SNAKES!

Not sure if you were trying to support the point I was making or not....?

Did you mean it to point to the Y&Y thread?  Or something else?

But in any case that is a 12 year old thread.....which has one reference to a radio programme with an RYA employee or volunteer stating that sailing is seeing reduced numbers but power boating is on the up - wonder what fuel costs did to that?

And then a reference to a Probono Mckinsey report which was once on the RYA website, but is no more....

The author of SNAKES must be lurking: show us the evidence for your assertions!

However, it’s also worth noting that this discussion topic has been bubbling on for what must be nearly two decades- with obviously no sense of conclusion or plan of action.  Therefore, like you I’m minded to think that it ain’t all that bad, and if anything, the worst of the decline is probably behind us.  There are certainly no less active adult racers at clubs around my UK home, to my sea based home clubs in the late 80’s and 90’s as a kid.  

I’ve also seen my local Laser fleet swell from the 5-6 regulars with a couple of extras back in 2003, to pushing high teens and twenties with some level of consistency- and this is despite all the classes that have come and gone in an attempt to replace it.  This is the case at two or three local-ish clubs to my UK base, and I understand Solos have been equally successful at other clubs around there.  

The Aero is gaining traction at another club nearby, and it won’t take long for Jeffers to cite the D-Zero at Grafham and Hunts - another ‘win’ for sensible boats that are still fun to sail and race with average skills or lack of time.  The more of these types of boats actively racing, then the tighter the core PY banding for the ‘club fleet’- especially if supplemented with a programme of club owned boats for newbies etc.  If club sailing is to suffer a future of handicap racing only, then I’m sure of one thing, the tighter the PY banding, the more meaningful the racing will actually be.

So, I’m kind of with you and Jim on this.... SFW if the numbers have technically dropped from the 1970s.  That was a lifetime ago, and societal pressures and economic conditions are so fundamentally different- and in broader terms, very much for the positive for all of us.  If there’s one thing I could never abide, it was the blue blazer types that would proliferate the Gentlemen’s Club of the past... so frankly a more family friendly place, OR something semi-professionally run for those who participate without family members, seems a far better set of future options than those toss-pot places of last Century whose stereotype still pervades our collective reputation.

I do agree with the general feeling that the RYA’s talent mining efforts does strip clubs of average ability kids who might otherwise go on to serve as club regulars.  It’s easy to see that when you’ve been lucky enough to sail 29ers in Weymouth every other week, the prospect of the local pond on Supernova doesn’t do it for you.  I think it would be far better alround if there were actually young adults in clubs willing to crew more exciting things like Fireballs and 400s than us ‘oldies’ defaulting to various singlehanded options.  But outside of that, my critique of the RYA ends- I think they’re a relative slick operation for keeping Whitehall’s hands off the reigns and this for sure, is a bigger issue in today’s world than whether the odd bloke on a forum thinks the PYAG aren’t transparent enough.  

It’ll be interesting to see what comes in ‘Ladders’, because half the story only seemed like a trip down Nostalgia Avenue... relatively pointless in many ways, and frankly, doesn’t really add to the sense that there is solid future for dinghy sailing.  As Peaky points out, you’d have to try a great number of other things to match ‘a good dinghy race’ for sense of self-worth and achievement.