your responsibilities as a sailor

profiteering usury if ever I heard it.... remind me never to attend one of your opens!  

Well Laser and Topper didn't do it, but Sunsail, Nelisen etc did, they just found it worked better to fly people to places the water was warmer and the sun hotter to do it!

But, of course they don't really do racing. And that's the bit I really can't get my head around happening in the "pay and sail model". People who are really interested in dinghy racing (the equivalent of the people who are in local football or hockey teams - not those who might pay to play the odd game at a local leisure centre) are not going to find racing in a well used, pot luck, dinghy a great deal of fun. And most professionally run pay and sail centres are going to find providing a race team, results officer etc expensive, and not worth the while since they won't get many takers. Of course the likes of Weymouth will survive, and provide good racing at a price, but the centre on your local seafront or puddle?

So as long as there are committed dinghy racers there are going to be people who are committed to encouraging others to join in, to keep the numbers up, to keep the racing more interesting, and to keep the numbers racing in a reachable area to maintain a critical mass for at least one club in a manageable catchment area. And the more of them who get involved in that the more successful they are likely to be.

Thats fair enough Owen but you as a Scout leader must appreciate that every organisation needs volunteers to help run the club or organisation. Or you have paid staff. Imagine how expensive Scouts would be if all the leaders were paid for the actual time they spend on organising everything.

I do appreciate it that. but if your time is limited then somewhere which inforces duties on you will not appeal where as if they say that they expect you to put turns in to doing things then i have no problem as it would meen doing them when you can fit them in such as in winter when not sailing or doing other things.