Sailing Modes these days

Interesting and mind boggling subject!

Just some initial and immediate comments on some views already put and I 'll refer to two.


 Firstly,I'm not now familiar with the RYA training systems, but have observed and commented on the fact that at my club all training revolves around single handers perhaps therefore abandoning those who do not have the confidence to sail single handedly but who would otherwise still wish to be on the water and enjoying the sport but preferring to share the experience and fun.

Secondly, what are  two person cats offering that conventional double-handers do not?

Originally posted by GK.LaserII Originally posted by G.R.F. Wondering if double handed sailing is dying a death.. What's going on in your club?   It does seem to be on the wane.I've given it some thought but reached no conclusions........thoughts like: Majority of Cats are 2 handed. Not on the wane there? Husband and wife teams can be frought with problems but when they do work they work well. Does the RYA 1&2 focus too much on single handers. Is the crew position too boring in an assy, less teamwork dependant. My wife thinks she would be less important on an assy. Less commitment to a team needed on an assy  Youth of today more self centered, less able to tolerate differences of opinion, more likely to get a divorce / more likely to split as a team. ........No conclusions

Single handed & hiking for me, though I can see the advantages of double-handed sailing. It's just that I don't want to sail with anyone else. Plus, I (as many others in our club) would struggle to get reliable, committed crew. So often the dinghy park is filled with people either looking for crew, or people just wanting a ride in a boat. There's rarely a balance between the two.

I wouldn't say that the RYA encourages single handed sailing: there's plenty in the RYA syllabus that covers two-person boats and assy sailing, for example.

Originally posted by Peaky My old man used to reckon that too many singlehanders at a club killed the club. I think this was based upon the thinking that you lose a lot of social interaction, but also you lose a way of introducing newbies to the sport. Becoming a crew was a cheap and effective way of learning to sail, that can't happen in singlehanders.

I agree. When I first started and anyone approached the club with an interest in joining, the satandard line was - turn up on a Sunday with some old clothes and someone will take you out. In fact there were several members who owned doublehanders with no regular crew because they could guarantee that they could at least pick someone up off the beach, trouble is now everyone has moved to singlehanders that isn't an option.

Agree that singlehanders are dominant at most clubs. Virtually all of our club's racers sail singlehanders, partly because you never miss a race due to lack of crew.But the worrying thing is that most of the training boats are singlehanders too. Our club has about 20 club boats, used for RYA courses, and most are singlehanders, Toppers, Taz's that sort of thing.RYA squads of course are predominantly singlehanders too, and the most active junior classes on circuit are also singlehanders. So in all three categories of the adult racers, the learners, and junior racers, singlehanders rule. Probably if you learn in singlehanders, you stay in them. But worse, because you don't learn while crewing a doublehander for an experienced sailor, you don't aspire to racing. You just aspire to picking up one or two RYA certificates till you get bored and try another sport. We're starting to wonder about the right balance between selling RYA courses to newcomers to help them learn to sail, or instead trying to persuade the newcomers to buy their own (crewed) boat and then self learn or learn with help of club members, more the oldfashioned way. Currently we're recommending some new family members to buy Graduates, which can be bought for about the same cost as an RYA course. Better value long term? More likely to develop further into sailing?

Should more of us switch to buying boats which could be sailed either singlehanded or crewed, like the Grad? Could be used for either teachoing or racing. Any other ideas for flexible boats like that? Excluding rotamoulds. Dart, Grad, Firefly?   

Deleted ... not worth sturring up the troll

Edited by Guest#260