Prizes at dinghy sailing events

Originally posted by Blackie Would it be demotivating if the prizes were concentrated lower down in the fleet and the top 3 just received the usual club prizes?

I think that's a question that only your particular sailors can answer. Most classes don't have that level of goodies and seem to get on OK.

Its also a question for the organisations donating the prizes. Being sailing companies its more than possible that part of their motivation is a desire that the top of the fleet be seen to be using their products - a form of advertising.

What has happened at previous phantom nats is the top ten get a token prize and the better stuff gets distributed through the lower parts of the fleet. Usually every 3rd or 5th place downwards and if you ain't at the price giving your prize gets handed to the next boat that hasn't got something already.

As you write rightly day blackie, the top boats normally get all the gear, which they already have anyway, sometimes through sponsorship, so it's good that the 'also rans' get something decent

As a company we express a desire that our prizes go to selected crews so we have winner of the navigational prize....the youngest, the eldest combined, its good to support the fleets, and good to see prizes go to sailors that are competing / supporting classes.
Some of the classes pick, some raffle, sometimes the winner gets one prize and the rest go to 'handicap' or buddy sytems...

As Gareth said earlier, in the Europe Class at the Nationals and the Inlands for the last 2 years I’ve managed to ensure that there is a prize for every competitor, ranging from significant discounts of brand new sails, heart-rate monitor watches, through water bottles and hats, and we’ve drawn these on a lottery basis. This has meant that even the newcomer to the class in the old, tired boat can have just as much chance of leaving with a Gucci prize as the hotshots at the front, who still have the glory of leaving with the perpetual trophies.

This of course is just one part of our strategy to grow the Class, that has been massively successful in the past couple of years, with Nationals attendance on 2019 up 450% from the previous, and the largest Class event in the UK since 1998 (apart from when the world were held here in the early 2000s, with over 150 boats....

It’s also helped us boost our diversity by apparently bucking the reported national trends in sailing, with 40% of competitors being female, 50% under the age of 40, weight range of 50-82 Kg and age range of 15-70something.
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