Bigger, Better and Well Attended

Teaching and Training in a word.

Don't let them linger at the back of the fleet.

Buddy System.

Hold come and try it days, have decent rental boats, well maintained and someone prepared to act as training officer to welcome newcomers.

Oh and don't waste it on kids, concentrate on grown ups.

Originally posted by Rupert Trouble is, it takes effort on the part of a few people to get everyone involved.

I think this is the big issue, most clubs i know of seem to have a very small nucleus that does everything, inevitably this leads to either burnout or them putting on fewer events which doesn't help.  If everyone did a little it would make the world of difference, sadly the "i joined a sailing club to sail" mentality seems to prevail. But even suggest paying the people who help for their time or putting up subs and its like you've slapped their kids at Christmas. 

Think the saying should be "i joined a sailing club to sail, spend less in subs than half a gym membership and expect the same or greater level of service"

I'm currently collating the calendar for next year and already getting abuse from the missus about how many days, evenings and weekends i'm "volunteering" my time for and thats before i step foot in a boat for my own enjoyment.

Whilst I shall not condemn PY racing, it is the provision of handicap racing that has allowed many minority classes to get a toe in the door, which has diluted class racing ... Which might be considered to be unhealthy

..... or perhaps the exact opposite and it is in fact the savior of club racing.   Many of us are old enough to remember the early life of the Laser, now part of the old guard itself.  Would it have been better if the 'closing ranks' of the then establishement had stopped it being accepted in the majority of clubs ?  ... or maybe that 'working mans boat' the Mirror dinghy was blocked in its day ?  or or (No ... go on add your own examples)   We welcomed them then and sailing boomed.  A 'control' managment style applied to the sport now would inevitably fail and it sounds like a bit of an old style 'eastern block' argument I'm afraid however noble the underlying idea.     

Todays continually evolving model is different.  Many if not most race in 'their' class at their own CA opens, Natioanal Championships and perhaps Inland championships and much of the rest of the time race at clubs each weekend in handicap.  The relative growth in 'big event' handicap racing is also seen in events such as the various winter series ones.    It really is not a threat, never was, and already happened a while back.

Much of the rest ... of course you are absolutely right ! 

Mike L.


Edited by blaze720 - 29 Dec 14 at 6:56pm

Something to throw into the mix.

Are modern boats more weight sensitive than boats of old?

My gut feel observation is yes they are, which is a factor in driving class fragmentation.

Shorter, lighter, flatter rocker boats that look to planing performance seem to be asking for a narrower competitive weight range....

Originally posted by davidyacht but it is interesting that the two strongest classes in the UK at this time originated over 60 years ago.

The strongest class in the UK is the Laser.