Ein interessanter Artikel darüber, wie man die Jugend wieder aufs Wasser kriegt:

We all know that the numbers in the sport are dropping. Where is the leadership analyzing and offering solutions to turn this around? Well, SA is becoming the idea place. You don't see this in the sailing magazines or out of the blue blazered crowd in Portsmouth.

It isn't rocket science, the facts are clear. We know that we all have become much busier people than the generation 30 years ago, and all of our sailing facilities have remained the same without change. How do we cater to the small boat sailors? How do we bring them back?

1. In many places the layout of the club's facilities have the boats far from the hoist or the launch ramp. Re-lay the club's facility out and have the boats as close to the hoist and launch ramp as possible. Make sure that the ancillary services (hoses, electrical outlets, etc.) are right there available for maintaining the boats.

2. Is it possible to install a one stall head next to the hoist for that last minute relief, or place to hit as soon as you come back to the dock?

3. Does your club have high speed hoists? Replace them immediately if they don't.

4. When the race course is not close to the club, make sure the race committee boats are capable of towing the entire fleet. Have a bridle made with loops available for each boat to tie into conveniently. Get the proper light and shape signals for the RC boat to fly when towing. When necessary, tow the entire fleet out to the course, and tow them all back in. Make it a SOP.

5. The invention of certified race management has its good sides and its bad sides. The bad side is that these people have been trained for perfection.
There has been a huge increase in postponements since before the days of certified race management. In reality, there is no such thing. The wind is variable always. Set the course and start the races without delay. Start them on time. If it is too light or too heavy start them on time. Put pressure on to hold races, not delay racing. The better sailors will still figure out the better end of the line to go to, the favored side of the course to go to, and having the course "perfectly square" will not have any real change on the outcome of the race.

As a side note, this is about club racing, not major championships, RC's need to provide better conditions for championship events. But if we don't build the numbers in club racing, where will the sailors come from to go to the major championships? But in the mean time, the sailors will actually be become better sailors by sailing on less than perfect courses at their clubs.

6. Eliminate any delay between races. Have two teams on the race committee boat, one assigned to do the finishes, the other getting the marks moved as boats are finishing to have the next race starting cycle ready to begin the moment the last boat finishes the prior race.

7. When the races for the day are complete, set up the tow line and tow them in as quickly as possible.


The idea is, pack the sailors regular day into a much shorter time span. The intensity will increase, the excitment will increase, the activity will be condensed and people will feel that their time was not wasted and they got a lot out of the shorter time span. We must reinvest now to make changes at the clubs for the change in society, the past is gone and now is now. Now that you have knocked 2 hours of waste out of each sailors day and race managements day, the gang can hang out at the club with that recouped time, or go do the other things in life that are calling for them.

Comments?

(Quelle: Sailing Anarchy Forum)