YouthSailing, the RYA and Catamarans

I believe this situation is typical the length and breadth of the country; there are of course exceptions but I am sure this situation if reflected at most clubs.

I expect windsurfing is less club based with more nomadic participants leading to the situation that if you use major events as your metric you get a skewed view of what is really goung on in terms of participation at grass roots.

Hi Rick,

I think your last paragraph is so relevant. I hadn't thought  of that. I also concur with your comments about windsurfer racing in the paragraphs before.

In my part of the country, the windsurfers tend to be an ageing bunch, many of whom started 30 years ago.

But of course the RYA cannot be so parochial. They have to look at the true picture, which shows title fleets of 88 JUNIORS AND YOUTH on Techno boards, 20 or so YOUTH on RSX boards, and 35 in Open JUNIORS, plus all the T15 kids.

Nowadays, younger folk have taken to kite-boarding, which has become the "in" thing to do. But so far, no racing.

I was once told (by a respected member of the RYA) that an audience is as important to windsurfers, as anything else. They will "reach" to and fro, and when they realise no one is watching, they'll come in.

This is complete rubbish. For a start, many  modern windsurfers tend to sail in stronger winds, which means sailing mainly in winter when there are fewer people on the beach as an audience. if an audience was what they needed they would sail in light winds. Many of the racers sail twilights when there are fewer people out to watch them.

Furthermore, earlier you have attacked windsurfers for being invisible . When they are seen you say they are playing to an audience, when they are not seen you say they mustn't exist and therefore should not be catered for. Please try to use some logic.

I wonder if that RYA member windsurfed? I hear one dumb bunny from the RYA has a hatred of windsurfers because he feels they aren't real racing - he's wrong and I understand he's never tried it and therefore has no idea.

It's amusing that the very same RYA honchos you earlier accused of being out of touch and ignorant are now held up by you as being so wise that they even know what motivates other sailors. If you think they are that smart, then surely you must respect their decision to dump the cats?

And in my locality, the cat clubs and regattas stop racing in winds the dinghies still go out in, and the boards relish*. Does that mean the cats should get dumped from the Games and Youth Worlds? Hell NO!!

The surprise is that there don't seem to be any bespoke windsurfer clubs, though WYC might be an exception.

There are windsurfer clubs from the West Pennines to London, to Minnis Bay and the Clyde. The windsurfers have their own entire bespoke national organisation, which unlike some specialist organisations actually runs things like a national circuit with hundreds of racers. It works with the organisers of events like Fat Face which attracts 300-500 boardsailers to compete (PS I didn't count them in my numbers of windsurfers at national events....that's like ignoring Texel in a cat count but it seemed best to be modest).