Goodvibes
under the southern cross I stand ...
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Yep, I'm still on my break.
Jobson Nails It!
- Thread starter BrightAyes
- Start date
Yep, I'm still on my break.
Tcatman
Super Anarchist
Probably true. But assholes come in all shades and most don't think they behave like assholes.... My question... do you think how behavior is managed in sailboat racing is different then other team sports and results in more people then expected quiting and just going sailing? My expectation in a sport where you are expected to have 100 percent integrity and call your own fouls runs headlong into the dominant US sport culture. Playing the ref and screwing with your oponents head is part of the gamesmanship as is managing your penalties. If the ref doesnt see it.... it was not a foul! I personally find the blurring of this difference is personally offensive.... Whereas watching the ref's make a call in the superbowl on a foul?? committed by a player was just part of the game. In sailboat racing....a foul is more then just a part of the game.... collisions are dangerous and or expensive.. All together... I think your expectations play a large part of your satisfaction here.... and when you perceive two sets of cultures ... it is a straight forward response to just walk away.
The culture on SA itself is so toxic that it's an odd place to complain about the fact that toxicity is driving people out of the sport. A toxic culture can't be the sole, or the main, reason why people are dropping out of sailing because they are also dropping out of the small boat classes that don't have a toxic culture.
A look at the club I grew up in is interesting, but scary. Most of the fleet used to be '60s/'70s vintage cruiser/racers under 30ft. Now two of the most popular classes are Farr 40s and McConaghy 38s. How many young people, or new people entering the sport, will look at a club like that and think that they can get involved as anything but a rich man's helper?
Leaders in the sport used to be heavily involved in creating or stimulating classes like MORC and JOG, the Heron, Int. Cadet, Enterprise, GP14, Solo, Snipe, etc. They ran events like the America's Tea Cup that highlighted the Hobie 14 and Windsurfer and kicked off the Laser. That was all about bringing new people into the sport with economical, easy-to-use kit. Now what do the "leaders" in the sport promote? Expensive, elitist, hard to sail classes that don't work well a lot of the time and a lot of places.
The sport used to consciously create classes and designs for the middle class and new sailors. MORC and JOG were promoted by John Illingworth, at that time the biggest name in British ocean racing, for the specific purpose of creating a cheaper offshore class for owners who weren't rich enough for big boats. Illingworth and Elam didn't just say "offshore racing is expensive, deal with it". They said "offshore racing is expensive and we will change that". That sort of recipe clearly worked, and now that it's been abandoned for many years the sport is clearly suffering.
The sport also used to emulate successes like the Hobie, J/24, Laser, Triton etc. Now it blames the ills of the sport on the successful classes and promotes the classes that don't sell well as the future of the sport. It's no wonder such an absurd approach is harming the sport.
The final absurdity is that very few of the "leaders" actually sail the type of boats that they promote for others. How many sailing writers, industry leaders or AS officials actually bought and sail the hyper-performance craft promote?
What's surprising is not that this approach is leading to a collapse in the sport, but that anyone could ever think that it could ever work.
A look at the club I grew up in is interesting, but scary. Most of the fleet used to be '60s/'70s vintage cruiser/racers under 30ft. Now two of the most popular classes are Farr 40s and McConaghy 38s. How many young people, or new people entering the sport, will look at a club like that and think that they can get involved as anything but a rich man's helper?
Leaders in the sport used to be heavily involved in creating or stimulating classes like MORC and JOG, the Heron, Int. Cadet, Enterprise, GP14, Solo, Snipe, etc. They ran events like the America's Tea Cup that highlighted the Hobie 14 and Windsurfer and kicked off the Laser. That was all about bringing new people into the sport with economical, easy-to-use kit. Now what do the "leaders" in the sport promote? Expensive, elitist, hard to sail classes that don't work well a lot of the time and a lot of places.
The sport used to consciously create classes and designs for the middle class and new sailors. MORC and JOG were promoted by John Illingworth, at that time the biggest name in British ocean racing, for the specific purpose of creating a cheaper offshore class for owners who weren't rich enough for big boats. Illingworth and Elam didn't just say "offshore racing is expensive, deal with it". They said "offshore racing is expensive and we will change that". That sort of recipe clearly worked, and now that it's been abandoned for many years the sport is clearly suffering.
The sport also used to emulate successes like the Hobie, J/24, Laser, Triton etc. Now it blames the ills of the sport on the successful classes and promotes the classes that don't sell well as the future of the sport. It's no wonder such an absurd approach is harming the sport.
The final absurdity is that very few of the "leaders" actually sail the type of boats that they promote for others. How many sailing writers, industry leaders or AS officials actually bought and sail the hyper-performance craft promote?
What's surprising is not that this approach is leading to a collapse in the sport, but that anyone could ever think that it could ever work.
SA is such a toxic environment that the story would probably bring a vitriol-laced thread in response, and that wouldn't be positive.
Goodvibes
under the southern cross I stand ...
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I agree with everything you said.
Listened to a Scooter podcast for the first time recently, the Fuck Rule 69 one. He opens it by saying that SA is not posting shit for free. That means we get TP52's the latest super yachts and other huge pimp-mobiles on the front page. The very opposite of what rants here say is required to save the sport.
Lost to the chattering masses here, is how straight down the line mainstream conforming capitalist SA is. Nothing at all Anarchist about 'show me the money'.
[email protected]
Banned
- Banned
- #88
Aww, c'mon, what about the edgy "Big Pimpin" caveat on the paid-stories (with about 80% of you dinos who dont know that means its an advertisement...)
Goodvibes
under the southern cross I stand ...
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Sure, sure. It must have been the front page rhetoric that confused me.
"Others come and go, dilly dally with bullshit, while we remain Anarchists to the core."
But clearly that's just branding and marketing bullshit right?
Goodvibes
under the southern cross I stand ...
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"Others come and go, dilly dally with bullshit, while we remain Anarchists to the core."
You must have a lot of grass to make such a strawman.
Nothing I wrote anything implied anything against free speech. The thing is that there's a difference between vitriol-laced threads and reasoned adult discussion.
It seems odd that you seem to agree that racing is declining because of the toxicity, and then seem to promote toxic discussion about the sport. The booming class I was speaking of is one where success has largely been created by respect. That respect has led to compromises between nations, groups of sailors, and manufacturers. It's clearly working, as proven by the numbers. Meanwhile the toxic attitude you show so often clearly is not working, so why do you promote it?
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