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NZ sailing sucks...


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Yes--l'm rising to the bait .

I Have crewed for many years (in NZ, Hong Kong and Seattle ) and have never been asked to contribute /pay a fee (except the food fund when doing overnights etc ) and now as an owner l want peoples time ,involvemkent and enjoyment --not their money .

When we do Coastal , Tauranga , White Island, return trips from these events the crew have decided what we will eat , buy and provision the boat (and wont let me pay !!) .We rarely run out of booze , most crew supplied .

The success of SSANZ and short handed sailing is interesting and others have talked well about it --yes it is easier to get crew but the thing that appealed to me were the courses , the challenges put in front of the crews and the way SSANZ structured its series --l now have 3 of my crew who want to do the races so they each do one .

So --l'm actually not sure where this individual gets their information from (or where they are located ) but to me he/she is uninformed , not very close to the realities of the NZ sailing scene and perhaps owners are hoping to get rid of him/her from a crew by charging him/her only --l would if they were on my crew list--actually if they were on my crew list the crew would get rid of them !!!!

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This topic has been thrashed on here many times before.

Its not a simple case with one right answer as there are so many variables and each boat, program, level, event ect are all so much different. There is no one answer to cover the whole range.

Every harbour has many different levels of keelboat racing that go on, NZ is no different except for the fact that we don’t really have much at the top end. There will always be boats that share expenses and have a huge amount of fun, some of them might do well on the race course too.

The key factor here is that there really is NO professional yacht racing scene in NZ at all.

Sure its a small economy and that probably has a lot to do with it but unfortunately the average NZ keelboat racer is starting to fall behind- the level is dropping.

Don’t get me wrong, NZ sailing is still fun especially cruising and there are plenty of handy sailors around. But we just have very little top end keelboat racing any more.

 

All the good kiwi sailors are racing overseas they simply have too. If you want a career in sailing you sure can’t do it in NZ, its recreational only.

 

Even simrad, yes its a great, well run event with a fantastic turnout. Is the level of sailing what it should be- probably not.

 

Im off to Thailand next week for Koh Samui regatta on the TP52, all expenses paid, bungalow on the beach and a decent daily wage. I imagine at least half the people at that regatta will be on the same gig.

When you are getting paid for something you raise your game, stuff ups are just not accepted.

The owner invests good money to maintain the boat and get the boat to the start line so the crew cost is actually very small and probably has the biggest effect on performance.

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The problem is that everybody owns boats. Some own their own boats and race on others. If everyone sailed at the same time then there will be no crew.

 

It is cheap to own a boat in NZ so most boat owners are not rich like in the US

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Royale 780 is on to something there. Again.

 

I have a keeler, but only for the last few years, but I race on someone else's boat - a bigger one. Great bunch of guys on it. And there's various levels of expertise - dumbarses like me and (older now but once were) guru's. I'm just grateful to be a part of the team - happy to be rail meat, happy to pour the drinks, stoked to do some trimming.

 

I've spent far more of my many years in other so-called mainstream sports - football codes, cricket and softball - as a player and coach and manager and on committees, and everyone in those sports pays. Full stop.

Wanna play in the team then join the club and pay your fees. Plus, buy your shorts/socks/raffle tickets, beer at the bar that helps pay for the other things you don't see etc, etc.

 

And then, I went sailing.

 

And I found it quite amazing that I could spend a fantastic Wednesday evening or whatever night, racing on someone else's boat at ABSOLUTELY NO COST TO ME! Nothing, nada, zilch. No club fees, no raffles, etc.

 

And, in my opinion, that's not right. I'm more than happy to chuck $10 bucks (or whatever) a race in to a kitty for the skipper. FFS, I've had a fantastic time, pretty much better than sex and drugs (I am getting older :clap: ) and it cost me ten bucks plus some booze.

 

If you don't like that BTS, you really need to take a cold hard look in the mirror me thinks.

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I struggle a little with the pro sailing thing.

 

Lets pretend I have the cash to pay some dudes to sail on my boat: I tell my friends, usual crew etc that they are not good enough and miss the cut and head out there with a bunch of guys who are way better sailors than me who are sailing with me cos I pay them to, not necessarily cos they want to. We go out and sail better and defeat a few people who we normally wouldn't cos I have pro's on board and they don't.

 

Question: do I enjoy my racing more or have I somehow lost the plot? How much satisfaction is there in this scenario?

 

I can understand the desire to be a professional sailor - unfortunately no one will ever pay me to sail for them, but I struggle to see why people are paying others to sail. In most professional sports there is some income from TV rights and people paying to watch in stadiums etc and it's fair that the top players get a cut of the proceeds but that doesn't apply much sailing (outsided AC and extreme 40's). I can see the logic in paying a pro to coach us if we were not getting any better but paying pro's simply to win some local trophy seems a little silly. Am I missing something here?

 

Thoughts?

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Hmmmm, I maybe wrong here, but wouldn't accepting hire or reward put the owner into a "professional Skipper" category, thus needing a ticket and thus the Boat would also need to meet Survey requirements ???

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C'mon Wheels, we're talking black market (just like the big corporates who don't pay any tax - but that's another story), we're helping out our skipper. :lol:

 

 

 

Actually, I get it now (took a while, it's Friday after a cuppla beers) - you're jus' takin' the pis. :roll:

 

 

Whatever suits the boat, the skipper, the crew and the race series - well that's what works.

 

Different strokes, etc, etc..................

 

And, what the yanks do isn't necessarily the right thing to do. Just sayin'.............

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All the good kiwi sailors who want to have sailing as their paid career are racing overseas they simply have too.
There are plenty of top class sailors in NZ who can comfortably compete with the worlds best but they choose knot to sail as a career for a multitude of differing reasons.
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C'mon Wheels, we're talking black market (just like the big corporates who don't pay any tax - but that's another story), we're helping out our skipper. :lol:
Maybe the case, but the risk would or could be with Insurance if something went wrong. We all know how tuff it's getting with Insurance these days. Give them a loop hole big enough and they will create a circus and do double backflips through it.
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C'mon Wheels, we're talking black market (just like the big corporates who don't pay any tax - but that's another story), we're helping out our skipper. :lol:
Maybe the case, but the risk would or could be with Insurance if something went wrong. We all know how tuff it's getting with Insurance these days. Give them a loop hole big enough and they will create a circus and do double backflips through it.

 

it was taken care of in the MTA years ago, there is a provision allowing for cost contribution/covering by bona fide crew, so you can rest easy Wheels

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The rich sailor here is richer and there are more of them. most of the money is inherited and many do not work that hard.

 

 

by the way Tiburon YC is $6,000 per quarter membership, if you are nominated, but the showers are great the towels are awesome and the bar/restaurant is like Euro on steroids.

 

Bingo, and there's the context :D

 

got to be tempting with someone else footing the bill :thumbup:

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never a truer word said , just can't understand how a bunch of people get on a boat to clamber from side to side get sworn at for not clambering fast enough and then being frowned upon when nature calls and ya have to hang off the stern ....beats me

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never a truer word said , just can't understand how a bunch of people get on a boat to clamber from side to side get sworn at for not clambering fast enough and then being frowned upon when nature calls and ya have to hang off the stern ....beats me
It's just the whole challenge of making something inherently slow go faster Bushbloke. Multis go fast by themselves so no challenge there bar having to walk twice the distance to get a cold beer or the VHF to ring CG to pull you back up the right way up. Hell, even a 5yo can do that. :twisted: :wink:
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Excuse us if we are late arriving, the very short walk to our rum and ice supply got the better of us. The boat's upright but the crew fell over :lol: :lol:

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I think this subject is just about done, the original poster has totally failed to back up his statement;

 

"In NZ the owners of most race yachts ask the crew to pay a "crew fund" to help support the boat running cost."

 

The inflammatory title "NZ sailing sucks" totally failed to deliver and the complete lack of facts to back any thing up. Then Bushman to finish at the end raving about how he has to sit down to pee and that he can't walk on a sloping deck so he needs a boat that doesn't tip over.

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I think this subject is just about done, the original poster has totally failed to back up his statement;

 

"In NZ the owners of most race yachts ask the crew to pay a "crew fund" to help support the boat running cost."

 

The inflammatory title "NZ sailing sucks" totally failed to deliver and the complete lack of facts to back any thing up.

 

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: Spot on. He's just a Troll.

I've never asked for crew to contribute anything apart from food and booze, and there's always been plenty of that on board as well. I did ask Gary to pay half the RNI entry though, so that's a first...

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