Upcoming events, Weekend of 1 & 2 October 2011.
Saturday:
Weymouth Yacht Club training day. Start time 12 noon.
FBYC working bee at 10am.
Sunday:
Weymouth Yacht Club opening day. Start time 2pm. All welcome.
PLSC handicap series continues, 11am start.
Things to note....
New and prospective members always welcome at all Weymouth Yacht Club events. We offer coaching for all levels from beginners right up to advanced race training. Free boat hire for members too!
Come on down and meet the team.
Click the link at the top of the page, go to www.sportsground.co.nz/weymouthyacht, or just turn up on the day. Even though we use the whole building, on most days we tend to be downstairs, so check down the hill if you cant find us. or call me, Aaron, on 021 260 9822.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
South Auckland Sailing 17 & 18 sept, 2011.
PLSC handicap series race 3 on Sunday, 11:00 start.
FBYC reserve day for the winter series on Sunday, 12:00 start - phone to check first!!
Nothing planned for Weymouth, Manukau, or Waiuku.
Clarks beach and Pakuranga programs unavailable.
Informal trailer yacht harbour race from Weymouth on Sunday, late morning/early afternoon start depending upon weather. Contact me for details.
FBYC reserve day for the winter series on Sunday, 12:00 start - phone to check first!!
Nothing planned for Weymouth, Manukau, or Waiuku.
Clarks beach and Pakuranga programs unavailable.
Informal trailer yacht harbour race from Weymouth on Sunday, late morning/early afternoon start depending upon weather. Contact me for details.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Reality check - the aftermath.
Where to from here....
Where should small sailing clubs go from here? I am of the opinion that the clubs should have regular scheduled racing, even if it's very low key, to help keep peoples interest up. Almost everyone has a competitive streak somewhere. Training should also be a key function, at all levels the club can manage. For some clubs, this will be just basic skills teaching, for others it may go all the way to coaching olympic hopefuls.
Make it all fun, hand out spot-prizes of a mars bar (or something) for worst start, best capsize, best start, anything really. After all, if you're going to charge up to $20 entry for a day, make it worthwhile. A bag of choccy bars only cost about $5, the smiles on the kids faces make up for that!.
And travel, support other clubs. If your members perform well at other clubs events, people will come to your club to have another go at them. If the organisation is good that day, they may even join you.
Extra bits.
Where should small sailing clubs go from here? I am of the opinion that the clubs should have regular scheduled racing, even if it's very low key, to help keep peoples interest up. Almost everyone has a competitive streak somewhere. Training should also be a key function, at all levels the club can manage. For some clubs, this will be just basic skills teaching, for others it may go all the way to coaching olympic hopefuls.
Make it all fun, hand out spot-prizes of a mars bar (or something) for worst start, best capsize, best start, anything really. After all, if you're going to charge up to $20 entry for a day, make it worthwhile. A bag of choccy bars only cost about $5, the smiles on the kids faces make up for that!.
And travel, support other clubs. If your members perform well at other clubs events, people will come to your club to have another go at them. If the organisation is good that day, they may even join you.
Extra bits.
First aid certificates should be kept up to date, as memory fades, and first aid techniques are always evolving.
Powerboat training is really important, both for instructing and for rescue boat duties. Anyone can drive a boat fast in good conditions, but the fact is, the days when things go wrong are not good conditions, and you wont get any help from your students, as they will be more concerned with survival. So, powerboat training needs to cover low-speed handling, getting the rescue boat to exactly where it is needed and can be most effective, in conditions where you are likely to need to use it. Without injuring swimmers, or damaging boats. A good powerboat driver should be able to turn a boat through 360degrees in less than one and a half times its length, even in rough conditions. It is also important to be able to get close to the boom of a boat that is sailing to offer advice and instruction.
Could I do that? Probably not, as I am out of practise, and am not familiar with the rescue boats at our club, however give me a chance to practise a bit, and I could. Skills fade if not used regularly.
A few years back I had a narrow escape, when the boat I was in got hit by a keelboat tacking less than a boat length away from us. The only warning we had was the sound of a flapping jib, about 1 second before their kite pole came through our jib. moments before, we had been sailing parallel to them, upwind and slightly faster, we had just lost sight of their bow. We were rolled over by the impact, and our rig was torn out. My partner ended up stuck under the upturned boat. She was fine, in the air pocket, but unable to free herself. After a brief discussion through the centrecase I dove under the boat to help her get free. While we were under the boat, a well meaning rescue boat approached, they slowed but as they had approached from upwind, in around 30knots, the rescue boat continued to move quite fast downwind, riding straight over the capsized dinghy. Had either of us been on the upturned hull, we would likely have been very badly injured, or even killed.
A few years back I had a narrow escape, when the boat I was in got hit by a keelboat tacking less than a boat length away from us. The only warning we had was the sound of a flapping jib, about 1 second before their kite pole came through our jib. moments before, we had been sailing parallel to them, upwind and slightly faster, we had just lost sight of their bow. We were rolled over by the impact, and our rig was torn out. My partner ended up stuck under the upturned boat. She was fine, in the air pocket, but unable to free herself. After a brief discussion through the centrecase I dove under the boat to help her get free. While we were under the boat, a well meaning rescue boat approached, they slowed but as they had approached from upwind, in around 30knots, the rescue boat continued to move quite fast downwind, riding straight over the capsized dinghy. Had either of us been on the upturned hull, we would likely have been very badly injured, or even killed.
The choice of rescue boat is also important. Deep V RIB's are ideal for semi-coastal conditions, as they are more stable than conventional craft, track well in waves because of the V bottom, and are softer to bump into when things go wrong. Aluminium dinghy's are too light, and get blown around, almost impossible to control at low speeds in strong winds. The choice of engine is also important. 4 Strokes offer better fuel economy at lower revs, however that is reversed with the throttles fully open. They are also more expensive to purchase when new. But they do tend to provide more torque at low speeds, essential when towing a damaged or submerged boat.
Another thing to remember is that rescue boats really need two people onboard at all times. One dedicated to driving, one to assisting the troubled.
Right, thats all from me on this topic, any comments please stick them in the box below.
And above all, Happy sailing for the upcoming season!
Right, thats all from me on this topic, any comments please stick them in the box below.
And above all, Happy sailing for the upcoming season!
Upcoming Sailing 10/11-9-2011
Waiuku Yacht Club winter series continues at 9:30 am on Sunday.
French Market at 7 am at French Bay Yacht Club also on Sunday.
No scheduled racing at PLSC, MYMBC or Weymouth.
Clarks beach website and calendar not available.
Pakuranga website and calendar not available.
French Market at 7 am at French Bay Yacht Club also on Sunday.
No scheduled racing at PLSC, MYMBC or Weymouth.
Clarks beach website and calendar not available.
Pakuranga website and calendar not available.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Reality Check part 2
Carrying on....
So, the perceived financial barriers to participation in our sport can be largely removed, simply because, for most of us, they need not exist. Case in point - I currently sail a $1200 laser, which at around 25 years old, is probably the oldest one active here, and yet the only reasons I have lost races have been due to my own shortcomings. I have frequently beaten brand-new lasers while racing a similar aged boat in Europe. With a new laser retailing at $10,500 (todays price) thats almost 90% less.
Good sails would be the only performance-related investment I would recommend, but even so, good second hand sails are often available at a fraction of the cost of new.
Moving on...
Next part, as I see it, comes down to the clubs.
IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO JOIN YOU - MAKE YOURSELF ACCESSIBLE.
And by that I don't mean wheelchair ramps etc, I mean welcome new prospects into the club. How many times have you gone into a yacht club to find out about membership, facilities or whatever, to find that the people there make you feel unworthy, because you've just walked in on some chat about their grandchildren, fixing the car, last thursdays lunch or some other random topic?
At the end of the day, you are actually in a sailing club, where people go for sailing. Your number one goal, aside from having lots of fun on the water, should be encouraging people to take up sailing. Here. Now. With you. Increasing your clubs membership. For all you know, that person you just ignored may have 10 friends all wanting to learn. Thats 10 members you wont get. And possibly 10 sailors that will never exist.
And similarly, if a stranger turns up at your club, with gear that is not going to be competitive, take the time to talk to them, and explain to them (tactfully) that you have some extremely good sailors (ex world/national/regional champs etc) in well setup boats, and that they must not get too discouraged if they cant keep up. Through competing and asking questions, they can find solutions to the main problems, and improve over time until they too are battling for the lead. And make sure that a similar thing happens afterward, to make them feel more like coming back to try again next time.
Training and positive reinforcement, and a professional outlook.
It's important for clubs to have designated instructors, and also to have the training information readily to hand for any potential students/members.
The instructors should be suitably qualified, and experienced in the type of boat being used. First aid and powerboating skills are also important. More on this later.
Instead of just rushing around trying to get people out on the water the moment they turn up, have a well thought out lesson plan, and stick to it. Have progression, and take each step slowly, one bit at a time. over a full weekend (around 12-16 hours) you should aim to get students sailing solo with some semblance of control, and able to tack and sail a shallow triangle.
Instructors need to have a professional, positive outlook too, because the people you are teaching have paid, either directly or through the club's system, to learn. This isn't the 1970's military, and we do not shout at our students, or criticise them. EVER. Always find the positives, and praise those, while making suggestions on how to improve. And if you are teaching kids, talk on their level. DO NOT talk down to them. Also encourage the parents to participate, as they are the ones who A, bring their kids to the club, and B, supply the funds if the kids want their own boat. Another possibility is that on a nice day, the parents will decide that the water looks really inviting, and they want to try it out. Let them. Get them hooked. After all, they already have some of the theory from their earlier involvement. and the practical bit is easy once the theory is there!
Small Fish
We are now a minority sport, and I still sense that a lot of clubs have failed to recognise this. I have been barracking other clubs to start supporting each other, as the sum of our parts is greater than the whole, as they say. Why spend the whole season racing at one venue, maybe traveling away to one event. You sail in the same wind, with the same few boats, and get the same results, all year. Anyone who sees the club active with only 15 boats on the water probably wont give it a second thought. If that same person were to see 50+ boats, it would probably ignite some interest somewhere in the back of their mind. Sponsors think the same way.
A joint series involving several clubs could be run easily, only taking away a few events from each club, in turn for a bigger one. If, for example, this series involved the five Manukau Harbour clubs, you could easily get 60 boats at each event, and each club would only lose four sailing days. Different venues, more competition, more exposure, it could work, why not give it a try? After all, most people still take their boats home after each days sailing, so what's an extra 20 minutes drive to another club? Open the entries up to anyone, and you could potentially be overcome with more boats than you can handle. Imagine what that sort of publicity could do for your club.
And there's still more to come...
So, the perceived financial barriers to participation in our sport can be largely removed, simply because, for most of us, they need not exist. Case in point - I currently sail a $1200 laser, which at around 25 years old, is probably the oldest one active here, and yet the only reasons I have lost races have been due to my own shortcomings. I have frequently beaten brand-new lasers while racing a similar aged boat in Europe. With a new laser retailing at $10,500 (todays price) thats almost 90% less.
Good sails would be the only performance-related investment I would recommend, but even so, good second hand sails are often available at a fraction of the cost of new.
Moving on...
Next part, as I see it, comes down to the clubs.
IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO JOIN YOU - MAKE YOURSELF ACCESSIBLE.
And by that I don't mean wheelchair ramps etc, I mean welcome new prospects into the club. How many times have you gone into a yacht club to find out about membership, facilities or whatever, to find that the people there make you feel unworthy, because you've just walked in on some chat about their grandchildren, fixing the car, last thursdays lunch or some other random topic?
At the end of the day, you are actually in a sailing club, where people go for sailing. Your number one goal, aside from having lots of fun on the water, should be encouraging people to take up sailing. Here. Now. With you. Increasing your clubs membership. For all you know, that person you just ignored may have 10 friends all wanting to learn. Thats 10 members you wont get. And possibly 10 sailors that will never exist.
And similarly, if a stranger turns up at your club, with gear that is not going to be competitive, take the time to talk to them, and explain to them (tactfully) that you have some extremely good sailors (ex world/national/regional champs etc) in well setup boats, and that they must not get too discouraged if they cant keep up. Through competing and asking questions, they can find solutions to the main problems, and improve over time until they too are battling for the lead. And make sure that a similar thing happens afterward, to make them feel more like coming back to try again next time.
Training and positive reinforcement, and a professional outlook.
It's important for clubs to have designated instructors, and also to have the training information readily to hand for any potential students/members.
The instructors should be suitably qualified, and experienced in the type of boat being used. First aid and powerboating skills are also important. More on this later.
Instead of just rushing around trying to get people out on the water the moment they turn up, have a well thought out lesson plan, and stick to it. Have progression, and take each step slowly, one bit at a time. over a full weekend (around 12-16 hours) you should aim to get students sailing solo with some semblance of control, and able to tack and sail a shallow triangle.
Instructors need to have a professional, positive outlook too, because the people you are teaching have paid, either directly or through the club's system, to learn. This isn't the 1970's military, and we do not shout at our students, or criticise them. EVER. Always find the positives, and praise those, while making suggestions on how to improve. And if you are teaching kids, talk on their level. DO NOT talk down to them. Also encourage the parents to participate, as they are the ones who A, bring their kids to the club, and B, supply the funds if the kids want their own boat. Another possibility is that on a nice day, the parents will decide that the water looks really inviting, and they want to try it out. Let them. Get them hooked. After all, they already have some of the theory from their earlier involvement. and the practical bit is easy once the theory is there!
Small Fish
We are now a minority sport, and I still sense that a lot of clubs have failed to recognise this. I have been barracking other clubs to start supporting each other, as the sum of our parts is greater than the whole, as they say. Why spend the whole season racing at one venue, maybe traveling away to one event. You sail in the same wind, with the same few boats, and get the same results, all year. Anyone who sees the club active with only 15 boats on the water probably wont give it a second thought. If that same person were to see 50+ boats, it would probably ignite some interest somewhere in the back of their mind. Sponsors think the same way.
A joint series involving several clubs could be run easily, only taking away a few events from each club, in turn for a bigger one. If, for example, this series involved the five Manukau Harbour clubs, you could easily get 60 boats at each event, and each club would only lose four sailing days. Different venues, more competition, more exposure, it could work, why not give it a try? After all, most people still take their boats home after each days sailing, so what's an extra 20 minutes drive to another club? Open the entries up to anyone, and you could potentially be overcome with more boats than you can handle. Imagine what that sort of publicity could do for your club.
And there's still more to come...
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Time for a little reality check!
History......
I have been sailing competitively for around 30 years, starting out as a young child at Onerahi Yacht Club, and Whangarei Cruising Club. I can remember that even in a city of only 30,000 people, there were regularly fleets of 40 boats, being around 10 Optimists, 10 P class, 10 Starlings, and a smattering of Lasers and Cats.
As a twentysomething, in the same city, the fleets had changed very little, and there was a strong fleet of lasers, no cats, and still good numbers of juniors. There were also around 30 Traileryachts, and a similar number of Keelboats racing every weekend through the winter, which had probably been there when I was a kid too.
I went overseas about a decade ago, while NZL held the Americas Cup. Sailing was very popular here in NZ, and had good media coverage, with club level events getting newspaper exposure with a whats on, race results etc.
Upon my return two years ago, a lot had changed. I had applied for a position with Yachting New Zealand, which fell through at the last moment. In retrospect, that was a good thing, as had I been successful, I would probably have joined the bureaucracy, and not noticed what a sad state our sport is in.
When I contacted WCC to find out when the next dinghy racing day was, I was told that there was none, as there were very few people actually sailing there now. Shortly after that I moved to Auckland to discover that the story was similar here too.
The Present......
There is now a real problem with the public perception of sailing being an expensive, elitist sport. If your goal is an olympic medal, then this is the case, but for most of us, local or regional competition is as good as we're going to get.
To use a rugby analogy, it's like devoting yourself to becoming All-Black captain and winning the world cup, while the rest of us are happy playing in the ITM or local competition.
This perception may be the result of the Americas cup publicity campaigns. The cup demands ridiculous amounts of money, which is often referred to during the build-up to the events. This makes our sport look and sound like a rich mans play area. This turns people away.
Kids wanting to learn to sail have two main options -
The NGO preferred route of spending lots of their parents money, replacing their boat, sails etc every few months, and travelling around the country for coaching, regattas etc, which will cost around $5,000 for the first two years. The resale value will be ok, but you will lose money.
Or find a local club that has its own boats, join that, and use the resources available at that club. This option will cost somewhere around $1-200 for the first two years, or perhaps after a short while the parents decide to buy the child a boat - $3-600 should suffice, and you can sell it for the same when you've finished with it.
Of course, most people should go with the latter option, as it's easy to upgrade to new gear once you have mastered the basics. Plus it can provide an incentive for the children to save up their pocket money for better gear.
At club level, having the best gear wont make any significant difference to performance or enjoyment. At higher levels it might.
more to come....
I have been sailing competitively for around 30 years, starting out as a young child at Onerahi Yacht Club, and Whangarei Cruising Club. I can remember that even in a city of only 30,000 people, there were regularly fleets of 40 boats, being around 10 Optimists, 10 P class, 10 Starlings, and a smattering of Lasers and Cats.
As a twentysomething, in the same city, the fleets had changed very little, and there was a strong fleet of lasers, no cats, and still good numbers of juniors. There were also around 30 Traileryachts, and a similar number of Keelboats racing every weekend through the winter, which had probably been there when I was a kid too.
I went overseas about a decade ago, while NZL held the Americas Cup. Sailing was very popular here in NZ, and had good media coverage, with club level events getting newspaper exposure with a whats on, race results etc.
Upon my return two years ago, a lot had changed. I had applied for a position with Yachting New Zealand, which fell through at the last moment. In retrospect, that was a good thing, as had I been successful, I would probably have joined the bureaucracy, and not noticed what a sad state our sport is in.
When I contacted WCC to find out when the next dinghy racing day was, I was told that there was none, as there were very few people actually sailing there now. Shortly after that I moved to Auckland to discover that the story was similar here too.
The Present......
There is now a real problem with the public perception of sailing being an expensive, elitist sport. If your goal is an olympic medal, then this is the case, but for most of us, local or regional competition is as good as we're going to get.
To use a rugby analogy, it's like devoting yourself to becoming All-Black captain and winning the world cup, while the rest of us are happy playing in the ITM or local competition.
This perception may be the result of the Americas cup publicity campaigns. The cup demands ridiculous amounts of money, which is often referred to during the build-up to the events. This makes our sport look and sound like a rich mans play area. This turns people away.
Kids wanting to learn to sail have two main options -
The NGO preferred route of spending lots of their parents money, replacing their boat, sails etc every few months, and travelling around the country for coaching, regattas etc, which will cost around $5,000 for the first two years. The resale value will be ok, but you will lose money.
Or find a local club that has its own boats, join that, and use the resources available at that club. This option will cost somewhere around $1-200 for the first two years, or perhaps after a short while the parents decide to buy the child a boat - $3-600 should suffice, and you can sell it for the same when you've finished with it.
Of course, most people should go with the latter option, as it's easy to upgrade to new gear once you have mastered the basics. Plus it can provide an incentive for the children to save up their pocket money for better gear.
At club level, having the best gear wont make any significant difference to performance or enjoyment. At higher levels it might.
more to come....
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