Sailing is for posh people

When we went to the assistance of our Sailing Club they were having sausage & mash supper with tinned fruit salad, nowadays it's black tie and champagne with a decent live band, and dancing til you fall over (Then not make the start line the next day because you can't walk)but then that's windsurfers knowing how to enjoy themselves...

truth is, most kids would rather have an iPad than a dinghy... so family life has changed away from equipment heavy sports.  

That is a problem. I HATE work parties. As a practical  man and a son of toil I am elbowed away so that some 'professional' can beat his chest and holler across the lake whist bending a nail or splitting a plank.

Originally posted by iitick I am just back from our Dinner Dance and presentation evening. Amazingly I won something? There were probably about 50 actual sailors in that room plus wives and girlfriends. There were four professors, three Cambridge graduates, two Architects, three Solicitors, one planning consultant, one medical Consultant, one Interior Designer, one Ecological consultant, one civil engineer, one quantity surveyor, one Arboricultural consultant one aeronautical engineer a flute teacher, computer pioneer......get my drift? We also have a couple of teachers, three plumbers, a railway signalman, a railway track laying engineer and me. I bet we are pretty typical as well. Posh, well yes but not snobbish within our ranks. They are the best friends and the nicest people I ever met.

The social mix at my club nowadays is pretty similar, but has changed a lot since I started as one of the "build a Mirror in the garage" 70s generation. Back then the members of the club (tiny midlands gravel pit) did have the occasional professional type, but more often than not were practical sorts such as electricians, plumbers, digger drivers, builders, or factory workers. Not remotely posh in other words, but having people like that in the club was essential when it came to laying slipways and building club houses. For whatever reason I do think the sport has lost its way a bit around wider social engagement, and I think that's a huge shame.  Although our current members, "posh" though they may be,  are still great people !

Originally posted by Dougal I was watching my youngest at the skate park earlier. For most adults (or youngsters come to that) with no background in skateboarding it is totally bizarre.

Standards have definitely slipped in skateparks of late, they let anybody in these days, fruit booters, bmx, even scooter kids, time was they'd be beaten up the scooter wrapped round their neck and tossed into the dumpster with all the fruit booters..