Getting begginers into club racing

Originally posted by getafix average  lap is a good thing for newbies - nothing worse than sailing round dead last while everyone sits there looking at your in resentment, or worse  shouting "retire" as you pass - I actually witnessed this once

I have had this happen!  At an open meeting at a club I wont be returning to...

yea when i started sailing i was a bit scared to race as the people who did race were i thought really experienced, knew the rule book entirely and were in my eyes really fast. The best way to get into racing is to crew for sumone experienced

If you are a very small club like ours, Combs S.C. in Derbyshire, every member counts. If a new member turns up to join with or without children and wishes not to race but just sail round looking at the spectacular view, then they soon get bored and leave again. The members who stay are the ones who get bitten by the racing bug. Usualy. The best way of encouraging young people is to get them crewing on successfull boats then they get a feel for winning and want to do it them selves. We are lucky in having an elderly GP sailor who prefers nice light children and will usualy win in light airs. Countless children have started with him including two of my own one of whom has gone on to considerable success. Re reading this there is no inuendo intended.

Plan Number One

We have a very small club where every member really matters. During the Club Championship part of the season (our club championship involves sailing 7 series each of 6 races. We have the even numbered series on a wed nigth i.e series 2,4,6 and then we have series 1,3,5,7 on sundays. We usualy sail like series 1 and 3 race 1 on a
sunday and so a serries takes 6 weeks.)

Back to the point. We have 3 races on a sunday and up untill now they have just been a sort of warm up race and didnt count for anything. This year we have decided to put a real push to get bums on sidedecks and have decided to include entry to these races in the fee for our training sessions (these happen on a sunday morning).

These races will be begginers either teamming up with an experianced sailor (probably in a club 2000) who will crew and generaly help the begginer out or they can race a club laser pico. We are going to be pretty relaxed and let experianced people who have just got a new boat or whatever sail in this 2 to allow them to practice but the emphasis will be on making it fun and not competative.

This we hope will give the begginers a chance to experiance racing and hopefully get the bug and then team up with each other and sail in the normall races as they get more confident. One big plus of this is that to begin with the experianced sailor can do alot for the begginer but as the series goes on they will be able to do less and let the bigginer do more and more.

The experianced (good guys if u like) have had to give up a competative race which may have been more fun for them but hopefully this will bring more people into our competative racing in the club championship and increase the number of boats in the hunt for prizes.

Plan Number 2

We always had a handicap trophy which ran along side the club championship trophy and without going into detail rewarded improvement as well as consitancy. It was almost impossible for someone to win both though it has happened. What was happening tho was that the runner up in the club championship would win it. The reason we have a seperate trophy is that we all agree that a rolling handicap system (which this isnt) doesnt incourage mid fleet sailors to improve as they get an artifical impression of how well they are going. We made the desision to say thatr the top 5 boats in the club championship that year are to be excluded from this trophy to allow for almost a silver fleet trophy.

This has been a real hit for the boats about 6th -10th in the club championship as they were regulars who realisticly were't going to be in with a shout of the club championship or race wins but were doing well concidering experiance etc... It was great to see these sailors crowded around the results sheet (like we do the club championship) and working out what positions they needed to get to win that. It has given these people a reason to turn out each week.

Third Plan

We run a pairs challange trophy where the top boats are paired with the lower fleet boats and give them help and advice. This is really taken up by some but even the people who dont help there buddy out much but sail regularly can help there buddy to win some silverware and give them some enjoyment which lets be honest is wat its all about.

Edited by Calum_Reid

 We have a personal handicap (as someone mentioned in previous post)  system for one series of races, this gives newbies a chance. Also provide safety boat cover for free sailing and Bar B Q cruises along the coast for those not into racing. And lots of silverware at the laying up supper for beginers:- most improved Helm/crew, a cup for the most capsizes and a bent cup for the most spectacular cock up on the water.