YouthSailing, the RYA and Catamarans

Not so.  I believe rowing has light and heavy divisions.  Also weight lifting.

you misunderstand me , when I said DIRECT I meant by making statements /submissions saying what you think  (direct Talking ), not by putting submissions in with other people having to interperate what you mean by what you haven't said ! or do the dirty work for you .

IE as in RYA's submission re olympics 2012

Think you must have been thinking of proportional representation , couldn't be further from my point (cloudy as it may have been )

Having been involved in Cat sailing for 20 years during which time I have been Dart 18 class chairman for 4 years and still sit on the Hurricane committee I have been following the threads with interest. It is only now that my ear has been bent for an hour by John Ready I feel I should make a posting.

I agree with everything that has been said by genuine cat sailors on this forum. I think the RYA are wrong in their actions and the way they have gone about it but I think we are missing one important point, surely this all boils down to the number of boats on the water.

With the greatest respect to Worthy I thank him for setting up the petition and can only be impressed with the number of people that have signed it, this is a useful tool to show support but in reality anyone can sign it from the comfort of their home or office. The true show of strength would be the numbers of boats that attend a given event.

I was involved in the first Dart world championships in Abersoch where 300 boats turned up and although there was similar attitude to cat sailors as there is now every sailor could only be impressed with the sheer numbers that the event generated and the subsequent interest that there was in Dart and Cat sailing at the time.

Given what is now going on; now is time that every cat sailor got out on the water to show the support for this type of sailing. We have Grafham water in two weeks time and I am sorry to land this on Bob Carter but we need to get as many cat sailors on the water at that event to show the RYA the numbers of people that their decision will affect. If we got 400 cats, 800 sailors the RYA would find it difficult to ignore. Do you think the RYA would ignore 400 Finns or 400 Ynglings? The difference is these fleets cannot generate this kind of interest. The Tornado and the Hobie 16 represents all cat sailors at the Olympics and the Youth games but by dropping these classes affects all catamaran sailors. We need to show that in physical numbers in additional to forum postings and petitions. I would like to know what the Dutch reaction is to these proposals given the strength of their multi-hull sailing and witnessed by any one who has sailed in the round Texel race

We have made a good start with the petition. I understand that there is an intended meeting with the RYA and the chairman of the respective cat class association. There is also a meeting between ISAF and RYA in early November. What better way to support our cause than to show at the end of the season cat event we can still get the biggest turnout of cats. The RYA will not take us seriously if we are only getting 40 odd boats at a joint cat meeting.

So anyone with a cat needs to go back to their clubs and pursued the other cat sailors in their club to attend Grafham. This may be the type of people who would not normally travel but if it is explained it is for the future of cat sailing I am sure it would be a persuasive argument. All the people at Grafham who have their boats sitting in the park with grass growing over it it is those people we need to get on the water. I am not saying that this will guarantee what we want as cat sailors but it will be difficult to ignore especially if the RYA is meant to represent all sailors.

That is my suggestion I await the replies in shooting this idea down in flames.

"We request that the submissions are withdrawn before the ISAF conference in early November and replaced by alternative submissions which support the use of catamarans both in future Olympics (2012 and beyond) and for youth training"

I note the i petition wording very carefully.  With a virtually unmatched response of indignation at the arrogance of a body who flout their constitution, the latest rya submission appears to me to be a crafty political coverup of their original text. I am outraged by the audacity of the release of a second statement without consultation AGAIN.  Why could they not retract everything until they have carried out a proper consultation with a fair representation from their members on Oct 8th?  Surely this second release should not even be on the agenda as it is as spurious as the first one.  BEWARE!! I feel they have released it as a more reasonable point to negotiate from.  The morality eludes me.