12 NATCHEZ ON THE WATERFRONT


Where have all the sailors gone?


By Dan Natchez* S


tatistics from most corners of the globe are showing that the recreational boating industry is losing


sailors. Many organisations are spending large allocations of their operating budgets seeking to reverse this trend. I believe the reasons lie in at


least two fundamental areas that can be grouped together under the banners of demographics and costs/ repairs/service.


Demographics The demographics are suggesting that young people are not coming into boating in any substantial numbers, the existing boating population is getting older and many older sailors and those that have come to boating in the last few years are getting out of the market. There are, of course, exceptions.


Paddle boards are the fastest- growing boating market worldwide and kayaks are not far behind. What is interesting is that both the young and middle-aged are flocking to this new sport, which is fun, easy to learn, does not take a lot of preparation, is a low-cost entry and, most important, is becoming the ‘in thing’. At the other end of the spectrum, the mega and superyacht markets remain strong in most areas of the world, with this market limited to the top economic strata, but no one is disputing the conclusion that we are losing leisure sailors big time. In spite of the more recent stats


showing that boat sales in the US are up, in both Dollars and units, and surveys showing relatively high levels of participation in boating and related watersports, when you look at the boat registration numbers there is some very clear trending downwards. The


MARINA ASIA-PACIFIC • MAY 2016


Paddle boards are the fastest-growing boating market worldwide.


registration numbers ultimately look particularly bad in many of those areas that have been seeing the most population growth, yet declining boat registrations. Focusing on the straight-up


demographics, the average age of the typical boat-buyer continues to creep higher, in essence following the post WWII ‘Baby Boomers’ as they grow older. With so many potential retirees, one might expect a ‘golden years’ boating boom, but the average retirement age also is tending to creep higher and the number of retirees with actual government/company pensions or who feel they have adequate savings for retirement is decreasing. Next down in age are the


Generation X-ers, generally considered to be those born between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s, and who fill the gap between the ‘Baby Boomers’ and


the ‘Millennials’. However, they don’t really ‘fill’ the gap on a straight numbers basis as they are the generation of the baby bust that followed the baby boom. More so than the already retired or retiring ‘Boomers’, they are also looking at their savings in comparison to their long-term financial needs in retirement, as well as the current or expected costs for their children’s education, weddings and so on, and many are not feeling so confident that they are willing to take on additional heavy expenses. The consensus seems to be that, while they should not be written off since they are coming into their theoretically highest-earning years, there is relatively little expectation that they will significantly grow the number of leisure sailors. Most eyes are therefore looking


towards the so-called ‘Millennials’, whose numbers are structurally


comparable to the ‘Boomers’, as the up-and-coming market. Of course many in this generation are coming out of college saddled with debt, particularly in the US and UK, and many find themselves in a challenging job market. So far, the ‘Millennials’ have not been flocking to boating in great numbers and getting and keeping their attention is likely to be even more challenging than with older people. Not so long ago, it had come to


be pretty standard that your typical family had a working father and a stay-at-home mother, and come the weekend, if dad wanted to go sailing or play golf he went, maybe with the wife and/or kids, maybe not. He set his agenda and it primarily focused on his priorities. Jump forward to the present and


the chances are that both husband and wife are working, both share in all of the family household chores


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