I was asked by a friend with a Sailing YouTube channel what kind of benefits they should offer their patrons. I had a ready list and could have answered but thought. I wonder what actually grows a YouTube channel? So with my son Simon and a YouTube API key we started mining the sailing channels for history and whatever we could get in the way of information.
A primary goal of this article is to show a level of detail never considered by most commentators. We’re going to be careful about names. We are going to discuss specifics. And in most cases, we’re going to stick with generalities. The primary use case is for an audience of about 300 creators (there are around 500 that have created content and another couple hundred who have 0 or 1 video).
So, this is a lot of work for a few who might want to know what they’re doing is correct or what they can do for better performance. The number of variables is high so nothing here is a rule. When we’re talking about a niche community, in a niche content creation stream, this is a niche of a niche of a niche discussion paper.
There are over performing and underperforming channels on the YouTube platform. Content, creative quality, artistic expression, social and cultural elements, and much more will result in the success or perceived failure of a channel. Beyond subscribers, views, and notoriety the financial renumeration of a creator is a good metric of success. There are seven primary revenue streams for a YouTube sailing channel and only two of them come from YouTube.
- Ad sense revenue for mid-roll advertising or creator bonuses for premium subscribers.
- YouTube public live feed donations.
- Patreon sponsorships.
- Sponsored content/advertising for non-sailing products.
- Sponsored content/advertising for sailing products.
- Branded merchandising or creator products (Books, music, art, video)
- Appearance fees and consulting agreements
- YouTube as lead generation to other platforms (private or Vimeo)
There are lots of articles about the YouTube algorithm and most creators understand that subscriber count is not necessarily the same as view count or hours watched. Beyond this there are some interesting items hidden in the data when mining the API for YouTube. We’ll talk about those items in a moment. First, what is the addressable audience for YouTube Sailing Channels? The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) extensively studies the marketplace environment for boating, sailing, and yachting. From that research in 2017 we can make some assertions.
- Around 95% of all boats in the United States are below 26 feet in length
- Sailboats make up less than 1% of all sold boats in the United States
- Most sold boats in the USA are to first and subsequent buyers over the age of 45 and less than 60 (about half)
- There are more than 12K marinas and harbors in the United States and over half a million docks/slips (all sizes and types) in the United States.
- The International Council Of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA) reports that in 2017 there were about 6500 sailboats (all sizes) sold in the United States.
- ICOMIA reports in 2016 there are about 1.5 million sailboats of all sizes in the United States.
- A (biased sample) survey of Cruising World subscribers in 2010 found that about 8% of sailboats were over 36 feet in length.
YouTube itself is a relatively new phenomenon and allows for these special niche audiences but we can see that YouTube itself had a great awakening for sailing channels. The earliest channels you will find got their start with the opening of the platform. As creators have moved back and forth between different activities (van life, travel, etc.) we can see them pulling along some of their audience. The data suggests strongly that the people are more important than the venue or activity. I would suggest creators see this as a strength. Some examples of this include at the top of the category “The Wynns”.
There are most assuredly fewer channels being created. Though no good data is easily pulled from YouTube the abandonment rate of running a channel or sailing seems to be high. A future project will be to create an API search for “sold the boat” and associate that with the current list of channels. Similarly, we may look at channel creation month to month.
Simply put a Sailing YouTube Channel is going to need to appeal to a worldwide audience and people further afield than the sailing and cruising community itself. All this while maintaining a level of authenticity and engagement within that cruising community if for no other reason than viewership. The creative engagement with the viewer should be a defining factor even if we do it simply because we love it.
Research suggests that there is correlation (as opposed to causation) between frequency of uploads and the associated viewership of a YouTube Channel. If a channel uploads weekly for two to three years with content involving sailing, they will consistently grow with very few outliers. Viewer hours are associated with increased ad sense revenue and rating higher in the suggested results. Subscriber count can’t be discounted as even though video fads may get huge numbers of views with very few subscribers the secondary market for compensation will look at subscriber count closely.
Looking at the graph of views per video we clean it up a bit. We remove the channels identified by YouTube as having zero views, we remove the channels with zero subscribers, and we go ahead and remove the videos with less than 10 subscribers. We then look at the graph. Early we hypothesized that Sailing La Vagabonde would run away in every category we come up with because of their subscriber count. The actual data rapidly illuminates some patterns in how to get views per video.
Table 1: Views per video on average channels ranked (moderate performance measure)
| Title | Video_Count | Subscriber_Count | Views per video |
| La Vida a Vela – Sailing My Life | 100 | 175000 | 744697.16 |
| Sailing La Vagabonde | 479 | 1700000 | 724662.779 |
| Barefoot Sailing Adventures | 154 | 271000 | 651129.351 |
| Sampson Boat Co | 128 | 400000 | 500634.547 |
| Sailing SV Delos | 496 | 786000 | 400780.25 |
| Sailing Doodles | 581 | 455000 | 381854.186 |
| Sailing Miss Lone Star | 229 | 254000 | 270918.803 |
| Sailing Zatara | 282 | 412000 | 252339.018 |
| Sailing Nahoa | 219 | 357000 | 233480.073 |
| Gone with the Wynns | 498 | 507000 | 217763.97 |
| Sailing Uma | 381 | 398000 | 208771.528 |
| Lazy Gecko Sailing & Adventures | 218 | 149000 | 198213.876 |
| Sailing Parlay Revival | 160 | 209000 | 175517.688 |
| Sailing Sports Channel 2018 | 48 | 7810 | 154287.833 |
| Sailing Trio Travels | 195 | 78900 | 146486.436 |
| Odd Life Crafting | 260 | 238000 | 145305.912 |
| Expedition Evans | 85 | 102000 | 132690.506 |
| Sailing Project Atticus | 333 | 241000 | 132648.961 |
| Sailing Soulianis | 110 | 96400 | 115430.282 |
| SV Green Panther | 38 | 1510 | 113408 |
| Sailing Nandji – Frothlyfe | 281 | 124000 | 112330.712 |
| Sailing Yab?° | 79 | 67600 | 111107.81 |
| Expedition Drenched | 227 | 131000 | 101744.383 |
| Alluring Arctic Sailing | 51 | 62600 | 101160.373 |
I’ve been actively searching out YouTube sailing channels for 10 years and a few of these caught me by surprise. Some of the data here is WILDLY AND EXTREMELY skewed because of a few things. “La Vida a Vela” has videos with nearly 7 million views and videos with 100K views. It is non-English but has what I call “European” nudity in many of the videos. They appear to have had an “adult” content channel on Vimeo and shut it down. For the puritanical North American audience, it must be scandalous, and I can already see the “Sailing Anarchy” and Reddit crowds drooling. “Barefoot Sailing Adventures” has less blatant content but does have suggested and actual nudity.
Though there will be a focus on the nudity the more interesting item for lower variability is to look at number of videos and high views count.
The top 25 or so YouTube Sailing channels (with one notable exception) have the following in common.
- They have been uploading nearly weekly for over 3 years. Around 180 videos as an average seems to be the make-or-break level for top 25.
- They have the word “sailing” in their channel name (even if not branded that way). There are some interesting counter examples with Tulas Endless Summer being the most chaotic (trawler life, sailing, camper life, boatless, trimaran racing, camper life, trawler, destination boat rentals)
- Overperforming channels without “Sailing” in their channel title
- Gone with the Wynns (started out as RV channel)
- Odd Life Crafting (started as tiny house channel)
- Taylors Travels (Kickstarted by Sailing Doodles 50K+ subscribers one day, violates several suggestions, definitely a unicorn)
- Expedition Evans (The DIY unicorn)
- Expedition Drenched (Kick started with two other channels)
- Underperforming channels without “Sailing”
- Distant Shores TV (Transitioned some fanbase from TV)
- Captain Rick Moore (no idea why)
- Harbors Unknown (Within two years of startup so growing quite well)
- Rigging Doctor (fewer subscribers than expected)
- Adventures of an Old Sea Dog
- Overperforming channels without “Sailing” in their channel title
- There is a consistent level of do it yourself (DIY) content.
I wondered what channels over time have created the most content. This isn’t an endorsement of quality of content I was looking at the work factor. The following channels are the top 10 content generators. It becomes obvious that more content is not always rewarded with views or subscribers. It doesn’t hurt though <insert smiley> Without content you can’t drive views.
Table 2: Top 10 Sailing YouTube Channels by Number of Videos
| Title | Video_Count | Subscriber_Count | Views per video |
| Captain Rick Moore | 954 | 146000 | 92691.6174 |
| SV Seeker | 845 | 212000 | 79730.9669 |
| Sailing Doodles | 581 | 455000 | 381854.186 |
| followtheboat | 579 | 59300 | 19832.1416 |
| Cat Greatcircle | 537 | 26500 | 12279.8361 |
| Gone with the Wynns | 498 | 507000 | 217763.97 |
| Sailing SV Delos | 496 | 786000 | 400780.25 |
| DrakeParagon | 484 | 36600 | 17891.7273 |
| Sailing La Vagabonde | 479 | 1700000 | 724662.779 |
| Sail Life | 468 | 104000 | 52688.0791 |
There is a lot of competition around the variability, suggestive use of the YouTube algorithm but there is also some pride in subscriber count. Even if creators downplay subscriber count the platform rewards it as features are unlocked, ability to get add sense revenue begins, notoriety becomes more common, and invitations to special advertising activities become more normal.
Table 3: Top 20 Sailing YouTube Channels by Subscriber Count
| Title | Video_Count | Subscriber_Count | views per video |
| Sailing La Vagabonde | 479 | 1700000 | 724662.779 |
| Sailing SV Delos | 496 | 786000 | 400780.25 |
| Gone with the Wynns | 498 | 507000 | 217763.97 |
| Sailing Doodles | 581 | 455000 | 381854.186 |
| Sailing Zatara | 282 | 412000 | 252339.018 |
| Sampson Boat Co | 128 | 400000 | 500634.547 |
| Sailing Uma | 381 | 398000 | 208771.528 |
| Sailing Nahoa | 219 | 357000 | 233480.073 |
| Barefoot Sailing Adventures | 154 | 271000 | 651129.351 |
| Sailing Miss Lone Star | 229 | 254000 | 270918.803 |
| Sailing Project Atticus | 333 | 241000 | 132648.961 |
| Odd Life Crafting | 260 | 238000 | 145305.912 |
| SV Seeker | 845 | 212000 | 79730.9669 |
| Sailing Parlay Revival | 160 | 209000 | 175517.688 |
| La Vida a Vela – Sailing My Life | 100 | 175000 | 744697.16 |
| Sailing Ruby Rose | 333 | 151000 | 71604.7958 |
| Lazy Gecko Sailing & Adventures | 218 | 149000 | 198213.876 |
| Captain Rick Moore | 954 | 146000 | 92691.6174 |
| Expedition Drenched | 227 | 131000 | 101744.383 |
| Sailing Magic Carpet | 213 | 125000 | 70710.5399 |
The YouTube creators have the ability to check on how many subscribers are watching and how many people are not subscribers. This number as a value can be determined to show who is gaining/losing in subscriber and views. However, it is a bimodal useful statistic. Only at the edges is it useful to talk about. We’re skipping discussion here but will provide the top 5 and bottom 5 as examples.
Table 4: Top 5 viewers to subscribers (based on averages)
| La Vida a Vela – Sailing My Life | 570177 |
| Barefoot Sailing Adventures | 380819 |
| Sailing Sports Channel 2018 | 146497 |
| SV Green Panther | 111908 |
| Sampson Boat Co | 101223 |
Table 5: Bottom 5 viewers to subscribers (based on averages)
| Sailing Zatara | -159490 |
| Sailing Uma | -189137 |
| Gone with the Wynns | -288978 |
| Sailing SV Delos | -385132 |
| Sailing La Vagabonde | -976329 |
Basically Table 4 and Table 5 are telling us that large number of subscribers are not actually watching, or substantial number of people more than subscribers are watching. Therefore, on average subscribers are correlated but not fundamental to the actual viewership. Channels like La Vida a Vela likely due to content and social media get a huge boost from external to the YouTube platform boost.
Sailing La Vagabonde is also interesting with about a third of their subscriber’s number in actual views. That is not to say a third of subscribers view but it is a comparison number only. It may be part of a broader trend and most definitely there is skew over time. Especially when you are comparing averages and long time periods of those averages. Taking the recent last 20 videos at date of this publication Sailing La Vagabonde has a respectable 627K on average views with a high of 1.5 million on a YouTube special, and a low of 405K on a swimming with sharks episode.
The channels that have the stickiest audiences appear to have a few things in common in how they interact with the audience.
YouTube Sailing Channels that over perform the market are more than content creators. They are community makers. When starting out for a YouTube creator (even those with amazing skills) it can seem like you are screaming into a canyon with only your own echo’s to keep you company. Here is how several creators have built their audiences and make them come back week after week.
- When starting out spend the first three hours of public video release responding to YouTube platform comments
- Moderate comments heavily. This is rewarded by the YouTube algorithm. It does require a thick skin.
- You should be responding from the channel account.
- Creators should have subscribed to their favorite Sailing Channels from their content channel. Keep the subscriptions on brand.
For channels that have moved on to Patreon successful creators do the following.
- Release videos three days to one week early to Patrons. This is difficult in near real time.
- Weekly release a unique video to Patrons of real time issues, fun, activities, and more. Do NOT use the lens feature. It requires the Patreon application and users will not engage. Do consider using the YouTube unlisted feature. YouTube is trying to drive creators to the “shorts” feature but that is a topic for another time.
- When releasing early to Patrons spend at least the first hour responding to comments (try for 100 percent response) come back to the comments mid-way to release (try for 50% response rate), then right before the video releases check again. You will find this invaluable as errors, omissions, editing issues may exist and your Patrons are your final quality control.
- Patron and community guidelines suggest a larger swag bag for higher level Patrons. This works once you are up and running and have in excess of 300 patrons. Channels will find that low-level, minimal paying patrons are a high bias over high paying patrons depending on market dynamics.
Creating a sticky audience is a multi-platform engagement. Though we often identify as YouTube Sailing Channels the totality of the engagement is multi-platform for the highest level of success. It will require some level of duplicative effort across multiple engagement streams. Be wary of segmenting video and content to much. A consistent timeline of events builds the narrative. Real time updates should be identified as such and does in the narrative of a teaser.
- YouTube is your long form content delivery vehicle. Video length suggestions vary but a weekly upload for the first two to three years is a requirement.
- Instagram posts on a branded channel are your short form advertising of the video of the week. Leading into the video consider posting pictures taken during that time frame. Reels of content from the video should be layered into this strategy. Start posting two to three days before and up to two to three days post. There are tools to help with this.
- Public facing real time updates such as to Instagram stories are ephemeral and you can post content to them that will be washed away within 24 hours.
- Your non-branded but by name Instagram account will create engagement in real time. This is your cruisers channel in a lot of cases. Personal real time events. A Sailing Channel has several characters. The captain, the crew, the pets, the boat, the sea, the weather, the community they are all visiting. Each of these needs a narrative or the authenticity to the audience will seem hollow.
- Once you have a core audience of about 100 patrons consider starting a WhatsApp group. This will further drive engagement and by limiting the number of participants to patrons of some level it won’t take over your life. As long as you are consistently engaged with the group on current content, and current life you’ll create a sticky audience.
- Patron swag will help. Channels seem to have good luck with the basics of boat cards, stickers, and custom post cards as a primary. An email or note to new Patrons will always create a sticky presence.
- A big part of Patron experience is access to celebrity or expertise. As the Patron numbers expand past 100 and further authenticity and on brand messaging become your touch points.
There has been a change or shift in the specific qualities of video and audio on YouTube sailing channels. The ability to color correct, sound correct, use foley effects within video, and edit at cinematographic scale have all impacted the audience expectations. One note is that this list is about being in the top 25 and there is lots of mid-pack channels who are not doing these things.
- Changes in cinematographic style included the b-roll concept. SV Delos first started this with music montages typified by high-speed items slowed down and time lapse sunsets with voice over.
- The vlogging (Casey Niestat talk to the camera) whether due to public angst or not has been overtaken by the long carry shot with voice over. Tightly edited content of specific activities and studio voice overed is becoming the norm.
- Whereas go-pro and phone footage were normal for the highly active sailing videography. The use of high-end mirrorless cameras with good lenses have overshadowed that. High frame rate, high quality video, and high-quality boom mics or Lavalier microphones on person have become the normal
In conclusion the whole point of this exercise was to pull data and look for some evidentiary items of what is working and what might not be working. We also wanted to see if some pretty standards statements about how to be successful on YouTube were true. There is a lot more to be done.
If you are interested in the technical aspects of this and how we got the data we’re looking at doing another post on my son’s blog going over the use of statistical and data minding software. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some of our statements are willful opinions. If we say something looks like X, we’re saying that because to us it looks like X. To you it might look like Y. That’s ok. We celebrate creators and enjoy the genre of YouTube sailing channels. If you are a creator and we don’t already know you feel free to hit us up on social media.