OutdoorAdventureSport

Watching 'Sailing La Vagabonde'

If you don't know about SLV you might not internet enough.

SLV is the story of Riley Whitelum & Elayna C. sailing around the world on YouTube. In the past couple years these two novice sailors, adventurers & YouTubers have steadily climbed to become the #1 Sailing Vlog on the internet, with over 300,000 subscribers, all seemingly by accident.

The short version of the story goes like this... La Vagabonde Owner & Captain, Riley Whitelum bought the 43ft Beneteau Cyclades yacht, having a total of less than 10 hours previous sailing experience. After working and saving money on an off shore oil platform for 8 years in Australia, the young man decided he wanted to sail around the world on a boat & jumped into the adventure full throttle.

Fast forward a few months to the Greek Islands of the Mediterranean where he met fellow Australian Eleyna, who was working & traveling abroad. Charmed by his mustache & dreams of adventure, the two quickly hit it off as a couple, & within a few months he asked her to quit her job & join him on his world cruise.

Well, its a good thing he did. Not only is Elayna the dream girl any sane man would want to be stranded at sea with, but she also seems to be the main creator & driving force behind their Website,Video's & online presence of SLV. That's a presence and 'brand' that has allowed the couple to finance their travel & adventures for the past two years, with the help of a huge YT following and more than 1000+ supporters on Patreon, the couple is currently earning more than 10G$ per weekly video. Recently it also landed them an amazing deal on a brand new 45 ft. Outremer Catamaran, valued at over 1million $$$.

The French Cat manufacturer was already following the couple on YouTube when Riley contacted them, dreaming about owning a new catamaran himself. Because of their internet fame and popularity in the global sailing community, Riley was able to negotiate an incredible 'sponsorship' deal with company that resulted in them financing & manufacturing a brand new, global sailing Cat for the pair. In fact, it's he top model that Outremer produces.

Since the announcement only a few months ago, Google searches for Outremer have gone up steadily, bucking the trend of most sailing company searches actually falling over the past decade. Proof that the SLV brand is really turning heads.

So, how do they do it?? Is it all a happy coincidence? Whats the magic?.......... As an observer I can only speculate & offer my opinion, but I'll venture to say Yes, No, & the magic is 'them'.

There's a lot of Sailing channels on YT.  I've been watching SLV videos for about a year. Theirs are by far my favorite.

For starters, they are a beautiful pair. Top Hollywood casting agents couldn't have put together a better match for a Sailing Adventure show. Each one of them individually, possess the youthful beauty, grace and demeanor that seem to make humanity admirable & worth looking at for a while.

Secondly, (& I'll give special props to Elayna for this), their show is really top notch. The production value & overall quality is an amazing achievement for anybody, let alone a couple of young adventurers that don't claim to be professional Filmmakers or Producers. Their shots are beautiful, the audio quality is good, the editing is tight, & the content is cohesive & well presented. Not only are the videos done well and easy to watch, but their over all 'Brand' & delivery is quite impressive as well. Weather you are looking at their YouTube channel, Patreon account, or Instagram, its always an interesting bit of a fun sailing adventure, without a bunch of messy politics, personal drama or irrelevant distractions.

Its basically what you could describe as 'good clean fun' set in an environment of romantic, almost fantasy, dream like adventure. Exotic locations, an amazing journey, friendly & pleasant personalities, with all the pertinent details of context & story presented clearly enough to keep the audience interested, informed & involved.

They are also consistent. They drop a new polished video every week, sometimes every few days. Honestly, I don't know where they find the time to manage sailing around, adventuring, and churning out such consistent materials while also coordinating all the back end 'behind the scenes' stuff like managing their online affairs & logistical concerns.

Really, its all pretty impressive & leaves no question as to how they've risen to the top tier of the Sailing Vlog community.

Their story is a fun one, that has definitely attracted and inspired the adventuresome spirit of a worldwide audience, eager to follow along.

With the acquisition & launch of their new catamaran, & more following & support than ever, their story can only go on to get better.

Whatever their future brings, I hope to catch regular updates about it.