New ladies skiff

Originally posted by fudheid

Originally posted by fudheid

Originally posted by Daniel Holman

To my mind it looks very nice - it is evident that it was designed by someone who can "think outside the box and challenge the ideals of a succession of box rule boats." I am

Confused by those who question the freeboard - you don't expect to sail a fast boat and stay dry do you? You're soaked to the chest just launching it - what are you, American? And if you're worried about reserve bouyancy - if you're that far in then you'll already have tripped over the pole.

I reckon it's a good progressive design.

Hopefully they can build it nice and light and at a good price.

Anyhow I agree with whoever said that large scale ladies skiff sailing will not take off. The aura will only succeed as a ladies skiff if it is selected for the 5 ring circus, or it is marketed as a skiff for lighter teams.

My reasons are as follows:

Plenty of young girls do 29er squad sailing - there are nearly as many girls as boys, and they seem to be on a pretty similar footing. All good. This is because the 29er is quick and exciting but accessible to a good sailor coming out of oppies/fevas etc. It is relatively cheap, physically accessible and also, DADDY IS PAYING. However, 29er sailing as a percentage of all U18 sailing activity will remain small. 

Fast forward to university age ( for the purposes of my demographic model, most girls who sail 29ers go to university)

Girls are now young ladies so no longer youth so the whole rya youth gravy train stops. Luckily, sailing is still provided for free (team racing) with awesome socials, so this usually is the main sailing avenue for young ladies of ages 18-22.

Get to graduating, and the attrition is pretty big for sailors, but particularly for girls. 

This is due to a number of factors:

Of the percentage of girls who sail, those who sail skiffs (well 29ers) up to 18 remains small in comparison to those sailing more conventional craft at club or even national level. 

Looking at dinghy sailing on the whole, how many rs200s are bought outright by all girl crews? Not many, I would venture, and whilst the competition is hot, a trained monkey could sail a 200 round a course, socials are good, boats plentiful etc. I. e it should be attractive on every level save a perception that it is not fast or exciting enough.

Now the problem with skiffs is that they aren't easy to sail until you know how. It's not a matter of physicality - you don't need strength or anything to sail one, but just like windsurfing, it requires a  load of esoteric skills, and until you learn them, you'll be doing more swimming than sailing. It is a fact of life that Girls are generally more risk averse than boys, and as with learning windsurfing, the fear of failure overcomes the need for achievement sooner. Girls have advantages over boys (generally) in other areas such as intuition and perception. Girls are motivated in very different ways and need very different coaching techniques than boys. 

Going forward to graduate level, those girls not at an elite level who will not have pursued "proper" sailing through uni rather than team racing are faced with a tricky choice. They are burdened with debt and not earning heaps. As such their disposable income is seeing a lot of competition. Do they: buy a skiff new, circa £11k split between two? That is equivalent to a 4 year old mini cooper, or 5 skiing holidays, or 10 pairs of Christian loboutin heels, or 50 Sienna miller esque haircuts or le creuset cookware or any combination thereof. How many girls would sacrifice all of that to swim around 10m radius of a swiftly depreciating rs800 for several months in the freezing cold with a similarly disillusioned pal in the hope that it eventually came together? Not many, especially if barely a handful would consider buying a boat and doing the 200 circuit with the superb attainable one design fleet racing and boozing/debauchery on a near team racing scale. 

Another difference between men and women as consumers is that the boys are more likely to be sold on a larger, unitary big ticket luxury item such as a sailboat (or motorbike / car etc) than a girl who (again generally speaking) would prefer her consumption spread out over smaller items giving a higher standard of living. 

The other undeniable truth is that by the time girls (and boys) are starting to earn well and are not so consumed by existential angst over which ikea coffee table best defines them as a person to contemplate buying a boat, then they are at a stage of  having to think about getting on the property ladder, and procreating. If we take the economics of rearing young out of this, would you make a large capital outlay on a luxury item that you would be unable to use for the next few year because you are too big/ knackered/ covered in stitches/ hormonal /unable to find a babysitter to use it?  I have seen a mate's wife windsurfing within 3 weeks of giving birth but I think she is in a big minority.

My tuppence worth.

+1 

I havent read this whole thread just skipped through reading the views of people I have come to respect and Dan petty much sums up the whole female skiff thing for me.

That said I think it looks great and I would love a go. 

Ian