How to move forward with youth cats

Originally posted by Worthy

   This thread is a follow-on from my recent post on the main discussion thread which was as follows:

Originally posted by Worthy

Originally posted by Sailor Pete

By comparison, have a look at the Topper class for example http://www.gbrtopper.co.uk/ under
"Training" and see what they're doing - there's load of class training
as well as RYA stuff.  It's a similar picture for Mirror, Cadet,
Optimist, Feva, 420, 29er and all the Lasers.
Thanks for this, I agree that the Topper class (and I
am sure the other examples you have given) have large structured
training programmes, and I for one would love that to be the case for
cats so we have to work out how to get there.
I feel that it is currently a viscious circle we (cats) are currently in.

Let's
for a moment take a hypothetical situation where the H16 fleet youth
fleet is 50 boats.  In this case there would be a much larger number of
parents available who would be willing to help put on training sessions
and there would therefore be more of them - possibly more in line with
Toppers.  There would also be more drive for youngsters to join the
class and there would be no problems, with or without RYA support.

However,
as we all recognise, this is not the case.  The BHCCA is currently run
by sailors parents, and as many have recognised the number of sailors
has fallen over the last few years (I'm not getting into disputes over
reasons why here) and so there are very few running it.  Frankly, these
few are busting a gut to run the current training schedule.

The
problem how I see it is to get out of the viscious circle of being
small because we get few new people and we get few new people because
we are small.  And the only way I can see out of this is with support.

We need to get to my hypothetical situation above and I am open to ideas.

I have set this thread up so we can have a constructive discussion about possible ways of moving forward and getting more interest in the youth cat scene.

The mood for discussion is "we are where we are so lets not dwell on it or the past, lets look for a way forward" so constructive comments only please.

Input is welcome from all, whether a cat sailor or not.