How to promote sailing as a sport?

Stheno

Posting this topic for discussion for a couple of reasons.


1. I started sailing at the grand old age of 39, I've always felt this fascination with the sea and wanted to go sailing, and in 2013, on the May Bank Holiday Howth Yacht Club took part in an ISA initiative to go out on a boat and see did you like it.

I loved it, found an ad on crewfinder looking for crew, turned up in jeans and a fleece and runners, got given gear, and went on from there.

When I saw I went on from there, I got to compete in races all year round, jumped crew to another boat, did Cork week, then due to a Masters stopped sailing.

This year I decided to get back into it. On again to crewfinder, and lo and behold I found a boat, and am having a lovely time. I then decided I wanted to learn more and do more so I contacted the ISORA guys, and am potentially getting into those with a long term goal of the Round Ireland in 2018.

Yet so often when I tell people I sail, they see it as a closed shop. I chat to them, give them pointers, tell them about trying to get on as crew as beginners in whitesails, doing courses, and they baulk.

I remember the chair of ICRA in 2014 bemoaning a lack of newcomers, and felt like seeking him out and saying that it's possible if you are really interested ,but that there needs to be more promotion of how accessible sailing is to generate more interest.

Do any of you agree?

I used be put off thinking it was expensive, and for sure the gear is, but so is taking up golf, and to be honest, you don't need the gear for the first few months, then there is club membership, but that's ignored for the most part.

So with those barriers removed, is it a class thing? Do people think that sailing as a sport is class based?

I have to admit that I have had nothing but welcomes in sailing, I've sailed on boats where I didn't gel, but when it comes to finding boats to sail on that's never a challenge.

How do we open up the sport?

Tabnabs

For me the racing scene was never an attraction, I enjoy just messing about in boats. For the south side Dubliners, http://www.sailingindublin.ie/Home is a cheap way to get into the sport/hobby and build your experience and enjoyment with like minded amateurs. There's a good social scene here too and a quite a few SID folks gone on to buy their own boat themselves.

neris

sailing suffers the same as lots of other minority sports but the clubs themselves face a battle to get people in. Yacht clubs can be alot cheaper then a golf club but trying to get people to shell out 500 quid on membership is still a big problem especially amongst the 30-40 age group who are also the group should be looking to buy their 1st or second boat. I know we have a issue in my club where the membership is top heavy with over 65s who pay a low rate and very light on 30-40yos who pay a full rate. The ICRA commodore who Stheno mentions got up at an agm 2 years ago and told the older guys to take a look around the room at the guys who were subsiding their fees and were more active in the sailing side of the club, I would reckon theres less then 10 of us in the club under 40 who own a yacht/keel boat and the majority of boats on the marina are owned by over 50s so in the next 20 years we could have a major issue with inactive owners. I dont think sailing is a class sport anymore but its growth is hindered by money or lack of going in to the future

49801

Wish there was a Facebook or simular page for the Greater Cork area that would connect potential crew with owners. Something similar to Last minute crew in the Solent. Not enough traffic on boards IMO to get it to work.

Try sailing is having some success but converting/connecting with owners is still a challenge

Would need to cover all the clubs and classes in an area.

From what I understand Dublin is better connected that way.

Like if you would support/participate?

49801

Stheno

49801 wrote: »

Wish there was a Facebook or simular page for the Greater Cork area that would connect potential crew with owners. Something similar to Last minute crew in the Solent. Not enough traffic on boards IMO to get it to work.

Try sailing is having some success but converting/connecting with owners is still a challenge

Would need to cover all the clubs and classes in an area.

From what I understand Dublin is better connected that way.

Like if you would support/participate?

49801

Check out the hyc crewpoint page in facebook to give you an idea of how one works?

goz83

I've never considered sailing to be a sport anymore than chess, but then i've never done it, as I don't do well on boats and I don't like chess. My only interest in boats is a spot of fishing from time to time. I would love to own a boat and do some sailing, but it's mostly a far fetched fantasy I don't have the time for. I too see it as class thing, with the lads living by the water owning the boats.

spaceHopper

First and fore most I'm a surfer not a sailor but I love the sea, live on the east coast and get a buzz out of sailing too. I'm busy too, I've a wife and three year old twins. I'm very luck to be getting out on Thursdays to go around the cans.

From what I can see, boats are always desperate for crew, you need only to be one thing, consistent, when you say you'll show up you will and you'll be shown what to do starting out.

I used to do membership of the East Cost Surf Club and my heart was broken answering questions for dreamers who never followed through or joined then never got involved and expected everything to be handed to them or done for them.

I think the sailing clubs could do more to get skippers to find more crew or take out new people. On the boat I sail on I've found two crew from work and one of them has got one of the other lads in work to come along, so there are four of us.

Crew then selves are good filters, you know that Joe Blogs in work would like to give it a try, but Billy talks a good talks but won't follow through.... That's how find it anyway, the ones who joined the surf club and borrowed the club foamie and used it or asked about this or next weekend if anybody was going west... were the ones who got on well. The ones you had to hand hold weren't around for long.

By the way hats off the the Dublin Bay Sailing Club, they run a great show, keeping all the makes going and running the races.

PS anybody seen New Ross it's M.I.A again?

pedroeibar1

Stheno wrote: »

How do we open up the sport?

The sport is open ………..it’s some peoples’ minds that are closed!

It’s evolution. There are changes underway in all sports. After 2008 many golf and yacht clubs lost about one third of their members. Those members simply could not afford the fees or had other financial priorities. In both sectors the ‘new money’ fled, but the old money remained. An obvious result is the upsurge in cycling, a cheap sport, been around for decades, recently popular. One can buy, for a once-off cost, a top-end bike for less than an annual YC / GC membership. As well as providing great exercise it provided its new converts with an excuse to avoid having to say they could not afford golf/sailing – instead they prattle “I’m much fitter since I took up cycling, I did the blah blah hill in under 3 minutes”. It gives them a sporting interest, it can be competitive if they like, it can involve company (crew substitute) and travel. That now is competing with sailing and golf (yeah, they can/do crew/play but they will not join a club).

I also agree with Neris - Owning a racing yacht is expensive, the bigger the yacht, the more suited to ‘nouveaux riches’ types (same for horse racing). It’s not snobbery, it’s how things are. Look at many who own the biggest/fastest yachts or horses. Any sign of a downturn and many are gone. Think of the bloodstock industry when the Irish construction sector failed – you could not even give a racehorse away! Same in sailing, marinas full of boats going nowhere, berths unpaid and many one step from repossession. Back when I raced the cost of a new sail was much of the annual school fee for one of my kids – some boats I raced against did not care if a spinny blew out, they just ordered another. Many of those “nouveaux” guys are now gone and forgotten, (like the businesses some of them owned!)

I disagree on the over 65’s view, though. Many have paid full sub for years and although they might not be actively sailing they are spending in the bar/dining so are contributing and often on committees. I’m not 65 yet but I have paid the price of a d@amn fine yacht to my club via membership fees. Roll on 65!

I wonder how many regular sailing crew join up and become full members of the clubs they sail from? Getting them to pay would be a start!

Stheno

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

I wonder how many regular sailing crew join up and become full members of the clubs they sail from? Getting them to pay would be a start!

I actually did this year, I'm on introductory membership, as is a fellow crew member. Thought to do it given I've been in and out of the club for three years.

Now I'll never own a boat but since joining, I'm more likely to top up my card and stay for events in the club etc so that's more revenue

Stheno

OSI wrote: »

I see in your OP you mention about crewfinder, something I didn't know about, but would feel hesitant reaching out to anyone on. You wouldn't feel confident having had feck all sailing experience and reaching out to a stranger and asking can you tag along.

Believe it or not, this is exactly how I got into sailing.

Back in 2012, when I started, I got out on a boat due to a "experience sailing" day in the May Bank Holiday weekend in Howth.
I then asked how to go about getting into it, and was told to try courses etc, but to check out crewfinder, and told that there were always boats looking for crew.

So I did. Contacted a guy who advertised that beginners were welcome, and turned up in hiking pants, runners and a fleece. "Is that all the gear you have?" he asked me, then got me sorted.

I learned loads.

There are regular ads looking for crew for all sorts, the boat I'm on now tends not to do weekend events, so if there is stuff on I'm interested in I check out crewfinder, ended up doing the ICRAs this year due to a post on facebook.

On the boat I'm on there are two complete beginners, literally once you can follow instructions and show an interest you'll do well and learn a lot.

Steve

The turkey shoot and spring chicken series in DL particularly welcome beginners over the winter season, it's a great opportunity to get involved in the sport without the serious pressure of hard racing in the summer.