ParleyII wrote:
Guess which boat everyone (all the young H.S. students and home for summer college students) wants to come look at? Guess which boat all the hotties want to check out? Answer: "That cool boat with the big white sails"!!
I'm 34 (for one more week) but I had the same experience earlier this year at a lake in NZ. We were the only sailing boat around amongst lots of skiing and wakeboarding boats. I was sailing 6+ hours a day taking people out and there was still a lengthy queue when we left 4 days later. Since then one 20 year old has bought a H16 and another guy is looking. The teenagers all said having the H16 there was the highlight of the weekend. We're going to visit them again in 2 weekends time for a repeat.
I think the teenagers just need some exposure to sailing, and to go for a ride and then many of them would take sailing up. After all, surfing, wakeboarding, skiing, snowboarding are all sports that you have to learn - sailing is just another. The "instant gratifcation" crowd will never be interested but there are lots of youngsters who will be keen to try out.
My oldest kid is nearly turning 10 and is keen to come sailing. Lots of his friends (and their parents) are extremely interested to so. Many times I'm taking newbies out and they all definitely want to come again. Maybe we'll all have to spend time recruiting our friends and their families and make an effort just to go down and take them for a ride.