Jobson Nails It!
- Thread starter BrightAyes
- Start date
Marty Gingras
Mid-range Anarchist
I thought it was somewhat of a course correction from the prior posture of US Sailing, which was, approximately, "We only care about the big-ticket events."
MattFranzek
Member
I think in the correct classes and types of racing, the current pros do care and are helpful. I got the chance to sail against/somewhat near a bunch of guys on America Magic in Moths this summer. They were nothing but helpful with suggestions on how to rig the boat more efficiently, care for the tramps/foils/hull/sail, and how to sail the boat better. These guys moved on from the Mach 2 years ago and went back to look at their notes to find suggestions for me to be a better sailor. The love of the sport is still there, but very few pros are interested in spending time helping you make your 4 knot shit box .0001 knots faster unless you have really really deep pockets.
10thTonner
Hazard to Navigation
Sailing has changed. People, even sailors, today may not know the names of Olympic champions or America's cup mercenaries (I don't) but people like Alex Thomson, Jean LeCam, Giovanni Soldini, or Boris Hermann are celebrities.
BrightAyes
Anarchist
- Thread starter
- #28
Or as in "Action speaks louder than not"
And a related issue is the unimaginative people who keep on claiming that hyper-performance boats are "the future of sailing". Not only does the number of times that cliche is used prove that those who spout it have no imagination, it makes it seem that the practical boats that most people can sail at their local waterway have no future.
The silly thing about the claim that extreme high performance is the future is that it's been proven wrong so many times. For about 150 years now there have been boats that offer (by the standards of their day) extreme high performance and yet they have never become truly popular.
If sailing could give up on promoting the types that most people will never be able to sail and return to promoting types that they can use, as sailing used to do and as strong sports do, then we may be able to get it going again.
Aren't the top pros like 95% Kiwi and Aussie?
I agree with the "money sucking foundations" stuff, but the point about nationality rules in the AC makes a lot of sense. The AC is pretty much the only event any of my non-sailing friends could identify. Seeing the flag on the boat, but then learning that the money is all Larry and "the staff" are all Kiwi is not exactly inspirational.
Similarly for the fact that Turner actually drove his boat.
Jobson's argument could be seen as much in the light of news media as sailing. I remember seeing AC (and occasionally even other) results in the newspaper. Even in the 90's that was pretty rare. "Employed people to report on sailing."??? Yeah I would be surprised if anyone at even the NYT had "the sailing beat" other than maybe during a cup summer. (What a gig right?)
Traditional media is in retreat. Hell they barely even report wars these days. And we expect them to report sailing? Parroting the latest made up political drama sucks in a lot more eyeballs (on their phones) at MUCH lower cost than sending a reporter to Christchurch to report on SailGP.
I agree with the "money sucking foundations" stuff, but the point about nationality rules in the AC makes a lot of sense. The AC is pretty much the only event any of my non-sailing friends could identify. Seeing the flag on the boat, but then learning that the money is all Larry and "the staff" are all Kiwi is not exactly inspirational.
Similarly for the fact that Turner actually drove his boat.
Jobson's argument could be seen as much in the light of news media as sailing. I remember seeing AC (and occasionally even other) results in the newspaper. Even in the 90's that was pretty rare. "Employed people to report on sailing."??? Yeah I would be surprised if anyone at even the NYT had "the sailing beat" other than maybe during a cup summer. (What a gig right?)
Traditional media is in retreat. Hell they barely even report wars these days. And we expect them to report sailing? Parroting the latest made up political drama sucks in a lot more eyeballs (on their phones) at MUCH lower cost than sending a reporter to Christchurch to report on SailGP.
Look up the thread. You are not paying attention in class!
Of course sailing is shrinking...if you do it wrong.
•Our club's summer junior program is fully subscribed at 360 kids
• We are supporting 9 high school racing programs. Teams went to warm places in the winter to sail, where "They weren't last!"
• We had a 10% increase in our spring big boat series registrations
• We've added a new distance race that is designed around social interaction and a good destination
• We started over 1,200 races last year, including the summer beer cans
• A local club has double handed races that sell out
• Another local club has a distance race in November that sells out almost immediately
• The Canadians race around Vancouver sold out.
• We are teaming with two other clubs to run 3 months of Friday beer cans this summer.
What's the theme? Fun, families, good racing designed to also provide social engagement.
• Where we are struggling is our summer mid-week W/L buoy races. Both one-design and handicapped.
But...
• We've added a new fleet to our Lake program
I actually got mentioned in a NYT sports section article in the 60's for sailing a friend's Ensign to a third place in Larchmont, keeping him in the LIS fleet trophy hunt.
Back in the early 80's a local radio station broadcast major local races with on-the-water update reports. That was weird.
•Our club's summer junior program is fully subscribed at 360 kids
• We are supporting 9 high school racing programs. Teams went to warm places in the winter to sail, where "They weren't last!"
• We had a 10% increase in our spring big boat series registrations
• We've added a new distance race that is designed around social interaction and a good destination
• We started over 1,200 races last year, including the summer beer cans
• A local club has double handed races that sell out
• Another local club has a distance race in November that sells out almost immediately
• The Canadians race around Vancouver sold out.
• We are teaming with two other clubs to run 3 months of Friday beer cans this summer.
What's the theme? Fun, families, good racing designed to also provide social engagement.
• Where we are struggling is our summer mid-week W/L buoy races. Both one-design and handicapped.
But...
• We've added a new fleet to our Lake program
Nothing like days of yore:
I actually got mentioned in a NYT sports section article in the 60's for sailing a friend's Ensign to a third place in Larchmont, keeping him in the LIS fleet trophy hunt.
Back in the early 80's a local radio station broadcast major local races with on-the-water update reports. That was weird.
Tcatman
Super Anarchist
umm.... The point of continuing with junior sailing is to polish up the ol resume for your college application... it is proof that you are "well rounded" add a check book and you get to enroll in a prestigious institution and after 4 years thus get branded as a success story . If there was actual enthusiasm.. then the starting lines of today should be filled with the cohort of junior sailors from 30 years ago.... (those programs were equally packed and full of enthusiastic sailors)
a more interesting question for you to anwwer is the paradox that you create.. of ... grass root enthusiasm versus the need for somebody to fix something for it all to work. My point... its not a simple problem and "corrupt international competition" is not the lynch pin in why racing sailboats continues to decline.
That is a cynical post. Also your point is vague.
My point, if you are interested, is that there is a big youth interest in sailing and sailboat racing. It’s not related to college entrance.
Our National authority is, on the other hand promoting an elitist vision of our sport that is self serving and un-sustainable.
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10thTonner
Hazard to Navigation
Don’t forget the French. They are doing their own thing and they are doing pretty well.
RockHead
Super Anarchist
We did this 6-7 years ago. I'm sure that there's a report somewhere in RI.
US Sailing hosted a weekend in Atlanta when Jack Gierhart was the CEO, inviting basically everyone with an interest -community sailing, YCs, for-profit sailing schools, boatbuilders, sailmakers, suppliers, media, etc... A couple of hundred of us sat in a hotel conference room and hashed out a prioritized roadmap with a couple of broad fundamental goals:
1. Engage more people of all ages and backgrounds in learning to sail
2. Develop effective pathways to KEEP more of those people engaged in sailing
And we succeeded in developing what should have been a workable framework for general promotion of sailing, with a pipeline from learn-to-sail onward to incorporating sailing into more people's lifestyles -racing or non-racing.
Best that I can recall, there was one minor US Sailing promotional email about the beginning of a program, then crickets. EVERYONE in the room agreed that this was vital for the future of sailing and should be US Sailing's primary mission.
It takes some resources. Not a lot, but some. $1M over 5 years could go a long way IMHO. No one wants to spend $$ on the fundamental promotion of sailing -i.e. branding sailing as a lifestyle activity and demand generation to feed the adult => sailor pipeline. And we continue to fail miserably at keeping those new youth sailors and college sailors engaged
BrightAyes
Anarchist
- Thread starter
- #39
Amen Stonehead. We're all about the glorification of a few sailing gods than the general welfare of our consumers. Why isn't there a national Get Out an Sail Day? Boat owners countrywide could open up the decks to the public for one weekend a year to promote the sailing lifestyle, whatever that means.
BrightAyes
Anarchist
- Thread starter
- #40
Where is this mythical programs located? And don't tell me Miami, Seattle, San Diego or Portsmouth.
