{"id":3690,"date":"2026-06-14T13:45:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/?p=3690"},"modified":"2026-06-14T13:45:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:45:37","slug":"instagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/instagram\/","title":{"rendered":"Instagram!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nobody is more surprised than me.<\/p>\n

The oldmansailing Instagram account is now closing in on 90,000 followers. Across all social media platforms, the short videos I have been posting have encouraged well over 100,000 people to follow oldmansailing in one form or another.<\/p>\n

Who would have thought\u2026<\/p>\n

The trouble is, I have always been rather disparaging of sailing YouTubers, particularly the young and attractive ones who never seem to wear many clothes. I\u2019m probably jealous.<\/p>\n

Also, isn\u2019t there something rather odd about people who can\u2019t pull up an anchor without getting out the GoPro and filming themselves doing it?<\/p>\n

And now I\u2019m one of them.<\/p>\n

So, I had better explain how it came about: A couple of months ago, after flying from Grenada to Salzburg for the family skiing holiday, I flew back with my son Hugo for three weeks of champagne cruising around the Grenadines – champagne referring not to the wine, but the sparking spray as we thrashed up and down the islands with the trade wind on the beam and the water temperature never dropping below 29\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

One day, I got out the GoPro and asked Hugo, \u201cCan you show me how to use this thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was about 13, he used to ski with an early model stuck on top of his helmet. Now he\u2019s 23 and couldn\u2019t believe how much technology had moved on.<\/p>\n

Painstakingly, he taught me about \u201cQuick Capture\u201d and \u201cFrame rate\u201d. Together, we examined the 101 attachments that came with the kit (head, chest, adhesive, flexible\u2026)<\/p>\n

We filmed each other, the sails, the waves, my feet \u2013 that was by accident. I have promised never to do it again. But gradually, I learned.<\/p>\n

While all this was going on \u2013 in fact, for the best part of a year – I had noticed a niggling worry about money.<\/p>\n

When I embarked on this life back in 2017, I was not entirely sure how I was going to pay for it. I had a fair bit coming in, but also, I had a family. Indeed, at that stage, four children who were still far from independent.<\/p>\n

However, as always, I stood with Mr Micawber: \u201cSomething will turn up.\u201d I said. It always had.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the Old Man Sailing book came to the rescue. People liked it. They told their friends. Yachting Monthly called it a \u201cWord of Mouth Bestseller\u201d – well, it was Number One in the Amazon Sailing Books category.<\/p>\n

But, over the years, sales declined. I suppose that\u2019s always the way with Bestsellers. How many people today go into Waterstones for The DaVinci Code?<\/p>\n

I wrote more books \u2013 that was the answer. My old classmate Peter James has written 38 books and sold 23million copies. That was all I needed to do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve managed nine so far.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I discovered Skool.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t come across this, it is an internet platform designed for people to turn their skill, their hobby, or just their passion into a course for other people with the same interest \u2013 and, like everything on the internet, there is the opportunity to \u201cmonetize\u201d it. You charge for different levels of engagement.<\/p>\n

In a blinding flash, I realised that I could transfer the blog to Skool. I could add a \u201cpaid\u201d level for the GoPro videos. I can sit for hours and watch the sea. Surely other people would like to do that \u2013 or, more specifically, other people would pay to do that\u2026<\/p>\n

Painstakingly, I copied and pasted the entire nine years of this blog from WordPress to Skool \u2013 all the pictures, all the comments. It took forever. Finally, I launched it. I invited people to pay for the videos.<\/p>\n

Nobody wanted to.<\/p>\n

I offered a once-a-week video call (imagine that from the Southern Ocean!)<\/p>\n

Nobody wanted to pay for that either (especially since I wasn\u2019t actually in the Southern Ocean).<\/p>\n

With my tail between my legs, I begged (and paid) the clever chaps at LCN.com to rescue the old site from their electronic dustbin.<\/p>\n

And, while all this was going on, I was still playing with the GoPro, until one day, without really thinking about it, I posted a little video on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Then, something that had never happened before: A notification. 25 people had \u201cliked\u201d my video. Then 50\u2026 100.<\/p>\n

That was on May 18th<\/sup>. Today is June 13th<\/sup> \u2013 not a month later, and those little videos \u2013 none of them more than two-and-a-half minutes long, most of them not much more than a minute \u2013 have racked up 4.4million views.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just Instagram. There are another 2.2million on Facebook. YouTube: 347,000. TikTok\u2026<\/p>\n

And the likes \u2026 thousands of likes. And comments. Fifty comments a day: \u201cYou\u2019re an inspiration\u201d, \u00a0\u201cI want your life\u201d, \u201cI sold my boat because I thought I was too old. Now, I\u2019m going to buy another\u201d – and of course: \u201cHow do you sleep? \u201d, \u201cDon\u2019t \u00a0you get lonely?\u201d<\/p>\n

There was one from a man who noticed that around the cabin I had pictures of \u201cbeautiful women in bikinis\u201d \u2013 Tamsin, back in the 90s.<\/p>\n

The one that did probably more than any other to spark the algorithms was: \u201cWhere\u2019s your harness?\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing Instagram likes more than a post that encourages discussion (have you ever seen a fisherman in a harness?) Eventually, I made another video: \u201cI used to wear a harness, but now I\u2019m 77. Health & Safety doesn\u2019t apply.\u201d Besides, everybody had seen the photo of the steeplejacks building the Rockefeller Centre, sitting on the girder eating their lunch \u2013 well, think of me as one of them. If I fall off, it\u2019s my own lookout.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t help. I just got deluged with people asking about those who would have to risk their lives looking for me (at considerable expense).<\/p>\n

\u201cAh\u201d, I fired back. \u201cMy next-of-kin have instructions to say I don\u2019t want a Search & Rescue operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo good,\u201d replied somebody who obviously had something to do with Search & Rescue. \u201cHow do they know your wife doesn\u2019t want<\/em> you dead?\u201d<\/p>\n

Good point. I have now written to HM Coastguard as follows:<\/p>\n

I wonder whether there is any way you can keep on file my request that no search and rescue operation should be initiated if it is suspected that I have fallen overboard from my sailing yacht.<\/em><\/p>\n

I should explain:<\/em><\/p>\n

I am 77 years old and, a few years ago, I decided no longer to wear a harness at sea. I found it cumbersome and knew that if I were to fall over, it was unlikely I would have the strength to pull myself back aboard.<\/em><\/p>\n

Also, now that I have well over 100,000 social media followers who watch my daily videos, I am sure I would face intense pressure to give up and put myself into a care home.<\/em><\/p>\n

Frankly, I would rather spend my last moments treading water and watching my boat sail into the sunset.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the other hand, if I should hit the proverbial container, sink, and activate my EPIRB, then yes, please do come and get me.<\/em><\/p>\n

The reason for asking this now is that I had assumed that if there should be an emergency, you would contact my next-of-kin, and they are under instructions to request no search & rescue. However, someone made the point that you would still go ahead because you could not be sure my wife didn’t <\/em>want me dead!<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope you can help in this. I hate to think of anyone getting involved in an expensive and, possibly hazardous operation to rescue someone who would prove so ungrateful.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Algorithm had gone into hyperdrive, and the book sales were skyrocketing. At every opportunity, I posted replies with little additions like: \u201cAs anyone who has read my autobiography Faster, Louder, Riskier, Sexier<\/em> will be aware\u2026\u201d or \u201cThere\u2019s a whole chapter on this in my first book Old Man Sailing\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It was like Christmas. Every December, sales leap from 100 a month to 200 or 300. This month \u2013 and I\u2019m writing this early in the morning of the 14th<\/sup> – they stand at 141. That\u2019s going to put me right back to where I was before I started worrying about money.<\/p>\n

And it won\u2019t be the end of it. In the Canaries, a few years ago, I met Steve and Judy from Sailing Fair Isle. <\/em>They make a full-time living off YouTube \u2013 and that includes flying visits to the Annapolis Boat Show to be lauded for the \u201cEpisode of the Year\u201d. Obviously, marine equipment suppliers beg them to test their latest products (there\u2019s no need to return them).<\/p>\n

But you need 4,000 watch hours before YouTube turns on the money. How long was it going to take me to get to 4,000 hours at 1.5 minutes at a time?<\/p>\n

I had an idea. I put together a 20-minute video of \u201cscenes from Samsara<\/em>\u201d \u2013 me in the cockpit tacking, the water going past. Me reading a book, the water going past. Me scampering about the deck (more controversy \u2013 no harness, of course). For the audio track, I read from the blog. The \u201cwatch hours\u201d shot up \u2013 only 1,648 to go!<\/p>\n

I will be able to buy a new mainsail \u2013 100m of Cromos stainless steel anchor chain. I will be able to pay for all the meals and drinks on the skiing holiday without compromising the \u201cself-insurance\u201d fund.<\/p>\n

But why was I reading from the blog? People could get that for nothing. The following Sunday, I read from Old Man Sailing,<\/em> the book \u2013 just the first chapter. I called it The Oldmansailing Book Club.<\/em><\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the kicker: At the end, I explained that, next week, I would be reading the first chapter from The Good Stuff<\/em> \u2013 and the week after that The Voyage #1<\/em>. If you want to know what happens next, you\u2019ll have to wait nine weeks for that title to come round again.<\/p>\n

Or, of course, you could buy the book\u2026<\/p>\n

How long can this go on? I have no idea, but with the Francis Chichester 60th<\/sup> Anniversary Challenge<\/em> coming up, I think we can say that the next year is assured.<\/p>\n

After that? Well, I\u2019ll think about that tomorrow. Something will turn up\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobody is more surprised than me. The oldmansailing Instagram account is now closing in on 90,000 followers. Across all social media platforms, the short videos I have been posting have encouraged well over 100,000 people to follow oldmansailing in one form or another. Who would have thought\u2026 The trouble is, I have always been rather … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-singlehanded"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3692,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3690\/revisions\/3692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}