I'm a lazy butt, always have been. And I hate getting up really early (6am or earlier) and -driving- 2 hours on my days off, never mind all the beer I could have bought with the gas money.

I'd join a sailing club (Dinghy or cat, or both) in a NY minute if there was one close to where I live. "Close" being a 30 minute drive, or less.

There are several great dinghy and cat clubs down here in FL, but they are all at least 90 minutes to 2 hours drive, one way, from where I live. Then add the 2 hours to set up a spinnaker cat on a trailer, and another 2 to take it apart and load it back on the trailer, and a possible DUI on the drive home...well...that's why I bought a place on a lake.

I leave my boat set up, ready to go, in 10 minutes I can go from my kitchen table to sailing. Problem is, I'm the only one out on the lake! There are lots of bass boats, pontoon boats and jet ski's, but no other sailboats, makes it hard to "Practice" starts...

When I lived up north, I was a club member for many years t a couple different clubs over the years. I kept my boat(s) at the club, ready to go. They had racing every single weekend, big boats on Saturday (J-24's on up to 45'), dinghys on Sunday (Laser). Then there was the Beer Can racing, Lasers on Weds. nights, keel boats on Thursday nights. I loved it and made as much of that as I could.

Of course I was single then...with no kids.

But the season was pretty short up there and the water was cold, even in August! Most clubs up there are only open from Memorial day to Labor day, that's why they race -every- weekend in those few short months.

If I lived closer to Gulfport or Lake Eustis, or Sarasota or Miami, I'd be a member at one of those clubs and keep my boat(s) there, ready to go, and I'd show up as much as my days off (and wife, and kids) would allow.

But getting back on topic, why are we sailors so old, or put another way, why are there not too many younger sailors?

OK, if you are over 50 today, think back to when you were age 10-15. What was there to do inside your house for fun? How many TV channels were there to watch, 3? And what was on? How about video games? How about laptops and You Tube?

None of that stuff the kids today spend their time on even existed back when we were kids. My Mom used to throw my older brother and I out the back door in the morning and tell us not to come back until it got dark. We had to go out and find something to do, all by ourselves, with no adult supervision. We rode our bikes, we climbed trees and built forts in the woods. We both joined the Boy Scouts and spent lots of time hiking and camping in the White Mountains, summer and winter. And when were weren't on a Boy Scout trip, we camped out in the woods behind our house.

When we got into High School, my older brother got into building drag race cars and tweaking my moto-cross bike (Suzuki RM 125). I got into all the team sports, football, hockey, track. We never spent -any- of our free time inside the house, winter or summer. Not because we didn't like our mom, but because there was NOTHING to DO -inside- the house!

Today kids have 200+ channels to watch on TV, 24 hours of non-stop comedy and the cartoon channel, and free movies, and MTV, and HBO, and cellphones to text their friends, and XBox 360, and Wii, and Facebook, and You Tube, and iPods and iPads. Why would they -want- to leave the comfort of their airconditioned lair, to go outside and...Heaven Forbid...get dirty and bitten by mosquito's?

Oh, and thanks to CNN and FOX scaring the crap out of us 24-7, they also have over protective Mothers who would never let them out to play, alone, certainly not in the woods, what with all the sexual predators lurking behind every bush! What we thought was -normal- child rearing back in the 60's would be considered Child Abuse today!

It's a different world they are growing up in, they would much rather stay indoors and play "Virtual" games, where as we only know how to play Real games, outside, no hemets!