Where do you see our sport in NZ ten years from now?

[Guest]

I was thinking mainly the local keelboat fleet, what boats will we be sailing? what type of racing? any international competition? A wide base of participation or a few elite ?

 

But if you want to talk about other aspects of the sport jump in.

[Clipper 343]

The current keelboat fleet will be fitted out as cruisers, as most sensible people will have realised that mulits are where its at (at least for racing).

 

We will have to somehow find more moorings for the boats displaced as marina berths are widened to allow multis to fit.

 

The 8.5 nationals will be 'the' class nationals to attend, with 40 boats on the startline.

[Guest]

Pretty much doing the same as we are now in what we have now. About the only change I see is a little more splintering of the fleet into differing sections or types of racing. Probably less long extended coastal and off-shore, boats and racing. More boats swapping to and racing in the roast chicken division.

 

New boats will 98% be AWB. Only a very few will hit a race course but a lot will hit buoys, rocks and other hard parts of NZ. A few more 7-9mts sportboat style.

 

More multis in every form, 50ft ish cruisers and more smaller dedicated fish killing machines.

 

Possibly and it's only a possibly, some challenge to the existing yachting organisational structure but that would be later rather than sooner I'm guessing. Thinking more at the ISAF level than YNZ.

 

Oh... and multi sailors to become even more one-eyed

[Guest]

The current keelboat fleet will be fitted out as cruisers, as most sensible people will have realised that mulits are where its at (at least for racing).

 

We will have to somehow find more moorings for the boats displaced as marina berths are widened to allow multis to fit.

 

The 8.5 nationals will be 'the' class nationals to attend, with 40 boats on the startline.

 

 

That would be funny if it didn't contain more than a grain of truth.

[Murky 1]

most sensible people will have realised that mulits are where its at

Mullets as in the haircut, or mulleties as in Lipton Cup?

 

Each to his own, don't mind me...

[Clipper 343]

most sensible people will have realised that mulits are where its at

Mullets as in the haircut, or mulleties as in Lipton Cup?

 

Each to his own, don't mind me...

 

Oops. I went to ACDC last night, must have caught a mild dose of bogan or something.

 

MULTIS

[The Saint 0]

most sensible people will have realised that mulits are where its at

Mullets as in the haircut, or mulleties as in Lipton Cup?

 

Each to his own, don't mind me...

 

Oops. I went to ACDC last night, must have caught a mild dose of bogan or something.

 

MULTIS

 

 

MILD ????

 

Any truth to the rumour that you're looking to buy a home out west

[B00B00 310]

For the cruiser racers- I think there will be a big split in the class boats such as Y11s, Y88s, Ross 930s, farr 1020s, E1050s, SR 26 ect will have almost 2 fleets, as the boats get older there will be the ones that are well kept and have had steady upgrades or have had a major refit and big bucks spent on them,- then you will have the older ones that are off the pace, unreliable and look shabby. it will take alot of money to get them competitive and or even looking nice and the people that buy these boats will do it on a budget and the boats will not be maintained. the gap between these will only grow although people in the industry might keep bringing older ones back into circulation where they have the means to do so on a smaller budget. it will be harder and harder as the boats get softer and big bucks will have to be spent on structure to handle the new keels and rig loads to keep competitive (not for the Y88s and farr 1020s), Y11s, R930s, and SR26s will be the biggest culprits here, prices on E1050s and Y11s will hold steady as the demand for these size of cruiser racers goes up as alot of the good boats might go up to noumea.

For racers, there might be a good fleet of canting 30s but I doubt there will be many more new builds over that size for a while other than maybe a few class 40s or similar imported either new or second hand.

the 40 foot fleet will be steady as the cruiser racers like Ross 40s and the like join the party but in general I think the level will be well down from former years.

50fters will be quiet as the crew hassles and expences become too much for just a racing toy. people will realise that you can have more fun for a fraction of the cost on a multihull!

As Clipper said most of the new race boats will be multihulls as the adreniline junkys all get hooked on the thrils and relitive low budget for a competitive boat. there will be a huge fleet of new 8.5s and pimped out older boats and maybe even some more imports.

Sport boats will continue to plug away but numbers wont grow much.

 

weeknight sailing will still be strong but weekend stuff will slip other than the big events like coastal. offshore will be weak as there wont be so many high budget big offshore boats, unless there is a revival of 35-40fters taking it on. maybe without the big boats there might be more insentive to do it and get a prize or even line honors?

regattas will grow especially in the cruising divs.

There will be more kiwi teams in the big events/offshore races around the world (I hope!!)

 

Anyway thats my take on it.

 

Will that do as my 1000 post dribble on....?

[Guest]

Accepted, not bad at all Booboo.

[Guest]

I would add to that that I predict an increase in AWB class regatta type stuff, is it true the Hanse's have their own div somewhere? And Beneteau regattas - you get the idea.

[Guest]

I saw a Bene regatta at Kawau a couple of years ago. They seemed more interested in squirting each other with their deck wash hoses than anything else.

[Murky 1]

I found Booboo's post incredibly depressing although there is no arguing with his logic and I am sure it will unfold exactly as he laid out.

 

We need to earn more money so we can fund another great era of NZ-made boats like the ones he mentioned that are now getting knackered.

[Guest]

I found Booboo's post incredibly depressing although there is no arguing with his logic and I am sure it will unfold exactly as he laid out.

 

We need to earn more money so we can fund another great era of NZ-made boats like the ones he mentioned that are now getting knackered.

 

 

I suppose increasing GST on things in the near future will also increase the cost of a new build or refit marginally... not fogetting the cost of certifying a newboat for any sort of real racing.

[Guest]

So:

 

We don't really design/build our own boats anymore. The old fleet we are racing will get older. The new boats are AWB's, these will get cheaper as they get older -will we end up racing them?

Meanwhile the cost of participating gets higher and fleets diminish - one could argue that cat 1-2 racing here is already pretty much dead anyway.

 

On a brighter note there are a few dinghy classes where we are still commpeting at an international level and doing very well, maybe we will continue to be a school that supplies crew to overseas owners, though I don't see any great advantage in that - educate me.

[Guest]

The new Certifying thing for higher Cat's knot going to be a worry. Apparently some stupid NZ engineer is going to devalue their services dramatically and do it all at 1/2 price. It does appear YNZ are having issues finding the silly engineer though. I wish they would pull finger and ISAF actually finish writing the bloody rules so I can decide which way I'm going to go. The pair are like a government with their 1/2 arsed goings on with this shite.

 

Boo's a bit late with the 930 comments. Knot happening in 10 years more it happened 10 years ago, the silly twats.

 

I don't see weekend racing decreasing but I do see it refocusing, it's happening now. Less general regatta stuff will go to more targeted semi-specific sorts of racing. The growth in short handed being one example. More races available today and getting increasing numbers.

 

And I will get paint on at some stage this year

[markm 30]

There is no direct advantage squid, however, turn it around.

 

We can, supply professional yachtsman to the world and have a pool of well paid kiwis forming a core in professional yachting, though in many cases not locally.

 

Or, we can keep the local (we can't really but hyperthetically), where they'll earn a fifth as much (maybe) though often not in the local industry, sail locally on other peoples boats not their own, but likely less frequently and certainly at a lower level. The increase in local boat numbers will be, marginal at best.

 

Which is preferrable?

 

Hanses had their own division at Richmond for a season or two, a case of new boats and a couple of people pulling finger and encouraging the owners group to all get out. Most of the Bavs and Benes though are just not boats for racing, that said, there seems to be an interesting group of F47.7s, F45s and a F44.7 or two which together would make an interesting mini division with fairly even performance.

 

Can't see a new class of keelboat happening again in NZ though at some stage you would think it'd become economic to import second-hand, particularly from oz, or maybe some of the high profile international classes as they fall out of favour.

[Guest]

There's an interesting discussion, which boat should we pick on to import 2nd hand to try and build a new class here?

 

J105? Melges? mini 650? classe 40? platu?Express 37?

 

As always the hard part would be getting enough people to agree to one thing

[Guest]

It's highly unlikely we would see a imported 'fleet' especially one design. Maybe one by default or accidentally like Hanse 37's for example. Nearly got a decent race fleet of those here now but most were brought with no racing in mind.... but if all the owners changed their minds ya just never know. Actually a few sizes of Hanse's, some Bravs and Bennies as Mark points out.

 

Kiwis want to get 1st on line rather than close 1/4's hard out battles or so it appears to me from what is seen out there. You aren't going to get that by buying what everyone else has or keeping a boat in class. Hence why we so so much turboing, one off high speed only orphans and small arms races in the top end of some fleets. Whether that's good or bad I depends on your own personal yachting desires.

 

I also predict things like what the lads did in getting the 'Up To 26ft' racing to increase. It's a comparatively bloody cheap way to have some bloody good racing.

[Murky 1]

I think it would also be fair to say that what has taken place at the top end of the size range probably has as much to do with maturing of outlooks as it does with economic realities i.e. owners coming to the conclusion that racing a boat of, say, 45ft-plus with a dozen or more crew doesn't necessarily equate to more fun than a smaller boat with a tight crew who know their jobs bloody well.

[Clipper 343]

yup. I think a small part of the success multi seem to be having is the small cews they need compared with the keelboats of similar size