But I'd say today's teenagers have it made.... the boats are far better.  Take the 29er... my god what an awesome boat for young adults to sail, and they're even cheap as chips now they've built up a critical mass.  Then you've got the RS range of Aeros, 500s, 200s ... so much better than digging out a knackered Lark from the nettles, or resurrecting a wooden decked Fireball that was simply too water-rotten to burn on Guy Fawkes night.  

Sure, there's the youth squad scene, for all the damning and false expectation setting we cite here, I can't for one minute think that 360 out of 370 boats down in Hayling at the Youth Nationals are actually deluded enough to think they'll be the next Ben Ainslie.   These kids wouldn't be going unless they wanted to, I say let them go and enjoy it whilst they still can.   I bet most of them have a laugh n' a half... and so they should, they're kids!

What's the reason why they don't return to dinghy sailing after uni?  Well, I'd say that's a whole socio-economic debate that's geared towards f**king the newer generations over, but most here probably wouldn't want to read that as they sit in their homes 'worth' on average 10 times what they took a mortgage out for back in 1972.

Here's one thought for a surrogate Friday afternoon though, perhaps one of the reasons why club sailing remains so unattractive to sub 30-somethings, (probably to most sub 50 somethings too), lots of old moaning blokes telling them it was so much better in their day; whilst punting over-priced,  under-handicapped dross from the same era around a sh*tty pond in nowheresville.....  

Yep, mountain biking, five a side football, trekking, skiing, rock climbing, kite surfing..... they all suddenly become a hell of a lot more attractive.

Fun is a silly word to apply to what we are about, in this game, no, not a game it is a competitive sport. They used to hold 'Fun' events, still do now and again, I wouldn't bother to show, they're not fun at all, they're dumbed down stupidity on water and that's not what I'm about. Even now, on the water a race at whatever level is a race, you're trying to beat everyone else, that's why it's called a race, wether everyone is in the same boat or they are all in different kinds of boat, it's still a race. OK there maybe some folk who like to come along and just sail from point to point, but I bet every single one of them has a quick look to see how they got on in the results and if they're further up the fleet than they thought they might be they'll be tickled by it if not they'll have their reasons and that'll be it, they'll put it down to a bit of fun.

So this word Fun there it is again, I wonder if it is even the right word, either way there is no such thing as the Royal Fun Yachting Association, nor is there the World Fun Sailing association and even if there were, they would right royally f**k it up, that's not what they are there for, so I'm not quite sure where that article is headed. 

Is it about those of us already here having more 'Fun' in which case it's wrong, or is it about the general decline in numbers and that I fear is more down to the general lack of competitiveness promoted at school level in this PC world where there are supposed to be no losers and school sports days are now school 'shorts' days and nobody wins, because there can be no ahem 'not winners'. As to those of us already here changing our habits after the recent caning we all had at the hands of the biggest recession since the great depression, or the fact the roads are so crowded with Trucks, immigrants, johnny foreigners and school runners making the journey from A to B take longer than it might have done before the days of motorways.

 Or it might just be because the baby boomers that created all this are just done with it for any number of reasons and increasing age being the main one, but as to travelling to a Nationals for 'Fun' which I did once in my early enthusiasm, to be faced with four races back to back miles out in the bay and no time to fix a busted bit under the bonnet and to face a 'time out', something we'd never consider at any of our events in the days we ran three or four a day with a break for lunch, everyone got to finish, wtf is a time out? 

 That's not fun, nor is an empty bar when you come ashore, or a handful of blokes in an indian restaurant at 8 o'clock, everyone knows indians are for after closing when you can hardly stand and have to sit down somewhere.

Our One design events used to be 'Fun' after the racing at least they were until the RYA turned up when we became Olympic and instead of us being able to use the kids to drive us home when we were too peeved at the disco, or sending them on errands to bring more free beer from the happy hour, they all got marched off to bed after one soft drink, not many of them stuck with that and went of wave sailing instead. In fact the class pretty much collapsed as had many other sailing classes which become Olympic and in reality this is what is happening to our governing body and the sport in general, it is collapsing for the same reason back in the day every sailing class that became an Olympic class collapsed, it's not that it's not Fun, it's that it is the exact opposite, it's work, not sport.

What we aspire to is sport which we enjoy, what they are selling is a job of work and not a very good job at that, one with long hours and little reward. So where does that leave us? The ones that do it for sport?

 We just have to do what we always did, get on with it and organise ourselves as best we can and to that end the only decent future we can expect if we wish this thing of ours to continue is to either lobby the b**tards to remember what they are there for, or get on with organising an alternative.

Now to do that we need either a federation of racing classes, wait, isn't that what the RYA is anyway? So what else then? maybe we do what I've been cracking on about for ages and organise an association of handicap racers, that everyone could belong to and use that as a kick off pressure group with which to challenge the b**tards, they do a bad enough job of it (the fact some of you think it's improving is simply testament to how bad it actually is) already, a proper body offering a decent solution might make them sit up and take notice.

Whatever, it would need a get together to talk it through, maybe at that next Forum Open Meeting Rodney was threatening, maybe something else, a conference of the dispossessed? 

 We all have the answer and certainly know where Auntie Stella keeps it after all.

Actually, rather like Salcombe, most races in Fowey harbour are a bit crazy, with wind inversions and transitions, tide and also merciless China Cay ships motoring off with the ww mark wrapped around their prop.