Plastic Classic Forum

anyone home?

VERY quiet here :-(

I'm lurking, don't have much to add yet as I'm waiting for parts and weather windows for my projects but I'm here!

Hi Dave - I'm in every day, at least until I take off for a while next winter. With *4* boats in various project stages, it's hard to find the time to get pics and such together to post, but overlook/summaries of them will happen in the coming week, at the least.

Also, I'm seeing a resurgence of sorts of people, younger ones now, who want to get a boat and get out there, and mostly what they are buying are boats which need projects and fixing, so as I tweak the forum out from the past few years of relative lethargy, we should start popping up on their Google radar and see more and new participation as a result.

Looking forward to seeing it happen.

Not so quiet anymore. I've never been an avid participant but I really miss the good olld topics.
In the last couple of weeks I have already recommended the forum tou a few friends that also sail old... sorry... classic plastic boats

One of them has an Albin Ballad, not very common around here.

Glad to see some folks 'out there' and looking at the forum. Hoping to assist as I can to get 'it back in the water' (so to speak)

Good Friday evening,
It is good to see activity at the PCF. I was a regular here, years ago, when Tim was still guiding the forum. There was so much to be learned here, in those days, that I belonged even though I had a wooden boat. I believe there are some of the old timers still lurking about. I'm in for trying to resurrect the site as I really enjoyed the community of forumites. I don't know how to bring it back other than to show up regularly.

Again, glad to see you here.

I took it over initially just to keep it going because its such a good resource that it would have been a shame to have it disappear. I did not have the time to give it much attention, and no help, so it had to languish for a while, sadly.

The software improved during that time; it is now much easier to filter out the hundred of scammer requests every week, so help isn't as crucial. Also during that time, Facebook happened, and it has had a deleterious effect on many forums. BUT - thank Deity due to its format, FB cannot provide the continuity that a forum like this can, and so I think there is still a very viable and valuable niche for it to fill.

I think in time we'll get busy again, with some of the former great contributors returning, and new ones joining in as they find the place. I plan to do some tweaking to get the content here more 'noticed' by Google et al, that should help new folks find us.

Thank you, CapnK, for taking over the site. It would have been a terrible loss for the PCF to have gone away. There is a ton of useful info here. I'm not sure of what I can do, but let me know if I can be of any help in maintaining/resurrecting the site.

CapnK wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2018 9:54 amI think in time we'll get busy again, with some of the former great contributors returning, and new ones joining in as they find the place. I plan to do some tweaking to get the content here more 'noticed' by Google et al, that should help new folks find us.

Forums are a 'hard sell' these days. Facebook, Instagram and videos on YouTube are the 'thing'. Because of the spammers forums can be difficult to manage the 'allow folks in v. put up roadblocks'. After people see enough porn spam posts they leave.

Even established forums that 'reset' for a software upgrade loose users as they don't wish to re-register (ie, trailersailor). After their software 'upgrade' the active user base fell by 99%. Most of the time I believe there are only 20 active posters churning in their own juices - with me being one of the 20 .

The 'other can of worms' is the lack of anyone under 50 interested in sailing!

scoob wrote:Forums are a 'hard sell' these days. Facebook, Instagram and videos on YouTube are the 'thing'.

Indeed, agree 200%. I'm one of the admins of a big boat modeling forum in Portugal (http://ptnauticmodel.net/forum/) and mainly due to FB the activity has decreased a lot.
"Instant gratification" is the name of the game.
But if you want to share so others can learn, it makes no sense. It's pretty much impossible to follow up a building thread on FB.

scoob wrote:The 'other can of worms' is the lack of anyone under 50 interested in sailing!

There's Virtual Skipper...

I've never been a huge user of social media, but I never thought of PCF as being in competition, for eyes, with FB or Instagram. I do watch YT videos, but, again, I don't think they really compare. PCF was a community of people with a shared interest. They were like friends, except I didn't know what they looked like.

I don't know how we let people know that this is still the place to come for useful information on old fiberglass boats and their systems.

Sadly, I do agree that boating appears to be a dying pastime. There have been a number cases, in my marina, where Dad died and left his boat to the kids and the first thing they did was put the boat up for sale. The shrinking base of sailors is an ongoing subject of discussion at my marina. I don't know if the problem is a lack of time and/or money, due to the new economy, or if a generation raised on video games just isn't willing to put in the necessary work to be boaters.

I don't have a magic fix for the problem of declining involvement, but I do have a thought that might serve as a starting point. Here, in Tidewater, Virginia, I believe that every marina has some number of abandoned boats in the 30' or smaller range. They are difficult and expensive to get rid of. I believe that marinas would be well advised to give these boats away. They could give a boat away to someone who would sign a year's lease. The boat goes from being a liability to a revenue generator. Even if marinas aren't willing to give them away, boats can be purchased for very little. Last summer I purchased a Catalina 30 for $500, Either way, the new owners of these boats could do no better than the PCF for information, helpful to them in their new hobby.

keelbolts wrote: ↑Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:23 pmSadly, I do agree that boating appears to be a dying pastime.

boating is doing fine - bass boats, wake boats, power boats ... it is sailing that is shrinking

keelbolts wrote: ↑Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:23 pm... I believe that every marina has some number of abandoned boats in the 30' or smaller range.

yep ... the usual new sailboat sold these days is 40+ feet and exceedingly complicated in systems

keelbolts wrote: ↑Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:23 pmLast summer I purchased a Catalina 30 for $500

yep, if you know how to work on a boat you can find a deal ... sometimes a boat in very good condition. fiberglass doesn't go away and older boats are still very serviceable.

IMO the things that scare people away from 'classic plastic' -

• core rot
• old sails - cost to buy new ones
• old motors - cost to repower
• old systems - no 'bells & whistles' with fancy screens

(not at all close to a complete list but the above quickly exceed the 'value' of the boat.)

There seems to be a resurgence of sorts, albeit small so far, in 'young 'uns' taking to sea in sailboats and making YT videos about it.
Most of them, though, seem to be looking at 80's and newer boats, 35' and longer, for their initial purchase. I think this is because perhaps:

1) They cannot imagine that a decent boat could come from so long ago as the 60's.

2) Modern advertising pushes 35' as a ocean-crossing minimum, and even if they never leave the Ditch, most people buy somewhat romantically at least, a boat that the think can go to the deep blue.

3) While it is not a new sale, getting someone to like an older "Brand X" boat, makes them more likely to buy a brand new Brand X when they get to a point of doing that. SO - the 'pushers' don't tell the general public about all these other Great Boats (like ours) from no-longer extant manufacturers and designers. Keep 'em as captive buyers, a la Microsoft and Apple.

We need to get it out there for broader consumption that these things are fallacies, and that, in fact, they are quite opposite the truth. I think that especially among the "Live Small" or "Tiny House" type people/movement, more younger people are getting to have an understanding that maybe, just maybe, "more" does not equate to "better".

Maybe I need to try and write up "Zen and the Art of Small Boat Living" and get it out there ASAP while people are possibly receptive...