Opposite: no problem getting kids interested in sailing in places like La Trinité-sur-Mer; not only is sailing on the school curriculum but the Société Nautique de la Trinité’s ‘academy’ operates a mixture of ‘properly interesting’ small craft for local youngsters. Similar youth sailing operations can be found at frequent intervals all round the coasts of Europe, especially in France, Spain and Italy. The infrastructure matters little to the youngsters as long as the boats and boards are good and the support staff focus on keeping it fun. In Europe you will find every type of sailing centre, many funded by the local authorities, from this container-creation at Plouescat in Brittany (itself now replaced by something more magnificent!) to this luxuriant public watersports facility on the Côte d’Azur in Nice
UK – and around the world – have almost inevitably been down to simple economics, that is an unsustainable cost base with not enough money coming through the door via subscriptions and ancillary initiatives. The balance among many yacht clubs has
now swung decidedly towards the dining room and away from the boat ramp. And in many clubs what sailing remains has become formulaic – a summer classics regatta, lots of club cruising and so on – and then they wonder why they are falling apart. Then visit those nations that have
embraced the new world – France, Spain, Italy, Australia – and in place of tired old clubs you will find the action taking place in ‘academies’ and drop-in clinics, with superlight RS Aeros, wing foils, IQs and Waszps. It’s a different game and com- pletely different approach and it is work- ing. It’s dynamic, it’s exciting and literally anyone can have a go. No membership required… in fact, not even mentioned. The dining room alone will not bring sal-
vation, never mind the impossible to ignore changing demographic. A report in the New Zealand Herald in July 2023 regarding the near £1 million loss suffered by the presti- gious Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron quoted the Commodore as saying: ‘Many of our members love the experience of dining or enjoying refreshments in our Members’ Bar… however, even the bar hasn’t broken even now for a number of years.’ To do so, according to the report, the
club would need to make $700 (£347) extra for every day that it is open. No entity is safe in that environment, and the finger quickly points at any and all under-utilised fixed costs. If existing members aren’t attracted in sufficient numbers by those facilities, what hope for drawing in the next generation? Watching sailing through the eyes of a
teenage offspring is, for me, an interesting exercise. My takeaway is that the sport, actually doing it, is really very high on the agenda and in rude health. The desire to get better. The chance to sail with a crew. Firefly team-racing is a weekly hit.
Buying a cheap windsurfer opened
another new door. Sailing with the old man was, and always will be, a chore. But the enthusiasm is there and the likes of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the Royal Yacht Squadron, which both secured membership investment for club fleets of J/70s, run superb high-performance pro- grammes on the south coast, inland at Queen Mary SC and internationally. Two albeit unusually well-funded clubs have proved able to capture their youth bril- liantly by also ensuring there is a great social scene attached. So is it the case that to secure ‘bums on
seats’ clubs now need to allocate finances to the provision of boats – the biggest entry barrier to our sport? Perhaps, after all schools have been doing it for years. Meanwhile, in spite of the apparent glitz
and glam of some big youth events, the truth is that the reliance on ‘high-performance’ parents, those with the means and/or the sacrificial will to support their ‘high-perfor- mance’ offspring’s enjoyment on the water is proving to be an unsustainable business model – one that caters only for the elite. The polarisation of trundling around in
a secondhand Laser quickly dulls all enthu- siasm in teenagers who see friends flying at 24kt above the water in a Waszp, having the time of their lives. If they lack the con- siderable resources needed to achieve the status of ‘private foiler owner’, then they will look for cheaper thrills elsewhere. Windsurfing could be and should be
due a comeback if the burgeoning iQFoil scene is anything to go by. Transport your- self back to your youth and think what scene you would want to be in if you were still 17. I for one would walk over broken glass to be a part of the foiling scene and, with a driving licence in my back-pocket, the iQFoil ticks a lot of boxes with fit, relevant youth launching off the beach and living out of camper vans all summer. What’s not to like? The same with
Waszps, Moths, Formula Kites and so on. But where can you learn the skill? You
have to go back to source and your ‘local club’. So perhaps changing the profile of clubs is more important than ever, and if falling participation is real what have those clubs got to lose? Instead of the complexities and social
hurdle of joining a club, if teenagers knew that they could pop down to a ‘clinic’ or ‘academy’ of a weekend (and I choose those words carefully) and start foiling for free, would numbers swell? Well, that is how they operate in countries like France and Spain, where participation is rarely even discussed so strong is the demand from ‘non-affiliated’ youngsters to have a go. With the growing number of dedicated
foiling academies on the continent follow- ing the model, events like the Barcelona Foiling Winter Series and Foiling Week at Lake Garda are already bursting at the seams. The right product for the right era. Go to the UK Waszp website and the
sailing lexicon has changed with ‘pathway’ programmes, podcasts, a focus on ‘culture’ as well as the undoubted success of the Athena Pathway programme that can lead to the top of the sport. Does your club offer anything like that?
Do they have the social media bullets to fire and a deep integration with their sitting audience of local schools? Embracing the foiling movement in all
its forms is a vital external reprofiling. Remember there are kids sailing off the beach in Australia at the moment who have never done anything other than foil. That’s an unstoppable trend. Just as in every other aspect of life, our
sport has been disrupted by technology and its future participants are more influ- enced by imagery, videography and the cult of performance personalities than many of us would wish to acknowledge. They also like high-octane sailing. The irony in the UK at least is that we
already have the real estate at so many (too many) clubs to be part of the transforma- tion. But do we have the will… and the foresight?
SEAHORSE 51 q
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114
