The Young Cruisers Association: Young & Free

It’s not a yacht club. It’s not a business or a secret society. And there’s no brick-and-mortar building. It’s a fraternity without rush, a club without a cover charge. It’s the Young Cruisers Association.

“YCA is the no-barrier cruising club – for the salty, the novice, and the dreamer,” says Logan Rowell, 38, a founder, who started cruising at 18. Despite the name, not even age is a barrier: “You won’t find anything on our website that says, ‘for people under … .’ We’re totally open and welcome anybody who feels young at heart. You can join as a dreamer, you can join as somebody who’s been around the world six times, you can join as somebody who’s 70 or 17.”

Becoming official

“When my wife, Caroline (36), and I started cruising together, we started to find more young couples,” says Logan. “This was post-2008, and one of the big waves of younger cruisers was starting – people who were disillusioned with what was going on in the job markets or had lost their jobs, thinking if there’s ever a time to do it, let’s do it now.”

To stay connected, Logan and Caroline needed a way to find others, so they made a website, then an Instagram account. Eventually there were raft-ups, regattas, rallies, and red-carpet productions at boat shows. “There were a lot more young cruisers out there than we thought,” Logan remembers.

As the platform grew, volunteers helped manage social media accounts, website maintenance, event planning, and merchandise. Finally, to try to capture a full spectrum of people who cruise and work seasonally, people who cruise and work aboard, and people who cruise and make content to cruise, they reached out to influencers Riley Whitelum and Elayna Carausu of Sailing La Vagabonde. This young couple, who are sailing the world and making high-quality lifestyle videos to fund their adventures, have built a following of nearly 2 million people. Riley and Elayna helped lend credibility and social media prowess to the burgeoning association.

It worked; YCA membership grew to well over 10,000.

“As far as we know, we’re now the largest community of active cruisers in the world,” says Logan.

Tangible connections

If it’s not a yacht club, what is it? “There are tangibles and intangibles,” Logan elaborates. “We put together and help promote and foster gatherings, like “Floatchellas.” There are also big productions, like the International Cruisers Awards.”

A play on the name of the California music festival Coachella, Floatchellas are multiday raft-ups among members, wherever they happen to be. Recent Floatchellas have cropped up in the Exumas, the Virgin Islands, Indonesia, Croatia, and even Massachusetts. Hatched, hosted, and primarily organized by individual members, and often attended by strangers meeting for the first time, the association leadership fosters their proliferation by promoting them on social media and in newsletters.

The largest gathering is the annual International Cruisers Awards. Hosted next door to the Annapolis Sailboat Show in Maryland, this Hollywood-style awards night in October is now in its third running to celebrate winners in categories such as “Waterperson of the Year,” “Global Impact Award,” “Best TikTok,” “Best Blooper,” and “Remote Adventure of the Year.” Last year, more than 400 people attended.

Intangible vibes

More than the events themselves, Logan explains, “it’s the intangibles, the community and the feeling of home, that really goes a long way.”

Ultimately, YCA relies on its members to create their own memories, with YCA providing the platform and the spark.

“We’re not here to do things for you. That’s why it doesn’t cost $100 to join,” says Logan. YCA membership is free (or $50 if you want a burgee), and no one, including Logan, has ever made a penny from the endeavor. “We measure success by how often we can be the catalyst in creating new bonds.”

Outside of YCA-backed events, that catalyst is often a simple black burgee with a seafoam-green outline of a frigate bird. Pull into a new anchorage and spot that subtle symbol, Logan says, “and you know you don’t need an icebreaker. Whether you’re of a different age or a different skin color or a different phase of life, you know you have something in common.”

From luxury charter owners …

Martin Herløv, (34) and Ann Kristin (31), AK for short, once attended a YCA movie night in Martinique where more than 20 dinghies gathered from around the anchorage to share an evening of flicks afloat. Martin, from Denmark, and AK, from Norway, had met while both were independently sailing the Pacific in 2017. They buddy-boated through Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Indonesia, until AK sold her boat in 2020, and moved aboard Martin’s Lagoon 450 catamaran. They flew home to Denmark to get married, and bought a new Lagoon 50 in Bordeaux, France. Now they’re back in the Pacific and call French Polynesia home. For some, cruising young can be a break from life on land, but for Martin and AK, it’s a career; they currently offer luxury destination charters under the name Casablanca Yachting. Their 50,000-nautical-mile resume is a prime selling point.

Despite always being on the move, Martin says, thanks to YCA, they’ve been able to make and hold onto some connections that may have otherwise been lost to distance. He’s also grateful for the awareness that YCA brings to their alternative path through life: “It’s not for everyone, but we like how the YCA is spreading good vibes about this lifestyle,” Martin says. “We’d love for more people to realize that you don’t always need to have a house and a garden. You really can travel.”

To local liveaboards …

Joe Lovejoy (30) was introduced to the ocean when he joined the Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer out of college. After returning to the United States from his first ship stationed in Japan, “I couldn’t justify paying rent in San Diego for a place where I had no ownership, couldn’t paint the walls, couldn’t do DIY projects,” he says. He looked into camper vans, then met some people who were living on their sailboats. “That was the first time I realized, wait, people live on small boats, too?”

“I found a trawler in my budget that looked nice, and now over the years living aboard Theo Toko, I’ve discovered that a trawler is just the perfect vessel for someone like me,” says Joe. “It was my home and my hobby while I was still active duty in the Navy. I got out two years ago with my 200-ton license, and I’ve been freelancing as a captain ever since.”

Joe splits his time working local day charters on the weekends and aboard research vessels during the week, and building his small business in the gaps – engine repair and boat deliveries. He likes cruising southern California aboard Toko and plans to spend a month meandering from San Diego to Santa Barbara. He loves the area, especially the Channel Islands and the diving there.

Joe got on board with YCA the moment he heard about it. “

A friend and I were talking about joining a yacht club, but it’s expensive to get started. And then you have to spend a certain amount at the club every month. That means I’m not in faraway places on my boat. A yacht club is great for your local community. But the hole that needed to be filled was a community for young people while you’re away from your home port.” … To day-one dreamers

Seraina Rüsch (23) and Jeroen Eggebeen (33) weren’t boaters but were always travelers. Seraina, a Swiss primary school teacher, and Jeroen, a Dutch metal fabricator, met in Australia while Jeroen was motorbiking across the continent, then moved back to Switzerland together so Seraina could finish school. They wanted to travel again but weren’t sure how.

“We thought about vans,” says Seraina, “But we liked the idea of being powered by the wind and with less emissions.”

They watched YouTube, took a sailing course in the Netherlands, and bought a 50-foot steel sloop that they’re refitting in Portimão, Portugal. With Jeroen’s background in welding and metalwork, a steel hull made sense.

“We have a lot to learn,” Jeroen admits. YCA is helping them do just that. “One day we’re helping someone with welding, another someone is helping us with electric,” Seraina says. “The association makes it easy to know where people are to be able to share those skills. We’ve met so many beautiful people.”

Once they do get going, they hope to “get into the Mediterranean where there are a lot of sailors” – and other YCA members – “sharing skills and knowledge,” Seraina speculates. “Then maybe across the Atlantic. French Polynesia is a dream for us.” But first, projects. Repainting the bilges, adding solar, installing davits, painting the boat. You can follow their adventures on Instagram @Sailing.Peperoni.

A club for you?

“We were trying to build a vibe,” Logan says of YCA’s inception.

It’s casual and unstructured – a loose collection of ocean-bound travelers and dreamers coalescing around a shared wanderlust and a website. Logan’s sights remain squarely fixed on his original intentions from when he and Caroline first launched that website more than a decade ago.

“Whether it’s as a teenager, a middle-aged person, or a retiree, we all get to be out there,” he says. “It’s the only place in the world where you can go and be and do without borders.”

The YCA burgee of a frigate is meaningful to Logan. “The frigate is the ultimate representation of being a cruiser: They have a strong community – you can find places in the world where frigates congregate for a season, then all go out on their own. It just perfectly represents what we are, with the freedom a boat can afford us and the desire to go to sea, but then the desire to reconvene. At sea, when you feel alone and you see a frigate you think, oh man, there’s another creature out here.”

Logan is proud of the community that YCA has been able to offer. “There are thousands of people cruising. And if they can do it, you can do it. And if you do it, YCA shows you that you won’t be alone out there. You’ll find support, you’ll find help, you’ll find friends.”