This may be passé, but who out there has given serious thought to a little bit of boat resto? Pay a few cents for a sound older dinghy that you fancy sailing and see if you can do something like this – both this 505 and the Fireball are way over 30 years old. Then stick it on the water and savour how it feels to be the most popular guy or gal at your club (and everywhere else you go sailing). Today’s materials and patience (hmm – ed) will make an artisan out of anyone. And surely there’s only so much YouTube your mind can take?
what if younger sailors could access these very same classes at a fraction of the cost and still have a real shot at winning? How hard is it? (There might be a few
forces of darkness ahead – not all those investing thousands in new kit will rush to let go of the prizes. But hopefully not.)
Pulling it all together But to play our new game we need to do more than create a level playing field. To generate the major resurgence we are after, now we must tilt the playing field in favour of our young – and older – ingénus. We must give the older boats a new and
now favourably biased handicap number, one that allows our polished-up £1,500 championship Fireball to enjoy a better- than-evens chance of winning. It may be controversial but the rewards could be enormous in every sense. I believe that right now this is absolutely
our best shot at growing club fleets by a worthwhile amount, and also encouraging teen sailors and doubtful parents.
At risk of repeating ourselves Like the Finns with their three-tier system, I strongly urge clubs to at least give this idea a go and experiment with their own tiered system, class by class. Initially, relative handicap numbers can
be recommended by a national authority, by a class association or, in the spirit of a fresh approach, they can be estimated by someone at your club sticking a finger in the air; the starting figure can easily, no software required, be refined with the ben- efit of experience (which Seahorse readers may have spotted is pretty much how the globally successful IRC system evolved). Suddenly our £650 505 is not only
affordable, but with a single stroke we have just made it fully competitive. All top-level dinghy racing takes place
on real time. Handicap racing at a high level is for big boats where demographics
dictate the format. Handicap or pursuit racing in small boats is enormous fun and is perfect for swathes of clubs in the modern environment, but it must always be taken with a pinch of salt. By offering a favoured ‘handicap rating’ for an older boat we won’t ruin anyone’s ‘career’ in the sport. For once let’s play the whole game, not just our own part of it. Clubs can embrace this idea with little or
no effort and see what follows. Take it seri- ously. Ask members and parents, think which boats are most suitable for your waters and for the sailors who you are try- ing to attract. Take note of what parents and youngsters say theywant to race. Don’t be influenced by the current fleet.
This is handicap racing, remember. Then contact class associations and peruse the web. The owners of those countless dry- stored dinghies will be oh-so-grateful to get a call from you. Trust me! In preparing this article I spoke to some
class associations. All were enthusiastic and ready to help; in fact, they are ready to endorse anything that gets a few more well cared-for boats further from the bonfire and back onto the water. And that gives their members a little cash (plus some garage space). All offered help sourcing good boats. All made the point, too, that the good boats are now rarely advertised – the owners have simply given up. The class associations know where
good examples can be found. And then bought for cents on the dollar.
Now get on with it Why not ask your club to discuss two-tier handicaps. What can it cost? It may lead to a stronger fleet, a stronger club, more youngsters to feed the machine… and less angst for parents seeing no way to help their children continue in a sport that they may just have fallen in love with… More members sailing faster boats. And your teenagers (along with their parents)
no longer disappearing each weekend to traipse around the country to finish 35th in a squad regatta. Maybe they like sailing more than they know? Youth sailing does not have to be
‘Olympics or bust’. To be honest, in far too many cases it is now Olympics and bust. There are other ways and this is the best we can come up with. *Old Shitters coincidentally (or not) being the name chosen for the eminent group referred to at the start of this article
SOME FACTS l Most Opti teens soon give up sailing. l Reasons start with boring alternative boats and/or impecunious parents with doubts about a youngster’s enthusiasm. l There is now a ready supply of cheap high-performance dinghies fast enough to tempt at least some of our former Optis – but only if they can win races. l Because if they are to try an affordable flyer any normal youngster will need to know that they can (and of course will) beat swanky BMW-driving grown-ups!
CHOICES Olympic pathway (new boat) Opti circa $10,000; 29er circa $20,000; 470 circa $25,000; 49er circa $40,000. Non-Olympic pathway (new boat) Tier 1 handicap – 505 $50,000; Moth up to $60,000; Fireball $30,000. Non-pathway ‘Old Shitters’ Tier 2 handicap (favoured) – a newly com- petitive 505 $1,500-6,000; good Fireball circa $2,500; good used 470 circa $4,000.
PRIZES Tier 1 and Tier 2 handicaps shall be skewed to put modern Tier 1 designs at a slight disadvantage. Call it 18/20 in rela- tive performance versus a well-sailed Old Shitter at 20/20. This is essential to drive the Tier 2 purchases where with luck the – your – fleet growth will come from.
SEAHORSE 63
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