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all rs 600 sailors attention please!
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bristolmustoskiff View Drop Down
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Posts: 84 		Post Options Post Options   Quote bristolmustoskiff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: all rs 600 sailors attention please!
    Posted: 20 Jun 13 at 2:41pm
hi guys i took the liberty of copying and pasting this segment of the rs association website i sailed a 600 for 5-6 years i was class rep 2 years in a row and loved every minute of it obviously times change and i admit i did defected from the class and purchased a musto but i did do my time in it. would be a great shame to lose the backing of sponsors and the association for the class and given most of the skiffs today where i guess in some respects designed of the back of the 600 so if there are any people out there wanting some decent racing with other 600s please get on the site any way heres the bit i took off the rs association site

All,
We have a bit of a dilema at the moment.
To run an event costs a certain amount of money and we just aren't covering even a fraction of that cost at the moment with our turnouts.
We are in danger of not having any events to go to apart from a joint Nationals or multiple class events like the Steve Nicholson Trophy, POSH, etc.
There are obviously plenty of people after lots of advice on sailing the boats, but when presented with effectively a FREE training day (coaches didn't charge) in almost the exact centre of the country, with breeze and sun, nobody turns up for it!

The Association can't sustain a class forever and sponsors won't be interested.

Now i'm sure there will be lots of comments of how to improve things and why turnouts are low (mainly from the people who aren't traveling (myself included)), but we have ideas and theories coming out of our ears and none of them will work if nobody travels.

Questions:
1) How many events are you likely to travel to next year (not including your own club)
2) How much would you pay
3) Are you likely to attend the Nationals
4) Would you attend a European event if available

cheers jay 
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Posts: 1514 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Ruscoe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 13 at 5:06pm
What a shame its come to this.  Such a lovely looking boat that was once pretty popular.
 
If its any help i would work off the principle that less is more.  Why not look at 3 or 4 great events a year rather than a packed calender (he says without even looking at your '13 calender)
 
Also whats wrong with using events like POSH as a class open? 

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Posts: 84 		Post Options Post Options   Quote bristolmustoskiff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 13 at 9:47pm
yea they sort of already do that but the problem is and its been the same for 5 years is people on forums and the internet are really enthusiastic but when it comes to the crunch nothing really happens   Cry 
it woukd be a shame as boats are cheap racing them is cheap and the circuit was or is all pretty central so its a great way of getting decent fast and challenging racing at very low cost
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Posts: 52 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Koops Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 13 at 7:57am
If the class got rid of the fully battened sail it would be a nice, cheap alternative to a contender :-)
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Posts: 6499 		Post Options Post Options   Quote iGRF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 13 at 9:11am
It's got all those attributes, elitist, inaccessible and too difficult to bother with anyway, address them and you might have a prayer..

If a sailor of the length of experience of Roger Tushingham, a windsurfer, ex Olympic FD campaigner and owner of a sail company cannot sail one, what chance is there for any other person with a job and time commitments that would be required to afford to travel.

That is the problem for a few of the latter day 'performance' sail craft that I've been banging on about ever since I showed up. On the one hand there is just old dross on the other impossible to sail nineties stuff so the popular growth classes like the Phantom and to a lessor extent the Blaze do so because they are at least capable of being sailed by someone who works nine to five and only sails weekends and maybe weekday nights in season.

So if all it's going to take is a sail change, then do that, personally I think it might be a bit more than that but nevertheless, these days stuff has to be easy and accessible, - my three happorth.
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Posts: 2479 		Post Options Post Options   Quote tgruitt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 13 at 9:47am
Originally posted by iGRF

It's got all those attributes, elitist, inaccessible and too difficult to bother with anyway, address them and you might have a prayer..

If a sailor of the length of experience of Roger Tushingham, a windsurfer, ex Olympic FD campaigner and owner of a sail company cannot sail one, what chance is there for any other person with a job and time commitments that would be required to afford to travel.

That is the problem for a few of the latter day 'performance' sail craft that I've been banging on about ever since I showed up. On the one hand there is just old dross on the other impossible to sail nineties stuff so the popular growth classes like the Phantom and to a lessor extent the Blaze do so because they are at least capable of being sailed by someone who works nine to five and only sails weekends and maybe weekday nights in season.

So if all it's going to take is a sail change, then do that, personally I think it might be a bit more than that but nevertheless, these days stuff has to be easy and accessible, - my three happorth.


Ever sailed one GRF? They're really not that hard, to an ignorant novice like yourself they might be more of a challenge though.

Anyway, I agree with maybe having less events that are better attended. I don't see anything wrong with tagging along with other events, are there any other RS classes you can share with? Didn't the 600s always go round with the 300's?
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Posts: 1314 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Neptune Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 13 at 9:49am
Originally posted by iGRF



If a sailor of the length of experience of Roger Tushingham, a windsurfer, ex Olympic FD campaigner and owner of a sail company cannot sail one, what chance is there for any other person with a job and time commitments that would be required to afford to travel.

I suspect that's a load of tosh that he could sail it, perhaps he just had his arse handed to someone who worked a nine to five job and spent a few sails getting used to it so to preserve his image he blamed his tools.

Its not a difficult boat to master at all.  Take away the fully battened main and it wouldn't be anywhere as exciting to sail.

Why does everything have to be dumbed down so any muppet can jump on and go?   Confused
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Posts: 1211 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Contender443 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 13 at 10:02am
Classes die and should be left to die when the time is right. 

It is often said that there are too many classes in the UK and we should concentrate on a core group.  However this will stagnate and we will all be sailing Solos, Lasers, Contenders etc for ever.

What the RS600 has done is wake up some of the older classes to modernise their rigs / sails / equipment. It has also led to the development of trapeze singlehanders with kites and has as such moved the sailing world on. Which in turn has led to non trapeze kiting singlehanders.

Unfortunately it looks like very few people are buying new boats in the RS600 and that is not a good thing. The 600 has become a cheap boat bought by students who want something more than a Laser and always seem to use it as a stepping stone to something else. They do not have the money to do an open circuit or nationals or to buy new boats.

So I think it is time up for the 600 as a boat with an organised class and all that goes with it. 
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Posts: 2003 		Post Options Post Options   Quote yellowwelly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 13 at 10:05am
FWIW - I can see Graeme's point of view.  I sailed one for 18 months- it was the first boat I bought to get out of Laserville.  I also felt some sad sense of 'making it' a few years after graduating, finally owning an RS boat... a pipe dream that got me through a degree in left wing feminism and social policy as 'dropouts' don't tend to be in a position to buy nice boats when they're older.  For that I love it.  I also think it's one of the purest boats I've sailed, in so much as it punishes every mistake, but rewards time on the water.

But all those windward capsizes on a shifty inland lake because you don't get that much TOW... n'ah, probably should have got the Contender instead if I wanted longevity.  At the time £2k bought a lot of 600 (that was when the existing fleet were selling up to go into the 700), whereas £4k bought a competitive, but tatty Contender.... I had a wedding, new mortgage, two cars on HP....  I went cheap and fun, pretty much what most of todays 600 sailors do.

As for events- I never did them, never felt I was at the level to go to one.  Putting in bluntly, if someone turned up and sailed a laser at the opens I'd done as badly as I was sailing the 600, then they'd have not been welcome back.  There's a basic level of skill we pressume an open meeting standard sailor to be at.... 'might make 65% of their tacks without going into irons' is simply not it.  

In truth would I have any worse than some at those events?  Probably not, but the class always has had an issue with perception about how hard they are to sail, and telling competant dinghy sailors 'it'll take you two seasons to master it' is, as Graeme says, only going to appeal to minority of us who work for a living.  Eventually we find something else- a stepping stone - hopefully to something easier to sail or ideally, something to sail with someone else.




Edited by yellowwelly - 21 Jun 13 at 10:10am
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JimC View Drop Down
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Posts: 6662 		Post Options Post Options   Quote JimC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 13 at 10:22am
Originally posted by yellowwelly

if someone turned up and sailed a laser at the opens I'd done as badly as I was sailing the 600, then they'd have not been welcome back.  


What a bizarre attitude! In the performance classes I've been in we always encourage newcomers to go to open events: they will learn about five times faster than if they stay at home and attempt to teach themselves what they don't know.

Sure there's a degree of manners involved: if its too windy for you stay on the beach and watch the others rather than consume the club's rescue facilities, maybe even help people launch and recover there boats, but be there. No point, for example, in struggling and failing to work out how to get on an unstable boat yourself if you can watch other folk doing it and learn from them.
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