Demographic changes?

Yesterday we had our annual old farts race. The entry for this race is limited to the over 50's. At the same time we run another race for the under 50's. This race has been on the calendar for at least 60 years. 60 years ago someone of 50 wore braces (holding trousers up), sported false teeth, smoked 40 a day, beat their wife and only expected to live until 67. How things have changed! There were 9 farts racing, the oldest being 79 crewed by a 76 year old and only 4 'youngsters'. At 69.75 i am somewhere in the middle.

One of our club members told me about an interesting bit of research he did. He was looking at pensions expenditure at the large company he worked for, and discovered that those who worked to 65 often didn't survive their 60s, but those who were given early retirement a few years earlier often lasted twenty years or more.

Actually I don't see it as a big issue. We are one of the few sports where you can be reasonably competitive when older, we should rejoice in it, not be embarrassed.

Most sports you can only really do half reasonably in your twenties, so when in your twenties it makes sense to do one of them rather than sailing, and save sailing for when you're older. How sad to go top end sailing through your twenties, be burned out and fed up by thirty, and then be unable to do anything else except play darts...

Edited by JimC - 05 Oct 15 at 5:13pm

Originally posted by JimC Actually I don't see it as a big issue. We are one of the few sports where you can be reasonably competitive when older, we should rejoice in it, not be embarrassed. Most sports you can only really do half reasonably in your twenties, so when in your twenties it makes sense to do one of them rather than sailing, and save sailing for when you're older. How sad to go top end sailing through your twenties, be burned out and fed up by thirty, and then be unable to do anything else except play darts...

Exactly, I keep trying to point that out, so the kit should be made more suitable for lifting and humping, the biggest problem that keeps our lot off the water from time to time is putting their backs out, we have nice light hikers, now what's needed is something light that doesn't break our backs whilst sailing and a light two hander.

Then in answer to ticks post, no, probably the two eldest regular sailors in our club are me and my ex windsurfing Phantom sailing chum neither of us took the sport up until our sixties, there is one other couple of long term laser sailors man and wife that probably number in excess of 150 between them but other than that it's a younger adult generation in their forties and fifties a lot of whom took it up late. Of course we have our better sailors who have either sqauded or open meetinged a lot in the past, but they serve to set a pace that we try to beat and if and when we do, feel really accomplished about it.

Edited by iGRF - 05 Oct 15 at 5:22pm

Originally posted by PeterG  The entry for this race is limited to the over 50's. At the same time we run another race for the under 50's. The big question is did you manage to find anyone to race in the under 50's race?