V Twin

Originally posted by pondmonkey I think we surmise that the point GRF is making is that the world moves on, without or without sailboat technology coming with it.   EDITED But these are all isolated examples of 'progress' which do nothing but make the sport appear elitist, or at the very least 'niche'- Grumpf's criticism focuses on the mainstream lack of progress at club and circuit level.  Baseline amateur sailing for joe and jennie bloggs.... it hasn't moved on, bar some lipstick development to manipulate the grossly flawed PY system most clubs seem intent on offering, but do little to implement properly.  And yes, it arguably lacks appeal to a future generation and it's easy to see why when you buy a 'cool boat' but get penalised by a spreadsheet and rarely get a decent course suitable for 'cool boats'.   I have some sympathy with his views on this, but then I can't help but bounce back to the very fundamentals of the sport I grew up with.  Dinghy sailing was never considered 'cool' and it will always have its middle-class stereotypes... you can't change the fact that even a modest new boat, like a Laser, is more than a lot of people will spend on a reasonable secondhand car.    So you come around to a sense of 'f*ck it'... the strength of dinghy sailing is good class racing and as often pointed out by Chris249, in relatively slower, tactical boats.  Ideally this occurs locally and is not 3 hours away on some windguru-jinxed circuit.  And to some extent it really doesn't matter what that boat is as long as you pick the class that loosely fits your biometric and economic profile.  Okay it might not be 'cool',  it might not be inexpensive for young people, it not be that 'attractive' compared to other lifestyle sports... but really people, it never was and is never going to be.

Dinghy sailing is a bit more cool than it used to be - I haven't seen a pair of yellow wellies or a Flotherchoc bouyancy aid for at least a couple of years now 

Any discussion of whether Dinghy Sailing is 'cool' also has to look at the sailing environment i.e. the clubs. 

Some clubs are firmly stuck in the last century - sometimes because of resources (too few members, too big a rent, and old delapitated facilities with little prospect of improvement). Sometimes the attitude is that we've always done it this way - and if that works - great. 

But some clubs are trying to be progressive and are thriving as a result. 

My club (Yorkshire Dales SC) tries to have a pragmatically modern approach by for instance:

Offering a selection of courses that suit modern asymmetrics as well as RTC to keep the Lasers etc happy. Of course it helps if you have a body of water big enough - and clearly that's not always the case. We're also blessed by predominantly good breezes (being at 1000' altitude helps with that). 

As advised by the RYA, we adjust handicaps to suit our conditions (not many clubs do that), so club racing is seen to be as fair as any handicap system can be - and as data increases is getting better. Meanwhile, the Lasers are our biggest class, and regularly enjoy fleets of 10 - 15 with remarkably close tactical racing - proving the attraction of class racing regardless of relative performance across the water. 

A modern state of the art clubhouse helps us to present an attractive option to people used to suave Health Clubs etc.  People want showers that work whether you're first or last off the water. They want changing rooms that are warm, spacious and that aren't swimming in a watery sludge (ours are underfloor heated and almost always dry or damp at worst). Many members have families and so want a play area for kids and somewhere comfy for the 'significant other' to sit while watching the sailing or reading the Sunday papers (and for us to enjoy a beer afterwards).  Some haven't time to sail often, and don't want to be forced to waste  2 or 3 of their rare spare weekends doing duties. So we offer the option of non-duty membership - and use the extra income to pay a coxswain for the patrol boat. As a result we get consistently excellent service there and save on boat/engine maintenance as well.

Facilities obviously help, but much of our success is because we try to engender the attitude that while we need to progress and renew as a club we mustn't forget about the beginners, intermediates and that old Laser or Fireball that wants a good race as well as the RS types, 9ers and Vortexs etc. 

So as well as providing a racing environment that suits everyone from top youth (and older) sailors sailing to high levels, including National Squad, right through to near novices, we also have partnerships (agreed and documented - with each knowing what is expected of the other) with our Local Authority RYA approved centre, and a local Youth Sailing/windsurfing group. These partnerships free us from the drain on our resources needed to teach total beginners or those seeking a 'taster' (although some members do help with these). 

As a club that allows us to concentrate our training effort on sessions aimed at improvement of novice & intermediate racers including some aimed at high performance asymmetrics etc as well as encouraging classes to 'import' experts (Lasers - Dave Hivey,  RS - Mike Saul, Windsurfers - Guy Cribb etc).  

All of which means nothing without member approval and participation - and thankfully we must be doing something right as all the above has lead to a near doubling of membership over the last few years.