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Where are the youth?


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Guest Saturday Night Special

I wasn’t saying there are no home built boats, or classes that allow them left, just for the majority it isnt an option. If it wasn’t for the plastic imports, of all sizes, sailing in NZ would be in a lot worse place, as an avid P class fan and Laser loather, that hurts to say, but it’s true.

 

The OK’s seem to be doing well, worlds in NZ next year always helps.

Javelins are another example which are not factory built or imported, although it’s build new in carbon off the class mould rather than at home in ply, if you want to be competitive anyway.

 

It’s actually the same issue as the focus being all on learning to win races, rather than learning to love Sailing. -you will learn to race, you will learn to win, you will compete internationally. Can’t do that in a p class, better but what is raced internationally.

 

The attraction for me was being out there making my own decisions also, not sure I would have liked my parents chasing me in a tender shouting instructions every race. Why does a kid need to learn to sail if they will just be a voice activated remote control of their parents. Let the kids enjoy thinking for themselves, will serve them well throughout life.

All good staements but everyone has lost the point NZ was the home of inovation developed through the fact of having no money the art for the kids coming through was the bug I can do that i can be part of that We allowed our national authority to remove that we have a sport in serious trouble We have some one leading it who is only interested in his 240k salary and his 2IC who is the same and as i pointed out the marine industry is in serious trouble with the youngest rigger being in his mid 60s those who want to chip me and throw sh*t I will laugh when you cant get your rig fixed

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As a young fella I never really raced at all. My father brought a 1907 kauri submarine that I still firmly believe had been converted to sail B33 Waione.

That old saying “ what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” pretty much sums our livaboard years cruising two up.My father was a fearless sea creature and he had a merchant navy background so for all the terrifying memories I still today hold a cluster of wonderfully happy and enduring ones as well.

I have sailed all my life off and on and vividly remember the afternoon I helped a mate shift his yacht which found me alone onboard and the tiller in my hand....

My wife and spawn sailed because my saltwater addiction left them little choice,none would be buy a yacht by choice but many photos and memorabilia fill our Poncenby mansion.

I suppose my angle is sailing it’s all about family and adventure.

Life is a journey and not a race in our old log of wood and the legacy of all the cost sweat and effort

well now I am the responsible skipper of a party boat for scantily clad associates of my son.

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How many parents, do you think, avoid buying an opti, or a P, or a whatever because the classes are so diminished that they are concerned there will be no resale when little Sarah grows out of it?

 

Notice also, that as we grow up, we big people don't go and buy class boats. We might, but generally we go racing in our keeler, or our trailer boats, and although there might be a class association if you have a piedy, or a Y88 or a nolex 22, or whatever, but a full good majority of the racing we do is in mixed fleets, with a handicapping system.

 

If you're that parent who doesn't want to buy a dinghy of this class or that class, or doesn't see a market to sell the boat back into, would mixed fleet sailing work for kids in dinghies and would it alleviate the weapons race that we see? That way, the rich kid with the carbon everything and the 3DL sails on his opti would really have to sail so much better than the poor kid with the waterlogged p-class and the flogged out sails. 

 

Are we chasing the possum up the wrong tree by having one design classes for kids?

 

It's what we do as adults to styme the weapons race, to an extent. It means that when the suburban garden ornament finally takes to the water, it might win on the line for a bit, but we'll all moan and make sure it gets handicapped, hehe ;). Sure the more money you have the fancier the boat and the faster the boat, but the handicapping, particularly PHRF, should mean that the good have to get continually gooder, to stay on top. That might be more possible in a boat with many crew, but in a dinghy with one 9y old... how much gooder are they going to get over a season? Will this prevent the leaderboard just being a roundabout for the 3 rich kids?

 

So, is encouraging mixed dinghy fleet racing a potential help? Or do we see it as a form of socialism (and therefore it must be bad...)?

 

Personally, I think we should simply get kids out on the water mucking about in boats - and it shouldn't matter that one boat has carbon everything while another has sails woven from flax.

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Guest Saturday Night Special

Having talked to some of my friends in the land of the spring loaded rat the cherub is not dying as someone sugested but is stronger that n ever in NSW with good fleets at 3 of the river clubs in Sydney there is a Revival all over Aussie of the International Scow moth club with old sailors and new sailing the Boats a good fleet even race on the lake at Albert park in melbournehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/447722085340660/ The flying ants cant get enough boats for their kids and are continulaly advertising for boats .The old mirror dinghy has a good fleet growing again Te 16 footers are strong as all ways.The things the Bazzas did better tha n us was to keep these classes alive by bringing in pro built boats but still allowing home builders to do the same as they allways did  here are a couple of pics of a brand new cherub being built in sydney

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post-380-0-84023300-1541785618_thumb.jpg

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just maybe the media could pick up on "Youth in boats" 1/2hr segment form around the country and push the point its not just for those who want to be Olympic champions?

Would need to a sponsor of course,once a week on tvnz.

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Guest Saturday Night Special

The issue here in lies the kids anrt being retained and if you go to the yacht clubs you won't find them full of young guys and girls the clubs have good membership but they are all silvertops our club has great membership a classic example was the special general meeting held recently I said to the guy standing next to me have look around your the youngest here and your nearly 30 and look harder I am the next youngest at 51 . and people will argue but if we don't fix the failing situation quickly the sport is doomed .I said to KM 5 years ago this would happen and it's happening quicker than even I expected .I have no quick answers I think as our parent body has become so disconnected from reality They have lost sight of the tree dying at the roots,rugby went through a similar cycle but they realised that for the sport to continue some serious initiatives had to be brought into play .I have seen the Friday night races for kids with a bbq at clubs ,Sprint racing for a crunchie bar,kids day racing driving a keep boat the more we do the same the more we will get the same result.

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Membership is a catch 22 situation.

 

Does a club rely on bar sales to keep club going?admin etc or do you raise membership fees to run the club and bar takings becomes the cream for the club?

If a club relied on bar takings alone it would fold like many RSAs are doing,drink driving with such low limits(why would I drive for an hour each way for 2 beers?)

Push membership up and those with limited funds due to high rents/mortgagees etc drop off 

Yes every club wants its own identity but maybe by combining clubs together,higher membership,possibly lower fees?

Our local RSA has closed but may reopen under a different brand,similar to what MT Wellington RSA did,occupy a bar in a hotel.

The Papakura rsa may not last as its getting housing built around its boundary so maybe it too would need to merge?

 

To retain youth,u20s,what does a club need to do??put in pool tables play station games ,games room away form the old farts,(turn that bloody tv down its not a baby sitting outfit)no doubt we have all heard the call ,yet these old farts reminisce on what they did in the club as youngsters,and soon as few younger one start making noise they get told to shut up,so why would youth stick around. Junior/senior club nights??

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Relaxation is consistently the most important reason for participation in sailing among both current sailors and those interested in sailing. New participants are interested in a social, relaxed activity rather than competition, the later tending to be more important to current club members.

 

Pretty well sums it up and as the glory days of Kiwi domination of competitive sailing wanes apart from the AC the future of sailing for youth is as it has always been a family leisure activity.

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HT is correct. Many clubs of a wide spread of interest need to combine. But empires,patch protection,egos and prejudice have to be overcome. Sadly ,until the indispensables (usually old white men & women ) die it's almost impossible to succeed. Golf,bowls,tennis,boating just a few that come to mind. But once the indispensables are gone there aren't any volunteers so you have to pay the organisers. Hence the rise of pay for play. Read about learn too sail in Sydney for an up market weekend baby sitting service. Apart from the obvious fun of making them you have to wonder why some people have kids !

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Guest Saturday Night Special

This photo of World Sailings AGM held last week.

 

Is there any need to say more?

 

attachicon.gif yysw228769.jpg

This is the problem we have changed what we have done that suited us and aligned ourselves to suit the rest of the world one olympian said to me when i was young the Olympic dream will ruin NZ  yachting long term.The fact that we have a national body so disconnected from grass roots yachting and solely focused on  high performance so as to gain a large chunk of the finacial pie to fund there own exorbitant salaries does not help.When taken to my first Opti Regatta many many Moons ago in 1980 you went and registered at a table outside in the sun  on the shores of Lake Pupuke The one and only NZYF employee (Thats right NZ Yachting Federation) Jan Vaudry sat there and took ya money she knew most of us as she knew our parents .There were know RIBS no Coaches No overseas trips on offer Just kids having fun with the emphasis on winning by fair means and enjoying the experience Thats whats been lost and I believe thats what was need .Names I raced against at that regatta were Jon Bilger ,Scott Dickson Carla Bennet to name a few .After Our Regatta had concluded they had a 1 lap race of the lake for the parents it became a match Race with Jock Bilger and Chris Dickson going at it in the front of the pack Chris eventually pushing Jock to the corner of the course then sailing off for the win ,You would never see that today the fun was great

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This is the problem we have changed what we have done that suited us and aligned ourselves to suit the rest of the world one olympian said to me when i was young the Olympic dream will ruin NZ yachting long term.The fact that we have a national body so disconnected from grass roots yachting and solely focused on high performance so as to gain a large chunk of the finacial pie to fund there own exorbitant salaries does not help.When taken to my first Opti Regatta many many Moons ago in 1980 you went and registered at a table outside in the sun on the shores of Lake Pupuke The one and only NZYF employee (Thats right NZ Yachting Federation) Jan Vaudry sat there and took ya money she knew most of us as she knew our parents .There were know RIBS no Coaches No overseas trips on offer Just kids having fun with the emphasis on winning by fair means and enjoying the experience Thats whats been lost and I believe thats what was need .Names I raced against at that regatta were Jon Bilger ,Scott Dickson Carla Bennet to name a few .After Our Regatta had concluded they had a 1 lap race of the lake for the parents it became a match Race with Jock Bilger and Chris Dickson going at it in the front of the pack Chris eventually pushing Jock to the corner of the course then sailing off for the win ,You would never see that today the fun was great

Don’t disagree with what you are saying, however the world has changed. Some of the changes are due to how the world operates these days.

 

Duty of care by clubs mean that the volunteers need to be offered shade/sun protection, more safety boats are required to ensure you can say you have complied with your DoC to run a ‘safe event’. Parents are now to busy to run learn to sail courses at a a lot of clubs, so there is paid instructors and some clubs, these need to be trained etc, which is offered by YNZ etc etc.

 

Yes high performance may have changed things but it’s not the only reason for change. All sports have a high performance aspect these days, unfortunately government funding is driving this, even lawn bowls as a HP team!

 

A lot of the problem with the youth area is clubs (a) not willing to change from ‘the way we have always done it’ and (B) don’t approach YNZ and the club reps etc on how they can grow and attract more members and most importantly retain them as a members into their 20-30’s

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 and ( B) don’t approach YNZ and the club reps etc on how they can grow and attract more members and most importantly retain them as a members into their 20-30’s

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has actually approached YNZ for advice or assistance, and understand based on their experience how that went.

 

The only time I have ever seen anyone from YNZ was when the entire staff, accept of course the CEO invited themselves to an SGM at our club. Haven't seen them since... But they still collect our subs.

That SGM was about leaving YNZ.

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Spill....

My understanding, which may or may not be correct, is that Royal one down Tamaki Drive thats building the big new bar, and the Weiti Boating Club.

 

Interesting to note too that the Weiti has a full sized kids playground outside (complete with kid corralling fence), a kids play corner inside (complete with kid corralling fence), and caters for kids at functions such as the Christmas Party with bouncy castle etc, the centenary weekend had a kids entertainer doing balloon animals and pirate impersonations. And, although one group of mid 20 something guys have just sold there boat, there are a few other 20 to 30 somethings about, and a reasonable (if not large number) of families boating with young kids.

 

Like I say, there are little pockets around the place doing good things, or doing things differently to how some people expect things to be done. 

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So are you saying Weiti Boating Club is the only club in Auckland with a female Commodore? Who woulda thunk.

And yes, the Rear also (not the Vice), so 2 out of 3 flag officers. Also the handicapper I think.

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“One way to address the class-related participation problem in youth sports is to tone down the competition that leads wealthy parents to pay for elite traveling leagues and unintentionally degrade the local leagues. In other words: Follow the Norwegian model”

 

A very interesting read. And the NHL experience is a refreshing piece of evidence...

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Guest Saturday Night Special

Footage from last weekend of the nsw state titles of  suposedly dying class in Australia (said someone on here who I think may have been mistaken) some homebuilt and production built youth boats

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Footage from last weekend of the nsw state titles of  suposedly dying class in Australia (said someone on here who I think may have been mistaken) some homebuilt and production built youth boats

 

very very cool and also quite sad that the flying ant and cherub plus the javelin have  been cast aside here in nz 

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The Javelins still race for the oldest trophy in NZ yachting, the Sanders Cup, first sailed for in 1921. But the Mullet boats sail for the Lipton Cup, first raced in 1922, but that has been raced for continually where the Sanders stopped during the war.

 

Bit of a difference here though (aside from the story of how the trophies were appropriated)  the Lipton Cup has always been a Mullet boat gig, the Javs "inherited" their trophy from the X class. 

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