Meet the New Breed of Round The World Sailors.
Sell the house, ditch the cars, quit work and sail around the world. It's the dream right?
Only if you're exposed to the dream, and before the days of YouTube, it was pretty hard to get exposed to the world of sailing unless you knew someone. These days, log onto YouTube and in less than 30 seconds you can be taken on a tour of someone's yacht. Thrown into the cockpit of a yacht surfing down 40ft swells, or taking cooking classes in someone's galley. It's being exposed to generations of young adults who would never have even had the dream of going sailing, let alone a circumnavigation; and it's a GREAT thing for cruising sailing.
Best of all, it's now easier than ever to fund a trip through the internet. Many have started their own vlogs and web series which generate income through advertising. Others are selling merchandise, and the 'big' ones (which are still made on a laptop charged by solar panels) are inviting guests on board who donate money for each weekly episode. Yep, we're talking about Riley and Elayna from
These two started out with an old Beneteau Cyclades, with no experience and little in the way of funding. But they knew how to knock together a video, and speak into a camera without sounding awkward. Now, they have a brand new catamaran which was GIVEN to them by Outremer, they can buy fancy coffee in the Mediterranean , most of their footage is filmed by a drone, and Elayna doesn't even have to steal wifi from resorts anymore.