Dinghy popularity

Chris, I guess as far as magazines go, the new has 1) the advantage of not being written to death already, so people will be interested 2) flashy pictures and 3) advertaizing revenue. Triple whammy for a magazine, surely? They are bound to say that new is the future.

Trouble is, people who are new to the sport won't understand, and may well go out and buy a Nacra 17 as their first boat, not realizing it will bite them in the bum, whereas a Dart 16 would have given them the skills needed to handle it, and be more enjoyable to sail as a beginner in the process.

Mind, as we are on the Y&Y site, I would say that a while ago, Y&Y ran a fair few features on what to sail if new to sailing, and often run articles about sailing holidays and such, which are usually aimed at inexperienced sailors. But I think we would all get bored with a mag that didn't have articles about mad boats that I wouldn't want to own in a million years, but am glad exist, or boats so expensive that you wonder any sell at all.

Originally posted by Old Timer here is some research on what a newbie is getting pedalled ... http://www.rya.org.uk/startboating/Pages/Dinghy.aspx http://www.sunsail.co.uk/beach-clubs http://www.rockleywatersports.com/ http://www.learn2sail.co.uk/ Look through that lot and you will see lots of beginner friendly kit and not a foiling Moth in sight ... Is the sport really guilty of pushing elite kit to newbies? The only skiff I could see was http://www.minorcasailing.co.uk/ but this is perhaps more of a high end resort anyway ....

That stuff's great, but the attitude of many in the sport seems to be that the future is much less accessible craft; that's why EUROSAF said that an event for kites, skiffs, foilers and kite cats was "representing the future of sailing"; why people promoted the women's skfif saying "this is the kind of boat ISAF should be looking to for the future of our sport"; why an influential member of the sailing industry said to ISAF " Tornados and women’s skiff!! Excitement. Future of sailing."

 

Seahorse Magazine a couple of years back reported that the Int 14s and Moths - foilers that had attracted about 120 boats between them at their worlds at Garda - were "the future" of the sport whereas they completely ignored the fact that the various Laser worlds that year got 1500 PRE-QUALIFIED entrants to places as distant as South Africa and New Zealand.

 

The Viper F16 high performance cat claimed to "showcase sailing's future, its willingness to move with the times, its desire to be high-performance and media savvy...."It's the future of sailing, the class that is young and fresh but at the same time high-performance."

 

Seahorse repeatedly claims that high performance is the future, as does Sailing Anarchy, Magnus Wheatley in his evidence-free ravings, and many others. Luckily the UK dinghy builders seem to have changed their tune since the initial "skiffs are the future" call of the early 2000s.

 

There are many other examples I could find in my stack of mags (try anything written by Frank Bethwaite, who is serialised in Seahorse) but I'm away this weekend.

Koops,

I was also a late entrant to the sport, very late 30s. I was introduced to a sea sailing Club and sort of picked it up as I went along, crewing for a season in Wayfarers. 

But as winging it has said numerous time the majority don't want that. Having come into sailing later than my teens the thing I remember wanting to do after completing the basic courses was 'join in'. The draw was not the thrill of the top end stuff; it was just the beauty of sail on water. For me this meant joining the back of the most popular fleet; the Laser. I just want to sail what other were. Luckily and unsurprisingly the class fleets at clubs are of the Solo/laser/200 ilk, Big fleets of mustos/moths/14s are rarer and so the route is fairly clear. In this way the club system should be seen as a positive, I certainly found it to be the best part.

It would be good have seen a massive fleet of easy to sail, quick and sexy boats that beginner can use; fairly impossible to design, but aspirational all the same.

I suppose a gentleman coming from the top end of a thrilling water sport such as windsurfing will have a different view of 'entry level' to someone such as me who can just about swim, to me the Laser appeared to be the pinnacle of boat perfection as I had no context. Context is the key, most adults coming into the sport will not be aware of what 20+ knots in control feels like, those that do might need more excitement than a laser 2000.

I hope one day that the aspirational entry level dinghy that iGRF believes in does exists, but I fear that the path to that day has many incremental stages that will frustrate and ultimately it wont seem that great because the top end will be even further away.