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The State of Club Sailing |
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Simon Lovesey 
Far too distracted from work 
Joined: 30 Nov 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 349 |
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 Topic: The State of Club SailingPosted: 07 Aug 15 at 9:35am |
Calendar congestion is one of the key challenges facing any sport, not only are we competing for people's scarce leisure time but sailing has a habit of competing with itself with numerous event clashes, which usually means diluted fleet sizes. Other sports manage to have a centralised calendar, where events have to apply and be selected to be listed. This helps manage over laps and potentially improves the quality of events. Sailing is crying out for this approach and management. |
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iiiiitick
Far too distracted from work
Joined: 19 May 15 Online Status: Offline Posts: 240 |
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Posted: 07 Aug 15 at 9:25am |
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The point is that travelling must be enjoyable. At our club we now have our own little travelling fleet of Bytes. We are self contained fun. In fact after the Weston Nationals three of us, one 26 year old girl, myself and a 38 year old chap stayed on for two nights and visited Portsmouth Dockyard and Stonehenge. The young lady in our group is now facebook friends with another lady Byte sailor. Is this the beginning of a community? It must be hard to rock up somewhere with your boat on a trailer where you know no one.
Regarding shared Nationals. I do take your point Peaky but I think most classes, ourselves included, would wish to retain their identity. Even sharing with boats of a similar PY one would want your own start. If there are Bytes at any of your clubs please encourage them to try open events. I am often there and do not sail so am on hand to welcome and introduce.
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davidyacht
Really should get out more 
Joined: 29 Mar 05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1345 |
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Posted: 07 Aug 15 at 8:33am |
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Key issue with championships IMO is to ensure that sailors have allocated the spare time in their lives to go to a championship. So there needs to be a sufficiently strong vibe from the previous championship to make you want to do the next one.
With this in mind, classes have a habit of kicking themselves in the foot by clashing with other major events or choosing poor venues and the numbers ratchet down, and it is always hard to regain the momentum. Another observation is that numbers at championships and opens have little to do with club fleets, put simply, if everything is good at home, why would you want to ply away? Salcombe and Hayling have very strong Solo class racing with 20+ boats out every week, but few of them see the need to travel unless the venue is attractive, timing is right, and the distance is acceptable.
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Happily living in the past
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Posted: 07 Aug 15 at 8:24am |
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But that's only a problem if you think of the Byte as a different class to a streaker. If you change midset and think of them both as designs of F1, it's not really any different to racing a a Patterson vs Ellsway vs Eplett Cherub.
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JimC
Really should get out more
Joined: 17 May 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 6662 |
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Posted: 06 Aug 15 at 11:28pm |
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I don't know about the rest of you, but I do class events to race with the same class. If I want to race in a menagerie I can stay home. And I certainly wouldn't be interested in a championship where I'm spat out the back on every start because there are 5 other classes on the start line all of which are intrinsically quicker upwind than my boat. If I wanted to sail in a big fleet that badly I'd swap class. And small fleet racing has its own skills and delights, just look at the Olympics...
Central venues are a problem. Westwards in Wales is a long way from anywhere, no matter how good the water is when you get there, and IME East coast river venues are unpopular, and although I've enjoyed major events at Loch Lomond and Ullswater, I can't see the likes of Grafham cutting the mustard for people outside the midlands and south east. Its a shame I'm going to be too old (or worse) to do major events seriously when the self driving car is available. Jump into the car at midnight, set the nav and go to sleep on the back seat sounds like the perfect way to get to Championships to me... Edited by JimC - 06 Aug 15 at 11:32pm |
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Posted: 06 Aug 15 at 10:37pm |
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That's true about inland events, but you could still hold several inland events, culminating in an Inland champioships, in addition to a coastal championship. If you muster 5 classes you should get 30 boats at any event, and 50+for the main ones. Forget about interclass rivalry, make out that you're all part of the same 'F1' class or whatever, and you just happen to have chosen different designs.
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fab100
Really should get out more
Joined: 15 Mar 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1005 |
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Posted: 06 Aug 15 at 10:32pm |
It's a long old drive that far into north Wales, you'd get much further north in the same driving time. Oh, and the speed-camera obsession
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iiiiitick
Far too distracted from work
Joined: 19 May 15 Online Status: Offline Posts: 240 |
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Posted: 06 Aug 15 at 9:52pm |
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We have thought of this Peaky. Plans are afoot! I particularly think the Steaker class sounds tasty! The point with small fleets is that they are very competitive at the top but it gets lonely back in the (small) fleet.
There are loads of boats out there but they must be leisure/club sailing and will not travel. Inland championships are less intimidating.
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Posted: 06 Aug 15 at 9:38pm |
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Honestly, I think the Byte should team up with the Europe, Steaker, Lightning, Comet and Solo (tho they may consider themselves too big to play) and anything else of that ilk and hold a joint championship. First over the line winner, with class prizes if you muster more than 5 boats. Make it a three day event somewhere like Lyme or Broadstairs.
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Lukepiewalker
Really should get out more
Joined: 24 May 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 1341 |
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Posted: 06 Aug 15 at 9:31pm |
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Abersoch counts as North now... wow...
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Ex-National 12 3253 "Seawitch" Ex-National 12 2961 "Curved Air" Ex-Mirror 59096 "Voodoo Chile" |
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