BELOW: A CONTRIBUTOR TO www.crew.org.nz DINGHY FORUM REPLYS TO ANOTHER CONTRIBUTORS SUGESTION OF INTRODUCING A NEW CLASS OF SAILING DINGHY INTO NZ. 2008
RULES= CONTRIBUTOR
REPLY= HUGH JONES, MD OCEANZ1 LTD.
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YAAAWWNN
Come on ##### "keep it real"
Short term solutions to "big problems" means the same sh#t happens on another day.
Introducing another class is not the answer to Yachting's woes!
Why split the current Numbers.
Rule 1. Keep what you have while you have it.
Reply: What, no new designs? Is this to be the future of sailing in NZ? Should this be the way of progression in NZ sailing? Does vintage car racing attract the same numbers as Formula 1? Are Americas Cup boats not the latest in technological design? Is it not natural progression to build better, faster, stronger designs? Clearly the old adage of “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” no longer applies, so why should yachting not progress in the same way as any other sport? This has been going on for so long in NZ sailing, it’s no wonder the number one issue facing sailing clubs is how to attract new members; with such antiquated designs how on earth do you expect, or hope to attract the general public? It’s time to take our heads out of the sand. Has the design of windsurf boards stopped? Has the design of keelboats, power boats, kite surfs, jet skis, surfboards, you name it, stopped progressing? Then ask yourself why sailing clubs are struggling? A young NZ sailor back from the Splash worlds in Europe was amazed by the variety of exciting and advanced sailing dinghies over there, in comparison to what is sailed in this country. Why is this?
rule 2. Introducing another class does not keep most current members sailing. getting their current class more active helps!
Reply: True, most members will probably stay with what they have and know. So why worry so much about splitting current numbers? This is probably because it is their first or second boat they have owned and believe it is the best boat in the world and that every potential new member should buy one, so increasing the fleet. They don’t care that the boat maybe unsuitable for him or her, and thus the likely loss of a potential member. We are talking about developing the sport and making it more attractive to new sailors. Preserving the status quo won’t do it.
rule 3. Long term scenarios. Young non sailors who have a choice of activities need to be targeted. (these people don't really care what they sail, they just need a bloody good. sexy and exciting reason to get into it)
Reply: Couldn’t agree more, but of the current classes just what do you class as bloody good, sexy and exciting for young non sailors? They are antiquated designs that are well overdue for an overhaul.
Does NZ need to get over this class thing? Sailors in the UK buy what they want to sail and have fun and are not nearly so class lead; therefore they enjoy sailing more and more often, not just on Sundays or in the summer only. They get more experience and enjoyment out of sailing simply by the fact of being out there more and in something they actually enjoy sailing in. Then if they feel the urge for high level competition, they can go down that route by buying into the class of their choosing. Just look at their medal tally (I may sound like a Pom here, but I am a third generation Northshore boy). Dinghy sailing is far, far more popular in the UK with huge memberships of clubs. The split between recreational sailing and racing is approximately 75% 25%, in NZ the split is probably 5%/95%. As a matter of interest there are over four times the number of sail clubs in the UK, one for every 25 km of coastline length, as apposed to 1 club for every 123 km in NZ. So there are a lot more people in the UK on the water, without the pressure to go racing, but with a much bigger pool of potential talent, and a greater interest in the sport.
As an idea of how popular sailing in the UK is (according to Grant at Boat Bits), with his experience of being in the industry for over 20 years, on any given Sunday in the whole of NZ there are approximately 900 dinghy sailors on the water and in the UK 1 million. On a per capita basis and considering their climate those are impressive figures...
In the UK there are 60 million people vs. in NZ 4 million people. 60 divided by 4 = 15 X more people in UK.
1,000,000 divided by 900 = 1111.11
1111.11 divided by 15 = 74 X more popular. So where is NZ going wrong?
CLASS, CLASS, CLASS AND THE OBSESSION THERE OF!!!!! The fear of diminishing numbers, due to new classes coming along, i.e. evolution of the sport. Hence the present antiquated designs in NZ that will only repress the development of sailing in NZ. Do you want to see Europe sailing off into the distance? So yes… young sailors in NZ do need to have access to bloody good, sexy and exiting boats, but because of our anal obsession with the class thing they are being forced in to the very opposite. Is it time to wake up! Is it time to let the kids decide? Are kids being forced into boats purely for World champs/Olympic glory at the expense of the vast majority and sailing in NZ in general?
Rule 3. the Biggest reason kids (our future) don't take up yachting is because the whole yacht club, boat buying and learn to sail thing is to expensive and to difficult. Make it simple and exciting and "wallah "we get the numbers.
Reply: Yes buying a boat does cost money, especially if it involves cheque book racing (a very bad thing). But buying a modern boat that is easy to rig, bloody good, sexy and exciting in the first placed helps.
Rule4. why do boy racers have such huge numbers and do such silly things???... well its cheap to buy a wreck, there are few rules to owning one and it is easy to drive. on top of that they find it exciting being dangerous. (the PC world / Fun Police has restricted what they can do to have fun)... basically there is no dramas compared to buying a boat learning to sail dealing with yacht club politic, fees, rigging area Hitler’s... blah blah blah.
Reply: True. So why not buy a boat they will truly enjoy, learn to sail in, while getting an adrenalin rush on the water and not on the roads, having lots of fun and time blasting around recreational sailing, we’re not talking about a jet ski here it’s a sailing dinghy! Then when they think they can beat everything on the water and build a hunger for more competitive racing, they will dive at the opportunity to join a sail club.
rule 5. Sailing is a white, rich mans sport predominantly!. yet the European population is in decline compared to Asians, Polynesians... in this country. Sorry to point out the bleeding obvious but do we target the majority of NZ'rs for our sport???.. last time i looked wee had a school regatta that had the elite schools competing with white kids. Where's Otara, porirua,??? wheres the YNZ approach to other ethnic groups???
or are we happy with the way it is??
Reply: Good question. Personally am against any form of positive discrimination, it’s a free society, but I’m no politician, I’m not trying to cure cancer or feed the starving, I’m trying to gets kids excited about the sport and on the water, of course people can choose whether or not to get involved in a sport or not, all we can do is encourage everyone no matter what their race, or background should be. Schools/teachers can be educated to encourage learn to sail programmes, that go beyond race/class. I have heard that there is always money available in the school budget for this.
rule. 6. Learning to sail and becoming competent is hard enough without all the cost and drama associated with it.
Reply: Yes sailing should not be expensive, but a good one design, strongly built hull, with high quality fittings and a good high second-hand value come resale time, will help greatly.
Why did windsurfing become so popular... well when all you have to do is learn to reach and Gybe and all you need is a board and sail and wind / sea.... it's easy. No big learning curve, no club fees / politics, no YNZ taking your money for other stuff.
Reply: Yep I agree again. But just in case no one has heard of it in NZ it’s called recreational sailing and you can do it in a sailboat!!!!
Generation Y are a "want it know and want it easy" bunch of inwardly focused brats! but unfortunatley they are our future. Thus if you can't make them do it (govt rules and reg's. "anti Smacking"etc... ) then you have to give them a reason to do it!...
The reason to go sailing... DANGER! ,
reason to go sailing.... to show off!
reason to go sailing..... the dream of being a legend!, a star!. to show off thie scars!...
Look at skateboarding... why do they stuff their bodies on a bent bit of plywood....
to show off, to rebel, but mainly because it is instant ego gratification and cheap fun!
We need to invent the next "skateboard revolution" in sailing...
Bring on - cheap plywood skiffs that reach backwards and forwards trying to sink the other guys.
Bring on "demolition derby on the water!" simple, fun and dangerous.
more numbers involved means spreading the cost of our sport between more people and that makes it cheaper. more in means more chance of more sailors which mean more world champs more medals..blah blah blah.
Reply: Yep agree with everything. But who is going to make all these plywood skiffs and at what expense, cost (a certain club in NZ has just tried this with two wooden sailboat kits from Australia, the eventual cost to build $10,000 each!!! and they are already starting to fall apart. So a very expensive lesson) and time wise, then having to repair them again and again, oh and isn’t that in effect introducing a new class?? And what do you think they will be worth on the second-hand market come resale time?
If you are after a “demolition derby on the water” I’ll give you one guess as to what boats you will need!
Great to hear that someone out there realizes that sailing in NZ has to move on and is willing to share his thoughts and feelings on the subject.
I do realize that a lot of my responses will probably get right up a lot of noses of the old school, who have always believed that the P is the boat that has made NZ sailors what they are “if you can sail a P you can sail anything” never mind that it has probably but more young potential sailors off sailing than any other boat? By way of an example, I meet one middle aged man working in a chandlery in Westhaven who is now a keen fisherman. He told me that he had “tried sailing once, it was a P Class, I went out and swam back and that was the last sailing I attempted,” (no wonder fishing in this country is so big; all the potential sailors have taken it up).
I also bumped into Jim Young (widely regarded as New Zealand’s most innovative yacht designer and now retired) on Takapuna beach while some of my boats were out sailing and we spoke for a good hour or more about yacht design and he shared his anguish over what they are putting young kids into and expecting them to get all excited over the sport. His most interesting statement was over another certain learn to sail class of yacht which I dare not name, but you will probably guess. His comment was; “Do you know what the worst designed boat to ever hit the water is? The………… is, and that’s what they expect our young kids to sail in”.
One member of a club on the Northshore expressed his concern that regularly Mum and Dad would turn up at their club wishing for their child to take up sailing only to be meet with the words “I am not sailing in that!” i.e. zero beach cred.
Now I also happened to have met the first man in NZ to attempt bringing in the Laser and because it wasn’t a class boat at the time he sadly went under, but look at it now (once given class status of cause), as with the Hobiecat. Now that really does show the sad mentality, and fear of new designs in New Zealand. So people who do wish to race are pretty much forced into buying these old class boats no matter how bad!
And hearing other statements like: ‘if it was good enough for me it is good enough for them”, or that “you can only race in class boats” i.e. the attitude of preserving the class at all costs, and no handicap racing, we’ll be letting in new classes next! Or such and such is the only boat out there (based on what?). With this in mind I do pity the poor young hopefuls, wishing to enjoy the sport. New Zealand is supposedly a country full of individuals with individual thought – we invented bungee jumping for God’s sake!
So, in sailing why can’t we start to think outside this class box? Let’s all have a leap of faith and let NZ sailing catch up with Europe and join the 21st century.
Hugh Jones.
MD Oceanz1 Ltd. Web: www.oceanz1.co.nz
P.s.
You may well say that I have a biased opinion, being the importer of sailing dinghies. But it is for the very reasons I have outlined above that I have chosen to be an importer. Please do ask yourself however, is it wrong to be a New Zealander and want sailing to progress in what I believe and feel to be the right direction, for the future of sailing in New Zealand? I know a lot of you out there probably think I am the curse of sailing in NZ due to that preservation of the classes’ thing, but I see my boats and modern boats like them as being the very opposite and if anything the very saviour of sailing in NZ. Now think of this, if Topper International fails over here, who in their right mind is going to bother with NZ in the future? It will be just too much of a financial risk given the current mind set over here. Then NZ will continue to be a country full of second-hand boats doing the rounds and old clapped out designs.
I find it truly amazing that the majority of sail clubs have a fear of the new and won’t even look at let alone sail new designs no matter how good the boats are, and that I find weird in the extreme, I suppose it all comes back to that class thing again.
Does New Zealand have to remain a backwater of old and out dated designs?
UPDATE Oct 09: There could at last be some light at the end of the tunnel as ISAF has realized that most of it’s Recognized Classes are not necessarily the best boats in which to introduce the sport of sailing to newcomers or in which to teach and develop sailing skills. They also have acknowledged that in the past a number of classes have been incorrectly favored by National Sailing Authorities, and in turn clubs and schools around the world on the back of this ISAF Status.
So as to help remedy this situation they have now introduced the ISAF Connect To Sailing Partnership. The goal is to ‘develop sailing across the world’ by specifically ‘engaging youth and facilitating participation’ ie. to get more young people sailing. This represents a departure for the ISAF who have previously focused more on the promotion of elite racing classes.
Topper International: Official Connect to Sailing Partner We are delighted to announce to you that Topper International has been invited to be an Official Connect to Sailing Partner.
See front page for further info.
