Why do People leave Sailing after College?

I often wonder why college sailors disappear from sailing post graduation. When I left Tufts in '95 I immediately moved to Annapolis via a season spent at Alta running the espresso machine at the Watson shelter, thus successfully fulfilling my generation X obligation to do nothing, if doing nothing was working 25 days a month for Jahn Tihansky at J/World Annapolis, and working 6 days a week serving coffee (pre starbucks, i am that old). I think on the water I made substantially less than 10$ an hour, had a 9 year old laser, and could afford to live on my own minus the car & health insurance payment my parents were still making. At Alta in the endless snow I made 625$ a month, and 300$ was for rent.

On February that year, 1996, the wind had been blowing very firmly out of the southwest for some time, and was packing a powerful burst of somewhat wetter version of the Alta snow I had grown accustomed to, the type that never ever could be compressed into a wet snowball and splattered on a car windshield with its impressive thud, an exemplary piercing signal of youthful malfeasance. I had heard from some patrol guys that this was like Taos NM snow, Sango Cristo moutain chain stuff, whatever that meant. On the chair ride up that morning on Day xxx in a row I had been on the mountain, my impressions were the same, I was fascinated by the differences in, just about everything; the wind, the snow, the light, how it smelled. I had been spending alot of time watching snow in the wind. I recognized snow turning behind trees, the first time ever I had seen a gust behave the way I had often guessed it had when they descended from the top of the Mystic Lake's shoulders. There was a gully about 1/3 the way down the traverse i had grown curious about; i thought SW, wind load= it would be loaded with snow. I had been going to this place very day to watch the snow loading in it. What was boot deep around the edges of the gully easily came up my thighs and hit me in the face as I compressed rather effortleessly 20 turns. There was not much to say and certainly nothing to claim. I was always alone, as I had spent alot of that winter. The snow pelted my hand me down Eddie Bauer shell, the kind with the felt red wool lining, like your dad's old pj's. The snow brushed the edges of my jacket like leaves in the breeze in the New England fall.

College sailors stop sailing because they can no longer simply show up and knock off races in great competition and walk away from the global responsibilities of managing your equipment, time and money. The best sailors post college have to learn to develop boat speed, this involves hefty amounts of travel, equipment and time. I often see post college sailors grossly underestimate the ability of non college stars to beat them with time, equipment and travel, or similary pros who show up with xxx per diems and get schooled by well practiced cubicle cowboys. Underweight and kinetic guys have to learn that roll jibe and tacks wont win regattas, eventually we all learn to tack, jibe and start, go round the marks and boat handle. But time and life events are the biggest factors, and those who commit extraordinary and sometimes isolating time to sailing will do well, as in anything else. It will not show up rigged and waiting at the dock for you with a cute "pinnys" and dye colored sails that big blue probably charged too much for. 90% of the grads bail on the sport within 5 years of graduation. We should probably figure out how to stop that.

Everybody says sailing is on a downturn because its expensive. I say its because the college and high schools grads who do sail don't have time to sail, because they spend too much time working and doing everything else; the main culprit is the biggest commodity we have, time.