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Bigger, Better and Well Attended

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fish n ships View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote fish n ships Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Bigger, Better and Well Attended
    Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 12:16pm
Apologies for the title but i was intending for it to sound positive and the first few versions were a little sad sounding.

As has been identified in previous topics sailing is on the demise, without getting bogged down in PY how do clubs out there encourage a greater participation in racing and social sailing?

Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated, we have sent out questionnaires to club members asking what they think but very little comes back (the best are the ones who dont attend and then say don't change anything its great).  As a club we don't have a mass of volunteer time to spend but there must be some ways of getting people out on the water that have been tested and we can all learn from?
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Post Options Post Options   Quote iGRF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 1:09pm
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.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Rupert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 1:19pm
Kids get families into clubs. Once they are in, get the parents involved in helping teach the kids, so they aren't just hanging around, then get them on the water too by offering them lessons/beginner race coaching (alongside the juniors at the end of a junior session works well) and get them involved in the life of the club. Trouble is, it takes effort on the part of a few people to get everyone involved.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote fish n ships Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 1:48pm
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.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote davidyacht Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 6:10pm
Don't know the type of club that you are at, but enthusiasm of the members to make it work is the key in my opinion.  There are lots of fronts you can tackle things, and regular posters have quite divergent views on what they want to take from sailing.

I am a fan of class racing, and whatever classes you promote, the key is an enthusiastic class captain plus some other members who are prepared to turn out regularly, since this creates a virtuous circle.

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.

Some kind of youth programme is essential, it is the future of a club, again this often hangs on a group of enthusiastic parents to drive this forward.

Our club has a brilliant initiative for Ladies that Launch, where the ladies of the club get out sailing on a Tuesday.  This us now feeding through to club racing, with a significant number of female helms participating in club racing.

A lot might depend on the piece of water you sail on, and the challenges that this presents, but if you have enough enthusiastic members, I am sure that with some organisation you can turn things around.

Probably the most important thing is to get members to allocate time in their lives to go sailing, once it has been allocated to other activities it will be hard to get members back.

Embracing all of the above would create a thriving club, but it will only work if you have some others to share your enthusiasm.

Good luck


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Post Options Post Options   Quote blaze720 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 6:55pm
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
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Post Options Post Options   Quote davidyacht Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 8:54pm
Roll back the clock to the late 70's and our club had a notice on the gate saying "new members welcome - classes sailed Merlin Rocket, National 12, Firefly, OK and Cadet". A group of us persuaded the committee that the Laser would be the next big thing, and we were allowed 15, this allocation we used up in a couple of weeks, since then the fleet grew to 40 plus.   My point is that it is possible to embrace good boats without resorting to handicap racing.

In my present club, which has banded handicap racing, I see established one design fleets losing members to niche classes, because the sailors think that they will offer a better experience, what often happens is that instead of being part of a band of 40, they become a band of 1, spend there time racing around on their own, lose interest, and before long the boat is surrounded by weeds in the boat park.

I accept that my view may not tie in with every bodies, but it is interesting that the two strongest classes in the UK at this time originated over 60 years ago.  I do think that anybody trying to develop a club should give some consideration to the relative merits of what are quite different approaches.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote rb_stretch Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 9:13pm
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....



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Post Options Post Options   Quote sargesail Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 9:21pm
Originally posted by rb_stretch

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....




Yes and Yes - and another reason why restricting racing classes is fundamentally flawed (and always was).
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JimC View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote JimC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 14 at 9:21pm
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.
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