A high price to pay?
I have read with interest the analysis on the state of sailing in the UK in the October issue of YM.
I welcome the fact that this magazine is talking about the increasingly visible state of impending crisis facing sailing. The reasons are profound and partly explained in the articles.
The yearly costs of maintaining a small boat easily exceeds its value. The costs of berthing, even in marinas which offer modest services, are completely unreasonable and detached from the actual cost of providing the services ( just another variant of land speculation).
My impression is that the market is split between boat owners who are already trying to sell their boat and those, still many but certainly a happy elite, who are significantly wealthier than the average or are enjoying their last seasons and can accept being squeezed for a few more years. The pricing of everything is based on the relatively high propensity to spend of that elite, which is in fact supporting the whole industry. The spend of that elite is not being replaced.
I’ve owned a boat since I was 17 and can’t imagine not owning one. I am prepared to sustain the economic sacrifices that are involved because sailing has always been part of my life and is an everlasting passion. But younger people I sail with, also very passionate but more critical, find it absurd that the costs of berthing, insuring and maintaining a 27ft boat is comparable to the cost of renting their flat. Indeed it is absurd.
Thanks for having at least opened this important discussion.