Promoting Sailing Clubs

Well, do we define sailing as a sport? If we have new family members appear at the club we do not push racing. However if said family turns up and proclaims a lack of interest in competition...then we know they will not last. They may be good for one or two years of flapping an old GP round looking at the view but soon they will be off to the sunny uplands of cricket or horses. Racing is what keeps us going, be it against your old mates at home or further afield in championships or opens.

Whilst I tend to agree that the 'activity' of sailing is unlikely to go away, what I do fear for, is the "sport' of sailing rather than the 'pastime' it represents and to most of us on this forum, it is the 'sport' that defines our interest.

So our problem is more the continued promotion of the competitive aspects and the need to deal with all the 'problems' that surround it, not wishing to have this thread descend into another PY discussion, those of us that are at the sharp end of club promotion do have a vested interest in the perception of fair and interesting competition, particularly at the lower skill levels.

If we are going to maintain our interest, it is important that in this dumbed down age, things are easier to understand and a more 'instant access' approach is considered to the 'product' we are all effectively selling.

So an occasional 'coming together' wether it be by forum, virtual or actual, or conference of club officers as I think someone mentioned back a bit earlier in this thread. I'm not sure the Dinghy show is the right venue, I don't know about everyone else but my show is still for selfish purposes wether to see exciting new kit or meet folk I haven't seen for a bit and chew the fat.

I really think an annual water based get together wether to appraise new gear, or talk about yardsticks, or tuition methods, or other mutual interests would be of some help.

Fleaberto...Manor Park? We did drive there once but came from the North through the countryside. I was impressed with your facilities and the youthful exuberance we witnessed. Where are you near where is your nearest centre of mass population? Where do you drawer your membership from?

We have a very successful Junior Sail setup. Anything from 20 to 45 kids every Saturday morning through their season and around 15-ish on a Wednesday evening.
From this we've been able to 'sell' sailing to the various parents and setup various courses to suit them on a Saturday afternoon. The bonus here is that the kids just love messing around with new pals getting soaked all day, the parents get to keep their offspring occupied very cheaply and get to learn a new skill - as well as discovering why we do this in the first place.
The parents are also heavily involved in the running of Junior Sail, so they feel invested in it and feel very much part of the club.
We pick up plenty of family memberships through the year as 'Junior' gets converted.
Once we have the families pootling around our very picturesque lakes - and get them to spend time doing impromptu Summer barbecues etc: 2It's your club, use the facilities..." we can then work on advanced training and racing.
We've had kids go from never seeing a Dinghy a few years ago to passing their DI courses just a few weeks back - a great life skill at such an early age.
Adults who did their Level One are now doing Level Two, Level three and even seamanship just one or two seasons later. All of our courses are modular so we get these people out on the water all the time...sailing becomes ingrained and part of their regular routine.
We arrange AI training too, again looking at parents and the juniors, giving a real sense of belonging.
This also helps with the supply of future DI's and keeps memberships healthy - in fact, we have a waiting list for our not-inconsiderably sized boat park.
We attract people, initially, via Open Days and, last year, by displaying at a local village day - which was very very successful. Offer a booked, free sailing session and a cup of tea and just see the result. Plenty of new members signed up and exposes the club to people that didn't know we were there.
Again, we use the kids as the driver to setup word of mouth at school, though we also use our faffbook page and website as well as local free press and news websites.
We've also recently done a cost breakdown to show that a club membership will cost less than sending the sprogs to football each week and that contrary to popular thought, a boat doesn't have to cost a fortune. All very persuasive and supportive
We focus very much on families and social sailing first and that gets the numbers in - people are put off if we mention 'racing' straight away, so we barely mention it. Once they're in, though, we'll try to get a few out crewing or just encourage the idea that actually racing is a laugh and improves your skills extremely quickly.
On a Summer's Saturday, when I'm sat on the club patio watching people just having an absolute ball either on or off the water, it always makes me smile.

Turnturle

If you care to look back at my original post, I very deliberately did not name the large club to which I was referring and was merely using this as an example to counter Peaky's original post in which he was saying that small clubs were clichy and unfriendly to newcomers. Chrisq subsequently named the large club.

Its all a case of horses for courses. If someone is sailing in one of the main fleets at the large club then they will, I suspect, be made very welcome by that fleet but I can only repeat that we regularly see people who comment how much friendlier and less impersonal is our small club.

We also have training on tap, a professionally cleaned clubhouse, an oversubscribed junior section and an even more beautiful setting in glorious countryside. We don't have the professional rescue cover which is needed on your large water but only do 2 race duties a year.