Building awareness for the masses.

[Guest]

I've just returned from UK and in particular have spent many weeks at port headland, Weymouth, and Christchurch (England not NZ).

 

Speaking with the Team GBR people, and there were plenty, and the local sailing management / sailors they have largely overcome the same problem by doing the following...

 

1. The funding focus is on schools and yacht clubs and the elite are. Slowly weening of traditional funding and now corporate funded (Scania Volvo...). here you appear to have one body (YNZ) focusing mainly on SNZ (ex SPARC) funding and where they want it spent. (Mainly on Elite sailors, coaches, and Admin/management). YNZ appear to not know how to drag in big corporate dollars ( dollars that Team NZ get very easily).

 

http://www.rya.org.uk/skandiateamgbr/me ... fault.aspx

 

2. Club support is paramount. Feed the bottom and the top will look after itself. Feed the top and the bottom are alienated and no depth is developed. Every club I visited had been visited by Ainslie and other Team GBR members/heros very regularly. Even the schools see these guys... there role models?. In NZ your top sailors never get used for promotion and seem to be hidden away between Olympic events.

 

3. Allow your regular sailors to compete against your best sailors. all English Olympic and world champ sailors are checking in with local events to keep other good sailors in the loop and bench marked.

 

4. Get your National champs fleets active and reduce the number of fleets you race. Less is more.

 

5. Both the poms and the Aussies were adamant their Olympic sailing results have been enhanced by their withdrawl from the Americas cup. Funding, resources, and sailors are not side tracked by the AC. They are very focused on world champs and Olympic medals and know the AC money will come later if they need it. Seems to be working looking at their latest medal count.

 

One mid week working day in Christchurch esturary I watched 45 over 60 year olds racing their one man scows in a "old Farts" series. When I spoke to them they said they do it for the love of sailing, to inspire youngsters, and because they feel they are part of a big national sport that is on top of the world.

 

old fellas inspired by their Olympians... wow

 

http://www.christchurchsailingclub.co.uk/?page_id=62

 

Sorry to say this but NZ sailing has gone into recession and it appears, from my new fresh perspective, that YNZ, Clubs, Sparc, and the AC have to take a fair share of the blame.

 

The two recent Olympic medals are breathing hope into a tired body but there has been a 21year hiatus and all will be lost of the next Olympic haul is less than two.

 

I would suggest the last two decades have been run the same way and produced the same results. That means a major shift

in thinking, strategy, management is required from the leaders in the sport ( the ones being paid to produce results for the ones paying yacht club fees.)

 

How often do you see a YNZ person front up and ask how can we help.?

 

How often does your club ask the older retired guys to come in and help

 

how often do you ( (Kiwi sailors) get together and confront the sports governing body and demand improvement support, and KPI,s to measure them by? Do you have total clarity on what they do even?

 

I would suggest this web site has a bigger following and more use full information transfer than YNZ / Sparc and most if not all yacht clubs.

 

It totally astounds me their is not a YNZ forum on this site with a open Q&A thread where a representative took onboard dialogue for YNZ to digest.

 

Sorry to rant but its a very interesting dilemma.

[Zoe 8]

It makes me laugh that you think TNZ get their 'big corporate sponsorship' very easily, or that it is easy to come by.

 

At FBYC we make huge use of YNZ resources. Kim Ardmore is the area rep assigned to help us, and he has been a huge help.

 

I actually agree with you in that I'd like to see funding going to participation, but that is a government level decision and it means we as a sport do get funding that we otherwise wouldn't. I am pretty sure that the high performance funding would give us a lot of resourcing that we otherwise wouldn't get.

 

YNZ provide some great opportunities to get in front of them and talk to them - the Commodore's Conference is one of these. They are very approachable.

 

I agree there are too many classes, and I also think there are too many clubs, so we are spread too thin.

[Guest]

It makes me laugh that you think TNZ get their 'big corporate sponsorship' very easily, or that it is easy to come by.

 

At FBYC we make huge use of YNZ resources. Kim Ardmore is the area rep assigned to help us, and he has been a huge help.

 

I actually agree with you in that I'd like to see funding going to participation, but that is a government level decision and it means we as a sport do get funding that we otherwise wouldn't. I am pretty sure that the high performance funding would give us a lot of resourcing that we otherwise wouldn't get.

 

YNZ provide some great opportunities to get in front of them and talk to them - the Commodore's Conference is one of these. They are very approachable.

 

I agree there are too many classes, and I also think there are too many clubs, so we are spread too thin.

 

hi Zoe,

 

I remember reading when Helen Clark committed 44 million dollars to team NZ. A private sailing team, that would have got its emirates funding without this Govt/tax payers funding.

 

44 million for 50 individual sailors who are very well off in their own right.

 

Imagine 44 million in YNZ's coffers!... And all Team NZ did was lobby government leveraging of a event they might not win, a declining yacht building industry, and a chance of the event coming back here and bringing some unknown money with it. (With support from a few rich friends with big influence) that was six years ago and what has happened?

 

That money could have been earmarked with a note to Mr Dalton saying... what will you do for junior sailing programs, will you make your team available to school promotions, will you give it back if you do not spend it within 4 years... at the very least.

 

Where was the " added value"?

 

Where is the accountability?

 

Or have I got this all horribly wrong.?

[Zoe 8]

Yes you are right, it could have been. But it was justified as economic development and I think you are drawing a long bow.

 

I do agree with you though that participation needs a lot more attention.