Editorial Andrew Hurst It’s no longer about back-in-the-day
It’s time for everyone to really determine if their youth sailing programmes are designed to create a couple of good racing sailors, or for kids to enjoy the sport for a lifetime – Kathy Burroughs, Scuttlebutt
There are several items in this issue relating to the most pressing topic currently facing sailing: why do so few of our brilliant youngsters stay in the sport beyond those early days of ‘mucking about’ on the water?
For possible answers take a walk around the boatpark next time there is an Oppi event in your area. Generally what I see, once the kids are off the water, are parents washing and derigging new or nearly-new boats, loading up large 4X4s and multiple trailers, stacked not just with sailboats but also with the essential ‘parent RIB’. Add in rolls of sails and miniscule boats costing (I took convincing on this one) upwards of US$10,000 and I can’t for the life of me understand why we have such a huge problem… On Page 40 David Clark puts forward what, to my mind, is a brilliantly simple analysis of one area where we may have tripped up. But while Dave highlights the technology spike, and what that has done to the cost of small boats, I am focused on attitude and environment. As Seahorsereaders will have realised, I am pretty obsessed by the fact that, although there are wonderful collegiate aspects to the racing of sailboats, to succeed at the highest level demands self-motivation, hunger and self-reliance.
Maybe I was lucky to grow up in an era of beautiful, mostly wooden dinghies, later with bits of carbon added more for fashion than stiffness. Then composite boats (ie a grp hull with a wood deck!) later graduating into some rather floppy Stars and other keelboats with PVC cores that frequently failed, meaning an attack of the grinder, the core patch, and finally the unpleasant resin and truly offensive glass cloth. This led into some terrific offshore racing in custom boats, where custom also implied that a degree of repair skill was kind of handy, especially when you were indeed offshore. Of course, today’s production one-designs are fantastic pieces of kit. Way better to sail and with a valuable lock-and-leave flavour. You can certainly arrive in the boatpark later than ever.
But, and it’s a biggie, we need to acknowledge how technical advances have changed fundamentally the ethos of going afloat under sail. One aspect is escalating costs, which in the case of small boats have far outpaced rates of inflation (but Dave addresses that more eloquently than I can here). No, what I am keen to point out is that as boats have ceased to be personalised creatures, requiring human investment, so our nurturing approach to younger sailors has simultaneously gone off the rails.
The Oppi is a great little boat (or rather was… in my opinion), but why have so few Oppi champions made an impact in senior classes? Sure, most successful sailors have ‘sailed’ an Oppi at some point, but it is the later careers of Oppi champions – or lack of – that is significant.
I believe that having been coached (or maybe ‘carried’) to within an inch of their lives to win junior regattas, for many the challenge of repeating the process independently as a young adult is a less than magnetic prospect. Many start the transition but only a handful go on to deliver. The truth is that compared with rocking up, changing, racing, then hitting the ice cream while someone else does the work, to win big requires a lot of individual effort off as well as on the water plus a lot of organising.
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Wait… the whole magazine is edible, not just one article! Keep up the good work, you’re securing the next generation already. And it certainly gives new meaning to devouring a magazine (PS that’s how good the Juan K article was) – Kathy Buckingham-Fry
With few exceptions, today’s very best sailors did some junior racing in Oppis or something similar, but most achieved very little... in terms of results. At that stage they got their kicks from doing it more than winning it. Probably they washed their own boats. But they continued, and they were still doing it when their bodies and minds caught up. Hunger and determination kicked in and they were still in the sport. The good ones won, some won a lot. We all mean well, but give kids space to learn, fail and then learn some more. Now for those costs…
NO YANKS THEN We’re going to Bermuda with the same line-up as before
– Jimmy Spithill, Oracle USA
ALWAYS We have Steve
Benjamin driving which
is a nice thing – Peter Holmberg, TP52 Spookie
THE CUP This one’s like the US and Russia in the Cold
War: Trust But Verify – Rod Davis
PITY THE REGULATORS We will have no problems with the
sailing waters in Rio – Carlos Nuzman, president of the Rio 2016 organising committee
A: The mast fell down – Malcolm McKeag recalls a highlight of match racing commentary
HE KNOWS You can’t hack a sextant
– Lt Cmdr Ryan Rogers, US Naval Academy, reintroduces celestial navigation
HE KNOWS, TOO Modern raceboats, certainly above 45ft, look the way they do and perform the way they do because they are designed for
IRC racing – Rob Weiland
BELOW STAIRS What’s great with these small J/70s is that they
Numbers mean nothing because there is no accurate way to test [the water]
– Five-time Olympic medallist Torben Grael
INSIGHT Q: What happened, Peter [Gilmour]
are so easy to sail – Niklas ‘Rán’ Zennström
HONEST TO THE END Q:Would a gin and tonic help? A: I doubt it, dear, but
Seahorse magazine and our associate raceboatsonlybrokerage site are both at:
seahorsemagazine.com The editor is contactable by email at:
andrew@seahorse.co.uk
SEAHORSE 7
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let’s try it anyway – A stressed Dennis Healey, late British Chancellor, arrives at the TV studios
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