Disgusted from Kent

I was thinking about this thread over the weekend and came to the conclusion that the change in Y&Y is due to the change in our sport rather than just change for it's own sake. I would guess that we over enthusiastic bimblers and racers are out numbered by the casual sailor, who will do the odd RYA course, go on sailing holidays and doesn't own or want to own a boat, but won't be at the club or in the workshop physically most of the time and mentally all the time. So, in order to reach viable numbers the management of Y&Y knows it must cater for all tastes, even if they don't want to do so? I think in those terms Y&Y is probably doing as well as it is able while reaching break even. We forumites are probably a very small proportion of the readership and yet our noise may suggest differently, I fear, it is not so.

The problem as I see it, like a lot of businesses right now, they are probably just pedalling ever harder to stand still, they won't have excesses of staff or marketing cash to chuck around on things like tests, they're expensive, difficult to organise, potentially lethal for ad revenue (if you at all do the right thing for your readership)and after five years of recession not something any business minded type would risk.

Even the wind and kite surf game are restricted in the testing they offer these days, not least because of the expense of overseas travel.

So, what is the solution?

Well in a way if you remember what I was suggesting before we turned it into the forum open meeting, was kind of a mass demo/boat test event. What they (Y&Y) should do, is organise along the lines of the snowboard tests and the old Boards @ Bewl event, a day or weekend at the res of their choice (somewhere nice and somewhere folk can sling up a tent or camp in a pikey van.

Get all the purveyors of half decent boats along (ban GP14's. Solo's etc ) then let us go try them, with maybe a couple of races chucked in to simulate race conditions. Get everyone to fill out a review/questionaire, score them all on points for performance, handling etc and hey presto, the article is written around the event, photo opportunity, test carried out by target market, advertisers can't argue, publish multiple opinions about the boats and give information about the height, weight and experience of all those who actively take part.

How difficult could it be?

What could possibly go wrong?

Edited by iGRF - 07 Oct 13 at 2:44pm

great.... get to travel to go sail on someone else's duck pond.  m'eh.

Sail Fest? That's just another race, all you have is racing, nobody to my knowledge does demo days and they certainly don't do mass boat tests which is what I'm suggesting.

This is a mass boat test, they get the kit there, we rock up, test it, write it up, the mag collates it all and publishes an annual, we used to do it every year, late spring for the Snowboard test.

You 'invite' participation from all levels, shops, team riders, mag pundits, punters, they write a little bio so if you're reading it you pick the guy or girl most like you and read what they think, we learned this method from the dogmatic days of Boards Magazine having the same folk testing stuff and producing the same results which body and skill wise might not relate to you and your weight, skill level. It worked quite well.

The dinghy market is constrained because it is run by bloody dinghy sailors, who do things the way they are because they've always been done that way, they persuade the people they meet to do the same old same old and so the sorry mess that you exist within perpetuates. Something has to break that mould, so new stuff gets a look in, without all that tut tutting 'ooh can't sail that, there arn't enough other sheep sailing it in a class'. Attitudes need to change, Get some public opinion going, let these t**sers making this plastic crap know they can't get away with calling it the same as the real thing, let the market drive the builders for a change not the other way around like it's always been. Relieve the mag from the pressure 'they' apply and get some 'truths' in print, they can always get their own jockeys to spout the company line, but equally there will be someone elses view saying some of the things we all know get missed.

Only a crusading magazine can do all that.

A mag with balls.

Anyone know one?

Edited by iGRF - 07 Oct 13 at 4:03pm

Originally posted by yellowwelly  We're dinghy sailors,

Exactly.