Sad Ad: so emblematic of our sailing times

[BrightAyes]

From the seller "Say Uncle is a top Henderson 30. Campaigned in Michigan she was well taken care of and stored indoors in the winter. I purchased Say Uncle in January 2020 before the Pandemic to sail PHRF locally and some offshore races. Since the pandemic sailing has died in South Florida and the boat is just sitting on her trailer waiting for the next opportunity to sail. September of 2022 t Fuel tank was drained and cleaned so it is ready for new fuel."

So here we have a perfectly good racer sitting in South Florida and no action. The risk of buying a PHRF orphan in a market saturated with them.

Henderson 30

Say Uncle is a top Henderson 30. Campaigned in Michigan she was well taken care of and stored indoors in the winter. I purchased Say Uncle in January 2020 before

sailinganarchy.com

 

[M@AYC]

Sailing is alive and quite well in South Florida. Handicap racing is dying everywhere.

 

[hasher]

Henderson 30?

Looking for advise on buying a Henderson 30 or other possible contender. Cheers

forums.sailinganarchy.com

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

The real problem is living in Florida.

 

[dacapo]

that's a great boat BTW.............

 

[Meat Wad]

Sailing is alive and quite well in South Florida. Handicap racing is dying everywhere.

It's not that handicap racing is dying. It's that the people ruining handicap racing are killing it.

 

[EYESAILOR]

Handicap racing is dying everywhere.

Handicap racing is for zombies.
Zombies are already dead.
So how can handicap racing be dying?

 

[Olsonist]

The Henderson 30 is such a beautiful boat. The ad needs more photos if nothing else then for the porn.

 

[nolatom]

Beautiful fast boats sitting idle and few real prospects, are depressing.

Will (amateur) racing ever again be as prolific, and as good, as it was in the '60s and '70s? My experience was in the Northeast (Marblehead mostly), and the one-design fleets were so full up that during Race Week we had to split them up into two separate starts, 40-plus boats each. For me it was Turnabouts, then 110s, then Collegiate racing in Mass/ Rhode Island, CT. Post-grad, raced Marblehead Town Class summers (again two fleets during race week), and Frostbite Interclubs in the winter, 45 on the line, in 25f weather. Some CCA and MORC crewing with others. A schoolteacher's pay could get you into a pocket cruiser (Ariel, Meridian, Ranger et al) that you could race handicap if you wanted.

I never liked handicap racing quite as much, too much arithmetic trying to figure out what in one-designs would be, "three boats in front means I'm in fourth place". And the "good" boats, have gotten more and more expensive in relation to what folks earn.

Was it a Boomer thing, the like of which not to be seen again? Or is my view about all this too narrow and oldtimey? Wouldn't be the first time...

Nowadays I teach when I can, at a community sailing center, trying to pay it forward, in a way. Plus, I like doing it, and sailing is year-round down here.

 

[Raz'r]

Handicap racing issues seem to be on the owners. Yeah, maybe your local rating board dings the outliers a bit. Not sure they have much choice as a 1-point rating system will never be "fair" across all conditions. I've been able to manage my rating a bit by biting the bullet and getting a real measurement, and supplying that to the powers that be.

If you buy an outlier - say a downwind-oriented boat, or a multi (and I've owned both)- how can they rate you? And does another pair of glasses in the cupboard really matter?

 

[Marty Gingras]

Was it a Boomer thing, the like of which not to be seen again?

It's a Boomer thing, including their generally more rural/outdoorsy family history and the economy they experienced. Same sort of thing happened with hunting (and fishing):

Since 1960, the actual number of hunters has increased until peaking at 16.7 million in 1982, after which it began to decline. The numbers started to climb again after 2010 but remain well below the 1982 peak. In 2020 there were 15.2 million hunters in the U.S.

In relative numbers, the percentage of the U.S. population that hunts has been on a steady decline since at least 1960, when there were 14 million hunters, representing 7.7 percent of the total U.S. population of 180.7 million people. In 2020, hunters represented only 4.6 percent of the U.S. population. Even at the 1982 peak, hunters only represented 7.2 percent of the U.S. population.

Between 1960 and 2020, the actual number of hunters grew by 8.6 percent, but the U.S. population increased by 83.4 percent, nearly ten times as fast.

 

[bloodshot]

best bet if you "hate" handicap but wedded to it for any reason is to push your clubs to ditch the PHRF board altogether and go ORC, if you can.

 

[Olsonist]

Beautiful fast boats sitting idle and few real prospects, are depressing.

Will (amateur) racing ever again be as prolific, and as good, as it was in the '60s and '70s? My experience was in the Northeast (Marblehead mostly), and the one-design fleets were so full up that during Race Week we had to split them up into two separate starts, 40-plus boats each. For me it was Turnabouts, then 110s, then Collegiate racing in Mass/ Rhode Island, CT. Post-grad, raced Marblehead Town Class summers (again two fleets during race week), and Frostbite Interclubs in the winter, 45 on the line, in 25f weather. Some CCA and MORC crewing with others. A schoolteacher's pay could get you into a pocket cruiser (Ariel, Meridian, Ranger et al) that you could race handicap if you wanted.

I never liked handicap racing quite as much, too much arithmetic trying to figure out what in one-designs would be, "three boats in front means I'm in fourth place". And the "good" boats, have gotten more and more expensive in relation to what folks earn.

Was it a Boomer thing, the like of which not to be seen again? Or is my view about all this too narrow and oldtimey? Wouldn't be the first time...

Nowadays I teach when I can, at a community sailing center, trying to pay it forward, in a way. Plus, I like doing it, and sailing is year-round down here.

Windsurfing killed off dinghy sailing and kite boarding killed off windsurfing. Foiling is now killing off kiteboarding. And dinghy sailing was cheap. The principle of competitive exclusion claims another victim.

Basically more expensive and faster stuff killed off slower and more democratic stuff. No dinghy sailors, no keelboat crew. If an Olson 30 was middle class affordable, a J105 isn’t. Waterline matters and so they rate about the same. Each year boats got more expensive, a little bit faster, and then there are fewer racers.

Why are we suddenly surprised? We did it to ourselves.

 

[Raz'r]

Windsurfing killed off dinghy sailing and kite boarding killed off windsurfing. Foiling is now killing off kiteboarding. And dinghy sailing was cheap. The principle of competitive exclusion claims another victim.

Basically more expensive and faster stuff killed off slower and more democratic stuff. No dinghy sailors, no keelboat crew. If an Olson 30 was middle class affordable, a J105 isn’t. Waterline matters and so they rate about the same. Each year boats got more expensive, a little bit faster, and then there are fewer racers.

Why are we suddenly surprised? We did it to ourselves.

I can see a day in the not too distant future where I'll be rowing, wing-foiling and will have a sub-30' daysailer. Not yet however... Still have one more PacCup to do!

 

[dogwatch]

Windsurfing killed off dinghy sailing

A nice neat theory, except it didn't actually. Not around here anyhow.

 

[knh555]

Windsurfing killed off dinghy sailing and kite boarding killed off windsurfing. Foiling is now killing off kiteboarding. And dinghy sailing was cheap. The principle of competitive exclusion claims another victim.

Basically more expensive and faster stuff killed off slower and more democratic stuff. No dinghy sailors, no keelboat crew. If an Olson 30 was middle class affordable, a J105 isn’t. Waterline matters and so they rate about the same. Each year boats got more expensive, a little bit faster, and then there are fewer racers.

Why are we suddenly surprised? We did it to ourselves.

At least some of those older, democratic classes are still around with a great crowd of people and fun, serious sailing. This might not work for people who's strategy to win is competitive exclusion, but it does work for those who want to test themselves and enjoy the ride whatever the result.

Just sayin'

 

[eerie sailor]

The Henderson 30 is such a beautiful boat. The ad needs more photos if nothing else then for the porn.

The Henderson 30 is such a beautiful boat. The ad needs more photos if nothing else then for the porn.

Here ya go!

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Same sort of thing happened with hunting (and fishing):

Hunting has retained nearly all its 1983 numbers, fishing has exceeded them by some margin. Sailboat racing has retained roughly 10% of its 1983 numbers.

 

[Latadjust]

Isn't it also:

Kids used to ride their bikes everywhere and "be home by dark"
Now it's sit in their rooms staring at a screen

TV used to have 2 and a half channels if you were lucky rotating the rabbit ears, outside was more fun.
Now outsude is just a rigorous pain in the ass.

If you wanted to hang out with your friends, you drove or rode your bike. Now you send pics of body parts.

Kids grow up to be adults who take the easy way, which is $200,000 wake boats, sailing is way too difficult.

I'm not saying I wouldn't have turned out the same way if I grew up today. I'm just saying I'd rather be outside competing at something that requires attention, effort and concentration

 

[freewheelin]

Sailing is alive and quite well in South Florida. Handicap racing is dying everywhere.

It is W/L racing that is dying here. Both handicap and OD. But distance, navigator, point-to-point is more popular than 10 years ado - and most of that is handicap.