YouthSailing, the RYA and Catamarans

Originally posted by JimC It seems to me that the RYA put far more money into the cat Squad than they ever did into the 29ers until the 29ers were already successful in numbers without that level of assistance. The RYA obviously considers that the growth in top level sailors/fleet, in spite of that money, wasn't worth it. If their claim that the parents and sailors weren't joining in is correct then I'd say they were right.

According to the RYA's figures, per head, you are correct in that more money was spent.  Overall less was spent.  However, the amount of money that is thrown at something is irrelevant if the processes are poor.  The government have found this out with the NHS (apologies for anyone in the NHS this may offend).

In 2004 the Hobie 16 squad was at the size where it was really becoming effective and the RYA suddenly announced, at the RYA Youth Nationals in Pwllheli, that they were cutting the squad from 6 to 3.  Again this was done without the consultation of the class coach. Over the next few years the squad was then further reduced to 2 and then effectively 1 boat.  This explains why there is a decline in the number of Hobie 16’s at the National Youth Championships in the RYA statistics.  This action seriously demoralised both the youths who were “thrown out” of the squad and those who were retained.  There is clearly a question as to whether or not this is the action of a national body intent on supporting youth catamaran sailing.

Edited by Worthy

RYA statement released: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=138751

Royal Yachting Association personnel met with representatives of the UK catamaran racing community on Monday (8 October) to discuss concerns surrounding submissions to the ISAF Conference regarding future events in the ISAF Youth World Championships and the Olympic Games. The meeting saw a full and frank exchange of views between the various parties, with the outcomes as follows: It was agreed to formulate a working party comprising RYA personnel and catamaran sailing representatives to progress grassroots development opportunities for catamaran sailing in the UK. The RYA will progress with its amended submission in relation to future events at the ISAF Youth Worlds (as published on Thursday 4 October and viewable here), with the submission to ISAF to include the following events: Boy’s one person dinghy Girl’s one person dinghy Boy’s two person dinghy Girl’s two person dinghy Boy’s windsurfer Girl’s windsurfer Open Multihull Open two person high performance dinghy In relation to the submission on events for the 2012 Olympic Games, the RYA’s position will remain unchanged, ie: One person dinghy – Men One person dinghy – Women Two person dinghy – Men Two person dinghy – Women Two person, high performance dinghy – Men Two person, high performance dinghy – Women Windsurfing – Men Windsurfing – Women The final two events would be decided by the ISAF Council.

 

Edited by Scooby_simon

But if you look at the 49er Development squad everyone excluding 1 helm are all ex 29er sailors who all came top 3 at a Worlds or Europeans and most of them both aswell as being 1st youths at every worlds. Also the RYA must have thought that it will probably be the ISAF boat at some point, and it obviously paid off with a Silver and Bronze at the Youth Worlds compared to no medals the year before in the 420.

Originally posted by johnready Forum Catsailors: The UK Catamaran Class Chairmen Committee (represented by delegates from F18, F16, Shearwater, Tornado, Dart, UKCRA, Tornado Builders, Rob and Reg White(Gold Tornado Montreal 1976) had a very effective meeting with the RYA yesterday. The minutes of this public meeting will be available shortly. Your chance to make your points and ask questions about what happened and the way forward is at the Grafham Cat Open Oct20 in the upstairs bar @6pm. Sail fast, the only way CATAMARAN!

 

Hi John

 

Good move , but with an entry limit of 200 boats and a good proportion singlehanders thats only 250-300 ish cat sailors who can take part - a small minority of our "small minority "

any thoughts on how ALL us UK CATSAILORS can discuss constructively and share information on this extremely important subject .

Unfortunately I cannot make Grafham this year .

But I think I have expressed my sentiments on this issue.

 

Any generous sticker makers that could do a quick run to stick on our boats to show support

 

I leave text to others imagination , mine may be too letigous !!!

 

 

Originally posted by Scooby_simon RYA statement released: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=138751 [quote] Royal Yachting Association personnel met with representatives of the UK catamaran racing community on Monday (8 October) to discuss concerns.............

So the original posting on this forum was not quite correct and the RYA have added back in the Cat to the proposal to the ISAF for the Youth 2009 championships. This makes 8 event proposals to the ISAF. It is my understanding that the RYA also agreed that it was very unlikely that the ISAF would consider more than 7 events and declined to state what they would recommend in this circumstance. Thus the RYA are handing over a topic that is "too hot to handle" to the ISAF on both the 2009 Youth Chamionships and the 2012 Olympics.