THE OPINION Where is boating going? Away from young people. Do you agree?

What will boating in Italy look like in a few years? Which shipowners will you target? What will be the evolution of the market? These are the questions that our reader Andrea Foschini asked himself and that prompted him to write his reflections to us. Reflections and considerations, as he puts it, debatable and counter debatable. Let us know if you agree with him or think differently: just comment on the article or on social media!

Where boating is going

What will boating in Italy look like in a few years? Which shipowners will you target?

These are legitimate questions that any market asks, from automotive to food, from fashion to social. Businesses look ahead, often to grow, sometimes to differentiate, sometimes to survive. Nothing to object to the forecasts for the next five years and the orders acquired by shipyards for the next two years, tangible signs of the sector’s moment of health, but a reflection on how boating in Italy will evolve I think is appropriate. I have my own, personal one, which like all opinions is debatable and questionable.

When I look at the next generation, those who are school/college age today, I see kids who are no longer chasing certain stereotypes, such as the fancy car, the jacket with the high-fashion tie or the mega mansion. Rather, I see young people who use electric scooters to get around, who are in jeans and sneakers when they have to attend some occasion, and who look for an Ikea-furnished studio apartment to live in.

If our generation benefited from an undisputed fairly widespread economic prosperity, which allowed the second house or boat, today, except for a few increasingly rare cases, our children will not be left important capital; in fact, perhaps they will be the ones who will help some parents from the point of view of support.

Sport is one of the main circumstances that brings sailing closer to children, but it must be a non-elitist sailing, a sailing for all. The classics, such as Rolex circuits, for example, are in danger of getting far enough away from this world that it has to approach sailing for the first time, so only the regattas organized by clubs remain. But it is not with sport that marina docks are filled.

Continuing my reflection, we have witnessed in the auto industry a rapid shift from chasing ever-larger sizes to the pursuit of smaller vehicles: today, instead of mega SUVs, the more modest crossovers are being sold.

Houses, we are seeing smaller and smaller, but more rational and sustainable constructions.

Fashion has cleared the way, even on the most formal occasions, for simple and increasingly less elegant (in the common sense of the term and the imagery that for years marked elegance) clothes.

Where have the small boats gone?

Boating in my view is bucking the trend.

Objective the fact that in boat shows finding a boat is increasingly difficult, as is finding a sailboat under 150000 €.

Looking back, the golden years of our shipbuilding industry, a pioneer of boating in Italy (and then sadly disappearing with the various crises or the equally various fashions) go back less than 50 years. Comar, Alpa, Barberis, just to name a few in the way of sailing, until twenty or thirty years ago were building boats for a boating for all. Those who were wealthier afforded the 12-meter (a splendid example the Alpa 12.50), those with some savings and a lot of passion “settled” for a Comet 8.50 or its wooden rival, the beautiful Passatore.

This context allowed for the development of the industry, the entire boating industry, which I see on the horizon today becoming impoverished. I am not talking in terms of economics as much as in terms of people who make their living from boating.

Seventy-foot sailboats make maybe six, ten at most in a year, 90-foot motor yachts as many.

The most structured shipyards can build about fifty boats a year, in borderline cases a hundred. They remain very important numbers as turnover, but very small for a country that boasts 8,000 km of coastline. Of beautiful coastlines.

Is chartering the solution?

Is chartering the solution? In part, yes, but often a sailor who goes sailing one week a year is not the same sailor who is also an owner. And still, even with the charter, we will not fill the docks of the marinas.

What I see today is that boating is driving people away from this world because it increasingly puts a barrier, an economic one, to access it, which is unaffordable for most.

America’s Cup, Ocean Race, what audience follows them today?

I don’t see the passion in the people I know from the days of Azzurra or the first Luna Rossa.

I think that boating should play an important role in the industrial and artisanal fabric of our country and that it is essential to downsize it, to return to putting passion ahead of size.

I think if we don’t bring kids closer to the sea, boating in a few years will suffer, because we won’t have generations interested in sailing or more generally passionate about going to sea.

We should take an example from the bicycle

Thirty years ago, practicing the sport of cycling (racing was the model of excellence) was within everyone’s reach. For less than a million of the old liras you would get a nice frame, a decent gearbox (was the dilemma Campagnolo or Shimano?) and more than good clothing. Today the bicycle has produced a huge variety of frames, racing, beach, dirt, everything, raising the cost of bicycles enormously, but leaving the possibility for those who have 500 euros in their pockets to spend to do the sport. Many more people ride bicycles for sport today than 30 years ago.

I conclude only by inviting the Shipyards to think about returning to fill the market with watercraft, small size, no non-essential accessories for sailing, somewhat for all budgets.

We may not return to the days of sailing Vauriens or Caravels in the Lagoon, staying overnight in tents (although these are thrills that no large yacht can provide), but from 20 to 30 feet it is reasonable to invest for the future.

If not out of passion, at least to secure future generations as customers.

Good wind to everyone!

Andrea Foschini*

*Andrea Foschini, with his association Sailing and Wood, is involved in building, restoring and sailing school on wooden boats and Shipwright Training

What do you think? Do you agree or do you think there are many other “outlets” in sailing for young people? Let us know!