There is no upper age limit to join the YCA with some YCA members in their 70s. The only guide is not to wait until retirement!
The Young Cruisers Association is not your average yacht club. In fact, it might be the largest cruising association you’ve never heard of. Its ethos is very different to any other major yachting organisation, and its recent explosive growth reflects some of the biggest shifts in cruising trends.
Officially set up in 2018, the Young Cruisers Association (YCA) now boasts over 10,000 members worldwide. A quick scan of the YCA social media pages shows sailors from the US, Australia, Canada and Britain, along with Sweden, Argentina, Estonia, Ireland, and pretty much everywhere in between. But what defines a ‘young cruiser’ and what has seen the YCA grow so rapidly?
Logan Rowell, one of the founders, explains: “From the very beginning, the YCA was built because when my wife and I had started cruising, there were very few pre-retirement cruisers. We had one random season where we ran across three other boats of young cruisers and it was the best winter ever. It totally changed everything.
“The next winter, we were all excited but we didn’t run across any other young cruising boats, and we thought ‘This has to change, we know they’re out here.’
