Nick Craig

Originally posted by gordon

   Regarding Point 1. People are getting taller however this is across the board typically so is not going to have a marked effect at the extreme end of the short and tall scale. I doubt we will see a 5-10% difference across the last 25 years but I am sure you could trend this across previous data.   

Regarding Point 4. The crew weight for an SB20 is 270kg. Therefore there is scope for two 120kg people to sail together with a 30kg kid or alternatively as a pair at 135kg each. Lets face it with their excellent physical prowess at that weight the kite drop would be a piece of piss for the two of them:) As a comparison for real world demographics my experience of this class has most boats sailing with either 3 or 4 adults.  

Is the above facile and eerroneous enough for you. 

Originally posted by gordon

Before we all descend to johnreekie1980 depths of facile and well worn eerroneous arguments - we could reply that if he had eaten his porrige when a kid.....

1. Population averages present an out of date picture as they are based on measurements of present day adults. There is general agreement that amongst the teenagers of today there are many more tall people - the stats will only change in 25 years time.

In the same way BMI stats do not seem to cope. even skinny tall people are classed as borderline obsese

2. Rupert - I deliberately quoted the height and weight of a rugby player who was identical in size to Ian Percy - if Sexton is bulked up to the max then so is Percy. My point is that at 1m87 Sexton would be one of the shortest players on the pitch.

3 With current weight limits many Star sailors diet to get down to weight.

4.Phil - I know exactly how you feel. Perversely even the keelboats that can carry weightare introducing weight limits (Dragon, Etchell, J24, SB20....)

The simple fact is that for the larger young fit sailors, especially in inland dinghy sailing clubs, there is no obvious pathway for them to continue sailing, whilst they are being actively recruited by other sports (rowing, rugby, basketball...) As the average size of fit healthy kids increases sailing in Europe and North America will have a demographc problem.