Rod Davis
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It’s time for a bit of a rethink on the way we get, and keep, new blood into our sport of racing sailboats. Truly this needs a rethink. Or maybe a plan, because if there is one it’s not well enough defined. Racing is what we call it but for the vast majority of sailors, particularly the newer ones, racing sailboats is way too intimidating and not
nearly as much fun as it needs to be. I am not talking about top-level racing like the Olympics, TP52s
or world championships. Each of those racing programmes is ripping along like the top level of every sport. Mind you, they still have their own problems. But the rethink we need is at the introductory level of racing, and it’s across the board in terms of age. Sailing is one of the few things that generations can play and
compete in, both with and against each other, on an equal basis. Sailing is for life – it means you can sail and race at any level for your whole life. Can’t do that in rugby or football. That is our sport’s point of difference. To capitalise on this we need to attract and retain participants by making it more fun than other activities. The goal of the rethink is to make sailboat racing more fun, less
stressful, less intimidating. That goes for everyone involved, includ- ing partners, kids, parents, volunteers – we need them all to have a lot more fun than they do. The goal is to have them, each and every one of them, want to come back next time because it is cool. I don’t really care who wins, I do care about the 80 per cent of the fleet who don’t get close to the podium.
So where to begin? Start with the environment –when we look at most of the big-name yacht clubs they feel like a place where you have to talk in hushed tones, where who you know is more important than what you know. No one greeting you or behind a desk is allowed to laugh out loud. In a word, intimidating. And that is how it appears to me, a guy who has been racing America’s Cups for 40 years all over the world. Look, the traditional yacht club model has worked for a long time,
28 SEAHORSE
but that time has moved on for the potential sailors of the future. We need to look at ways of making the experience more welcoming and user-friendly. To do that, we need to think outside the box. The Etchells fleet in New Zealand is based at a Royal New Zealand
Yacht Squadron compound about 1km around Westhaven Marina from the main clubhouse. The fleet wanted to make the whole expe- rience more fun for the owners and sailors. Putting your 32ft sailboat in and out of the water is not the fun part. So they fixed that problem. Call up two days before the racing and tell them you’re going to race. Pit crew will put your boat in the water, take it out after racing, and wash if off! You just show up, put your sails on, race the boat, take your sails off, and you’re done. Easy peasy. Well worth the $NZ100 per boat not to spend the 60 minutes to crane your boat in and out. At the end of the day every- one goes to the local bar, which is 50m away, and has a beer and a chat. This is a big one, the social side. Basic human
‘You can’t let them get in their cars – if you do, you’ve lost them’
interaction, with food, drink and talk. It has to be walking distance from the boats, if not right at the boats. You can’t let them get in their cars – if you do you have lost them. Nothing fancy, just some drinks on ice, chips, or maybe a sausage for an hour’s get-together. We will provide a similar service for evening Laser sailing at the
Royal Akarana Yacht Club next summer. Where you pay a reasonable price and go and sail one of our Lasers in the evening races. All rigged and ready to go. At the end pull the boat up on the dolly and wander over to the café for a drink and a chat. And we will invite different fleets and clubs from around the area to join us for an evening or two. Very relaxed, racing right in front of the club so people who aren’t
sailing can watch, and very user-friendly. Get them to come back again and again. Courses and sailing instructions are so simple, child’s play. Sure,
MAX RANCHI
ANDREA FRANCOLINI
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