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JimC View Drop Down
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Posts: 6661 		Post Options Post Options   Quote JimC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Open Meetings
    Posted: 28 Jun 22 at 8:20pm
I used to do the winter open circuit regularly. The Sailjuice thing did exactly nothing to make me want to turn out more, but I'd stopped doing them then anyway as I was then sailing a singlehander regularly at a club rather than campaigning a two hander from home, so I don't think that proves much. But would I have been likely to do an event I didn't otherwise fancy because there was a series? I doubt it.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 22 at 9:55pm
Originally posted by davidyacht

Against the cost of a competitive racing dinghy £5k to £30k, accommodation, food and travel the entry fee is a bagatelle.  I am not sure that the overall costs are going to deter the serial open meeting attendee, increasingly their dinghies rarely grace their “home” club boat park, and the leading class associations are pursuing a model of a “major” open each month pitched at the sailors who are interested in this style of racing 
I disagree with this.  I can kind of justify a new boat periodically as it comes out of savings.  However, telling the family I’m off for the weekend and I’m pissing £200 up the wall doing it is not compatible with peace and harmony. 
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 22 at 9:59pm
Originally posted by Mozzy

Originally posted by ClubRacer

£50 for a 2 day event?! Sounds like a bargain. RS want £120 for a 2 day event down in Weymouth

Yeah... for the most part I don't believe entry fees are the big put off. Certainly if I believe it will goes to well deserving club.


You say this as a front of fleet sailor with something to get out of the event. Would a mid-fleet/back marker feel the same?  

We can’t get 2/3rds of our home fleet to pay £15 for our home open meeting - why would they when they know they won’t win and can race for free every other weekend?
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 22 at 10:13pm
Take the Fireball as an example.  Once upon a time there were regularly over 100 boats at the nationals. Since 2000 the numbers have continued to decline, from 80, to 70, 60, 50, 40 and now about 30. That means every year several more boats decide they won’t bother again next year.  Why is that?  Not enough time? Not enough money?  Not enough fun?  Not enough prestige?   
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fab100 View Drop Down
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Posts: 1005 		Post Options Post Options   Quote fab100 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 22 at 10:27pm
Originally posted by Do Different

davidyacht. The voice of reason.  

Good lord. David print this and put it in your scrapbook, surely no one’s ever said that before😳
Great book for Club Sailors here
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Grumpycat View Drop Down
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Posts: 497 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Grumpycat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 22 at 10:46pm
Originally posted by A2Z

Take the Fireball as an example.  Once upon a time there were regularly over 100 boats at the nationals. Since 2000 the numbers have continued to decline, from 80, to 70, 60, 50, 40 and now about 30. That means every year several more boats decide they won’t bother again next year.  Why is that?  Not enough time? Not enough money?  Not enough fun?  Not enough prestige?   

Or maybe just less people sailing fireballs ? 
Has their class membership fallen at the same rate as attendance at the nationals ? Certainly the Fireball class at Draycote is a shadow of what it was in the 1990s.
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fab100 View Drop Down
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Posts: 1005 		Post Options Post Options   Quote fab100 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 22 at 10:47pm
Our 100 nats this year are at the ‘orrible soulless 1970’s reminiscent municipal facility that is WPNSA this year. Entry fee 50% above Brixham YC’s last year and double Porthpean (who bring you proper Cornish pasties between races) pre-covid. To spend 4 days at a place built for the olympics with too small changing rooms with no ventilation, all concrete and no greenspace and a far too long beat back if they actually let you out into the bay. Over-priced sh1t beer in squishy plastic glasses. Nowhere appealing to stay. I loathe the place and am only going very reluctantly and force majeur is usually my only reason to miss a 100 meeting. Weymouth Olympic Week, off the beach used to be OK, back in the day. Castle Cove, lovely club. WPNSA, yuk. I wonder why our entries are under half of last year?
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Paramedic View Drop Down
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Posts: 929 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Paramedic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jun 22 at 6:48am
Originally posted by Grumpycat

Or maybe just less people sailing fireballs ? 
Has their class membership fallen at the same rate as attendance at the nationals ? Certainly the Fireball class at Draycote is a shadow of what it was in the 1990s.

The guys that were sailing Fireballs in the 90's are now 25+ years older and the younger generation are - with one or two exceptions - sailing something else. The Enterprise has gone through the same thing, though its maybe coming back a bit at championship level it's still best described as hanging on at open meeting level, certainly in the midlands.

The post about WPNSA is interesting, it seems people absolutely love it or simply cant stand it. One overwhelming thing in its favour is race management standard and equipment, for which you pay a premium. There just doesnt seem a happy medium between the facility which some dont like and the members club with often the odd race management quirk.


Edited by Paramedic - 29 Jun 22 at 6:51am
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Mozzy View Drop Down
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Posts: 209 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Mozzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jun 22 at 8:07am
Originally posted by A2Z

Originally posted by Mozzy

Originally posted by ClubRacer

£50 for a 2 day event?! Sounds like a bargain. RS want £120 for a 2 day event down in Weymouth

Yeah... for the most part I don't believe entry fees are the big put off. Certainly if I believe it will goes to well deserving club.

You say this as a front of fleet sailor with something to get out of the event. Would a mid-fleet/back marker feel the same?  

We can’t get 2/3rds of our home fleet to pay £15 for our home open meeting - why would they when they know they won’t win and can race for free every other weekend?

Yeah, I take that point. But if people are not willing to pay £15 for a home open meeting, then perhaps they are just not in the market to be buying that product. At the end of the day, some people don't want what is being offered. If you made the event free then there still would be people who don't turn up, because they just aren't bothered about racing against different people / higher standard or they are just not in a life situation where they can carve out days in the diary for sailing and instead can only sail when other life commitments allow (regardless of cost). 

Even myself, I did opens back in the day in 200s, then stopped. It was never the entry cost that was the tipping factor though, it was the time involved and the quality of racing / social (I felt I could get better racing / social not travelling). Lowering the entry fees wouldn't have kept me on the 200 circuit. 

However... at £60 a day for a two person boat... that would start to cause me second thoughts as it suddenly becomes markedly more expensive than other hobbies. At that point you're not just putting off local boats, but also the diehards. 
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RS400atC View Drop Down
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Posts: 3011 		Post Options Post Options   Quote RS400atC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jun 22 at 8:49am
You've also got the barrier of CA membership.

 
That's not expensive if you get some coaching and several events out of it, but it's a significant wedge added to one event.      
 
 
I'm put off buying another RS boat by the association, Portland and very sparse calendars for the singlehander classes other than the Aero.
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