America's cup and the billions being spent.....

The days of building something and sailing it seem to have vanished from the public eye, not helped, I suspect, by things like the EU small craft directive.

Peter

I don't think it's income we should solely be looking at, Chris. Income by age is surely declining, so boat ownership ought to be moving up the age scale. Seems that way where we've been cruising in recent years - UK south coast and Brittany, now in La Rochelle, France. We mostly see young people on the 20 footers, oldies like me on 30-40 footers; anything over that is usually hired, so mixed ages. There seems to be no shortage of private and hire boats in France: marinas are full of plastic wherever you go, with oddballs DIY-ing old boats all over the place. But then the attitude of the French to sailing is so different to the UK: here people almost expect others to sail. In the UK at least it's still seen as an elitist 'Howard's Way' sport.

Great to see JRA membership still growing. Perhaps those who are members of 'real' yacht clubs can let us know through these pages how their memberships are going...