Latest Sailing Trends! Shared boating, co-ownership

Let me take you back...

Until the middle of the 20th century, sailing was called "yachting", and was the preserve of an elite few who belonged to the upper social classes. In short, only the well-off could afford to go sailing for pleasure, whilst others went out to sea to feed themselves. The opening up of the sailing world began in the early sixties. The advent of production line boats that were easier to manage and sail, and which were most importantly cheaper, opened up the pleasures of sailing to whole swathes of the population. Big races such as the OSTAR and then the Route du Rhum were responsible for a generation of youngsters dreaming about sailing and then cutting their teeth on Optimists, 420s and then Hobie 16s...
The 70s welcomed a new generation of long haired sailors who wanted to see the world. For them, a boat was a practical and economical way for them to fulfill their dream. They ploughed the furrow which is still followed by today's round the world sailors, and even today they have a similar outlook, hoping to meet new people and taking the time to enjoy their dream!
Over 40 years the profile of typical boat owners has not changed that much. There are the mad keen sailors who want to race every weekend, families who want to spend time with their children and to help them broaden their experiences, and those who set out with friends or family, hoping to get the most out of their boat, which is the apple of their eye... And one of the greatest challenges when one becomes the owner of a boat, is to build a crew around you which is as motivated and passionate as the skipper, so that you can go sailing regularly and really make the most of your boat.

An idyllic anchorage shared with friends: magic!

It's All About Sharing...

At sea, life is all about sharing. On board we share everything: from the living space which is tighter than on land, to the dream anchorages, taking down the sails in the middle of the night when the wind gets up or motoring into port in the dead calm, not to mention the pasta cooked in sea water and the fillets of mahi-mahi Tahitian-style. The boat is a microcosm of life, and life is all about being together, communicating and sharing with those around us.
Yet as on dry land, this idea of sharing is also changing at sea, and there are more and more people who are looking to make the most of their boat in different ways through a more developed kind of collaboration.
The first people to suggest a different way of enjoying sailing were of course the charter companies. From the early 70s on we saw charter hubs pop up in the most beautiful places across our blue planet: the BVIs, the Grenadines, the Bahamas, Greece, Polynesia, Australia, Asia... Today we can discover the world and even sail around it on a rented boat (check out our article on this subject in our Special edition Nç3 which is still available at multihulls-world.com). This way of sailing and discovering is definitely having ...