How old?

I am 42, I learned to sail on my brother's Ventura 22 in 1993, then moved up to a 26ft AMF Paceship. I bought my 1980 H16 in 2001. I love the Hobie the best!
John G.

I'm 60, and my H-18SX two sailing partners are 40 and 50, respectively. I started sailing with a used Banshee in 1978, a couple used 14' Lasers through the 80's, a used H-17 for a couple years around 1990, a couple used H-16's since..and the used H-18SX this year.

The 40yo grew up sailing H-16's as a teen, home built a 44' ketch to sail the world, but unfortunately did not get off Lake Michigan. He's a great sailor.

The 50yo bought an in-law's 23' day sailor, and found out he loved beach cats 8 years ago.

This spring, summer and fall's sailing has been terrific. Life is great! Thanks to all for such a wonderful forum!

52 here. Just celebrated my 30th racing season. Been sailing Hobie's since 1976. Started out on a 16 and now on my 10th boat (Tiger). I may be getting older but I refuse to grow up

John Bauldry
Commodore, Hobie Fleet 276
Detroit, MI
Hobie 16 #22820 (1976-1979)
Hobie 18 #1049 (1979-1982)
Hobie 18 #5802 (1982-1988)
Hobie 18 #12705 (1988-1991)
Hobie 17#4297 (1991-1993)
Hobie 17 #826 (1993-2002)
Hobie 20 #389 (1996-2000)
Hobie 20 #826 (2000-2002)
Hobie Tiger #1112 (2002-2005)
Hobie Tiger #1704 (2005-present)

I'm 29... Just started sailing this year! I got bored with jet skiing and powerboating after 15+ years on the lake... needed something new, something FUN and I found it!

Spent a couple weeks on the East Coast (vineyard) sailing with my uncle on his 37' tartan, after that I was hooked!

I'm 26 and have been sailing since I was 3 (in fact I still have my first life vest). In recent years I've converted a number of new Hobie sailors, and we all sail boats older than we are. However, as the poll states most hobie sailors I run across rival my Dad's age, who still sails as well.

Thomas

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Hobie 18 - 3169
star light, star bright... starboard is on the right

I'm 36 and my skipper is 51.....Age is all in one's mind.....sailing keeps you young

Looks like im one of the youngest here at 21 years-old. I've been sailing hobie all my life, and have been racing them since I was 13.

After reading some of the posts on here about finding more young sailors I remember why I was the only one of my friends who started sailing. I bought my first boat during my last summer in college. I decided I could get a loan for tuition and I wanted to have some fun. Sailing in the summer was easy enough as I had a place to store the boat and a vehicle that could reliably tow it. When I went back to school I was lucky enough to have the school sailing club let me store the boat on thier property and launch it there as well.

The two things that made having the boat a bit of a pain are 1) storage and 2) a tow vehicle.

As I think of what most young people have available in these two areas I realize why none of my friends picked up the sport of cat sailing. I had an old truck that ran most of the time. They either didn't have a car or access to one or thier cars were in no shape to pull a trailer of any weight, let alone any passengers.

I have been very fortunate with my luck in finding places to store the boat that won't break the bank. I am still living in apartments and a huge limiting factor when I look for a new place is will I have boat storage.

Looking at this I think the best way to get more young people into cat sailing is by having a place to store the boats so they don't need to trailer them to the water and back home every time they want to go sailing. Heck, I would be on the water more if I had mast up storage. By having these places I think they would naturally turn into sailing clubs which would offer a social aspect as well.

I don't think the cost is a major detractor as it was mentioned how much more expensive mountain biking can be. But, you can store a bike in your living room and you only need to install a roof rack on your car. These are things most college and HS age kids are willing to do.

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Nick

Current Boat
In the market
Previous boats owned
'74 Pearson 30
'84 H16
'82 H18 Magnum
St. Louis, MO

Nick, all good points, and solutions were are trying to provide in Seattle. At Sail Sand Point, see www.sailsandpoint.org, we are providing low cost boat storage right on Lake Washington. No trailer required, we even provide the Cat Trax. Low cost boats are available locally, and our fleet is growing. Also, the added Hobie 16 classes are helping. There are now five Hobie Waves, and four Hobie 16's in our fleet, with more to come as additional boats are donated, and fixed up by our local sailors. Hobie 101 and 102 taught by local volunteers provides a low cost one day introduction to new sailors and begining racers. Using our Waves in free Fast and Fun events also helps build interest in cat sailing locally.
Caleb Tarleton
Sail Sand Point
US SAILING Multihull Council
H-17 6446

After reading another post about dealers getting invovled in the recruiting it made me think some more.

When I joined the sailing club in college (for boat storage as mentioned above) I noticed that only baout 20% of the members had sailed before. Take into account I went to Purdue in Indiana. We don't have much water there. Anyway, the club was self sufficient and was even able to buy more boats as the numbers grew. Some creative deals were made for land and they did receive some boats as donations.

The more experience memebers taught the newbies. We were actually able to race and do faily well against other Big 10 school clubs. People with cars would drive those without to the boat house. The dues were $30 per semester.

What ended up happening is there were about 30 recreational sailors that now had boats to use and there were about 5 racers who taught the mto sail. This was very nice for those who didn't have the room or the money to store or maintain a boat.

It seems that if we want youtz to start sailing cats (or sail at all) college clubs would be a good way to get people involved. Most established college clubs in the midwest were for mono's. It would be nice to get few cat clubs at some schools close enough togeather that students can travel to race.

I'm sure all of this has been done before, but it may be worth reinvestigating. To reinvigorate the sport it will take effort on all of our parts weather it is donating time to fix up boats for others to use, or teaching newbies to sail, or organizing a club, etc.

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Nick

Current Boat
In the market
Previous boats owned
'74 Pearson 30
'84 H16
'82 H18 Magnum
St. Louis, MO

I would think doing live demos or promos at the larger (crowded) pubic beaches, parks, and lakes would be great for bringing people of all ages into the sport. All it takes is for kids to realize how much fun it is to trap out and they'd be hooked.

Is it OK to count half-years after age 10?

Lots of good ideas for getting younger sailors interested here.

Here's another one: consider starting up a Sailing Venture Crew.

Venture is an arm of Scouting but does not involve uniforms and rank advancement. It is for boys and girls age 14 to 21. You can involve kids from area Scout troops too. This gives you the advantage of using local Council to get the word out to the kids about your Sailing Crew. Registration with the BSA also gives you insurance coverage, so that is one less thing to worry about.

There may even be a Venture Crew or Sea Scouts in your area.

PS: Hobie donated a whole fleet of Hobie Waves for the last National Boy Scout Jamboree. What a beautiful sight on the lake. Thanks Hobie!!

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The fact that this windy world is largely covered in water obviously means that man was meant to sail.

age is a good indication of who is buying/using your Hobie product...to really see the gap, why dont you do a poll of income? Might just help your marketing dept and engineering to come up with a boat in a range that no one else is tapping....

Age and Income?

Storage, Income... certainly were considerations in developing the roto molded products like the Wave. Inexpensive, car toppable and easy to store away.

Here is a recent email from US Sailing...

Not all is lost. We are attracting youth.

>>US SAILOR Of The Week
Mike Siau

Mike Siau from Syracuse, NY, bought his first Hobie 16, off the side of the road for $650 of his own money, at age 16. His mom made a call to local Hobie Fleet 204 and dad brought him to that Thursday night’s fleet race. The rest is history. Mike is a part of the growing number of Hobie youths in the northeast. On any given day during the summer you can find Mike and a pack of Fleet 204 kids in the middle of Oneida Lake, blasting around, flying a hull and sometimes flipping over. If there isn’t any wind, they load as many kids as possible onto a Hobie 16 for some fun. Packed with kids and barely above sinking, they head out onto the lake for “hull jumping." The gang flips the boat and take turns jumping from the top hull. In 2005, Mike teamed up with local Optimist star Sam Ingham in 2005 to win the U.S. Youth Multihull Championship. Later that year, the pair also went to South Africa for their first Hobie 16 World Championship. Mike Siau is leading the charge for the next generation of Hobie sailors and making some of the old stalwarts proud in the process. >>

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

You mean the National Jamboree in Virginia in 2005?

Those were Bravos - 20 of them. And they weren't exactly donated. But the Scounts did get a good deal.

Brian C