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Sam.Spoons View Drop Down
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Posts: 3401 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Sam.Spoons Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Future of Sailing Clubs...
    Posted: 28 Feb 17 at 8:49am
You don't need a course to learn to helm, those of us who learned in the '60s didn't go on a course we were told the basics and then shoved off in a Oppi or something. My son learned in the '90s by the same method (in an Ent with a Firefly mainsail). The best way IMHO, one of the big attractions of sailing, especially a youngster, is the 'freedom' aspect, not best illustrated by being shouted at by an instructor.

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 28 Feb 17 at 8:52am
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Paramedic View Drop Down
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Posts: 929 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Paramedic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Feb 17 at 8:10am
I think the fact that clubs have to put bids in for training equipment only serves to highlight that for the vast majority of sailing clubs training is not viable as a source of income. It generally doesn't seem to be viable as a source of members either which is even more worrying since clubs use hours and hours of members time on it.

All training really does is allow you to tick a box to justify the club's existence and to enable you to apply for money that if you didn't bother with training you probably wouldn't need! (Obviously boats are just one potential use, but you get my meaning).

It seems to me that inland racing clubs used to do better for members in the "bad old days" when you used to turn up on a Saturday with your old trainers and a jumper hoping that Bill's crew had let him down again so you could get out in club racing. 

Why did this work better? Because you were actively involved in what the club did. You got taken to the bar where the race was rerun over a beer and learned how to sail on drip feed. Eventually you'd find out that Bill's actually crap but Doug needs a crew for the next three Sundays so that would sort that out. You might buy the scabby Laser down the beach that noones touched for five years to save you from Bill but he's now got someone else going through the initiation process so to guarantee a sail you'll have to learn to helm...................

And that is where the course should kick in.

I think that a lot of smaller inland clubs need reminding about why their members joined in the first place.

Speech over :)


Edited by Paramedic - 28 Feb 17 at 8:14am
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blueboy View Drop Down
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Posts: 512 		Post Options Post Options   Quote blueboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Feb 17 at 7:04am
Originally posted by RS400atC


Why are we entitled to handouts for training boats?


We are not "entitled". We have to make a case. And why not. If Community Sports funding is available, someone is going to apply and someone is going to get it. Why not sailing?

Since most of this money ultimately comes from the Lottery and Lottery sales are in decline, the party may be over anyway.
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blueboy View Drop Down
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Posts: 512 		Post Options Post Options   Quote blueboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Feb 17 at 6:49am
Originally posted by Eisvogel

. Now compare that to the cycle infrastructure we have (not) in the UK. It's never going to change, as only a brave minority dares to take a bike on a normal road.


Is that so? Apparently the many 100s who cycle past my door every weekend haven't got the memo.
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Sam.Spoons View Drop Down
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Posts: 3401 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Sam.Spoons Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Feb 17 at 6:30pm
Originally posted by turnturtle

... after all, tell me again what the feck a room full of spin bikes is offering to be so over-subscribed... go for a bike ride FFS!!!

Clap  Clap  Clap 
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turnturtle View Drop Down
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Posts: 2538 		Post Options Post Options   Quote turnturtle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Feb 17 at 6:24pm
Originally posted by Sam.Spoons

I tried SUP(ing) briefly, on flat water it was pretty easy and thus quite boring. Bumpy water, who knows, I suspect that would be beyond all but the dedicated. .

Nope it's piss easy.... you can score twenty waves a session on your first few times out on easy breaks.  IT gets progressively more fun, technical and tricky on shorter boards though... but a 10'5 or 11'0 picks up on its own... you don't even need the paddle if you can pump properly 


Edited by turnturtle - 27 Feb 17 at 6:26pm
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turnturtle View Drop Down
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Posts: 2538 		Post Options Post Options   Quote turnturtle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Feb 17 at 6:15pm
That's precisely my take on it too Mr 400... great fun in small mushy waves and shed load easier than prone surfing; but ultimately I sold my boards as it was just another thing that took me 8 hours driving for 3 hours play.  I vaguely enjoyed paddling on the river through town.... once.

That said, I wouldn't discount the idea that it could also provide a novel way to get some exercise on flat water for thoes with opener minds than I... after all, tell me again what the feck a room full of spin bikes is offering to be so over-subscribed... go for a bike ride FFS!!!  

STand Up paddle boarding and Yoga gel very well.... hits a female market that wooden solos can't, and provides cross over marketing to other family members.  It could of course just be a fad, by why not ride the fad if it brings in an income and an allied membership base?


Edited by turnturtle - 27 Feb 17 at 6:22pm
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Sam.Spoons View Drop Down
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Posts: 3401 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Sam.Spoons Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Feb 17 at 6:15pm
I tried SUP(ing) briefly, on flat water it was pretty easy and thus quite boring. Bumpy water, who knows, I suspect that would be beyond all but the dedicated. I suggested it was a way for the windsurfing manufacturers to sell us another toy (a 'light wind alternative' has been the windsurfing industries holy grail for more years than I care to remember). There are definitely people who think SUP(ing) is wonderful and get a huge amount of pleasure out of it but, for me, windsurfing, dinghy sailing and kayaking are all infinitely more enjoyable.
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RS400atC View Drop Down
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Posts: 3011 		Post Options Post Options   Quote RS400atC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Feb 17 at 6:08pm
Originally posted by turnturtle

...
I do know of about 50 mums who would give yoga with stand up paddle boarding in the summer a go.... just a shame a local sailing club doesn't offer it on a Tuesday morning.


You must move in interesting circles.
This paddle boarding malarkey mostly looks like a silly, unstable sort of canoeing.
Most participants make it look like a slow and awkward game.
Just the latest way to encourage people to flange around in a spoil pit in the Midlands.
Then they come down to the ocast and look stupid.
Maybe they need to work o their yoga?
The only time I've seen it look appealing is in surf, where paddlers were able to get to waves that swimmers were too late for, and of course they're already standing on the board when they get there.
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turnturtle View Drop Down
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Posts: 2538 		Post Options Post Options   Quote turnturtle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Feb 17 at 5:49pm


Originally posted by RS400atC


Originally posted by Eisvogel


Originally posted by turnturtle

my own view is that sailing would be better off accepting it's not for everyone and stop trying so damn hard.

But how are you going to find the ones who enjoy sailing and will stick with it, without trying to give as many people a go as possible? Sure, many people will try it, and decide it's not for them. But excluding certain groups from the outset because they are not the kind of people who are typically the sailing kind of people (ie white middle class and above) is not the right approach.
You can't make everyone try sailing. You can offer it to lots of people, like for instance my wife's school offers a bit of sailing to primary school kids, but is that effective? It's good for the kids but probably not at all efficient in bringing people into the sport.Sailing is not something you can learn in 10 minutes, 'having a quick go' is likely to disappoint.You have to face the fact that it holds zero fascination for the vast majority of people.As for sailing being a middle class sport, possibly anyone who is capable of being any good at sailing is capable of succeeding at work too? I know quite a few club members and good sailors who are more working class but they tend to be successful at it. The kind of garage mechanics that start their own business, welders who earn good money, office workers who get promoted, shop assistants who become managers etc.I have known a few sailors who have been rubbish at their work lives, but they were more 'upper middle class' people.

Precisely- I don't know of one kid from my daughters school who has taken up sailing as a past time in a local club thanks to it being on the current curriculum.
I do know of about 50 mums who would give yoga with stand up paddle boarding in the summer a go.... just a shame a local sailing club doesn't offer it on a Tuesday morning.



Edited by turnturtle - 27 Feb 17 at 6:04pm
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