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Concepcion said..
Such an interesting topic & as an economist its all too easy to fall for the supply and demand 'market' forces argument. As an interesting sidebar here, our sailing club is currently facing the classic 'crackerjack' dilemma - wonderful newish facilities (really - we are so lucky... and if only you east coasters knew what we have/what it costs us members to use...ha ha ); seriously ageing demography (at 52 I feel the youngest at club by far); declining 'broader' passion in sailing (mostly racing I think??); and the inevitable declining income v rising cost thing.
Perhaps this is a new topic, but I'd love to hear case studies on how these things have been tackled elsewhere - thoughts?
Imagine yourself going down to have a look at a race in Adelaide when you were 30 years younger. I think you could have looked at the small yacht class and seen boats like a Hood 23, a Van de Stadt Mini Tonner, Holland 25s, Dunco 29s and Serendipity 28s, probably all with dacron sails. You could have looked at that sort of boat and gone "hey, this is fun - I can get something I can handle easily with a couple of mates. It's simple, it's not going to cost a bomb, and it's got a few bunks and a toilet." For not much money or hassle, you could have got into the scene quite comfortably, with some fun racing to be had.
If you wanted to get something a bit more leading edge or prestigious, you could have bought a Sonata 8 and raced JOG, or a comfortable and solid Nantucket, Spencer 30 or Pion and raced with the half ton class. If you wanted something cheaper you could have bought a TS16 and sailed at Port River (?), a Usual or Austral 20 and raced with the dinghy clubs. The entry level into the sport was practical for quite a few people.
Imagine a 22 year old walking down to look at a race in Adelaide in 2019. The middle boat in the small yacht class seems to be a Sydney 36. That boat costs as much to run, as a reasonable serious amateur campaigner, as the average person earns in a year. It needs about eight or nine competent crew. Instead of having bits of wool as instruments like the middle boat in the small class probably did 30 years ago, it has electronics that need time and money. It's a completely different level of boat - and yet it's still a small and slow boat by many standards today.
Yes, there's still a J/24 or two racing around Adelaide - but that's a single-purpose racing boat and it feels very different to be racing a 24 footer against a Sydney 36 or 52 foot cat than it did in earlier times to race a 24 footer against 20 to 29 foot cruiser/racers. The sport has made itself too costly, with boats that need too many crew and are too complicated.
I remember years ago talking to someone from CYCSA or RSAYS. They were so happy that they got a bunch of new 40 foot racers in the club - but all I could wonder was how that sort of "bigger is better" attitude would affect those who would inevitably be left behind. We can see that now - instead of about six divisions the club now has about two. The same thing happens around Sydney, with the same sort of effects.
The annoying thing is that the problem could be fixed, just as it was decades ago. Sailing used to largely be a rich man's sport and yachting was for the very rich - but people inside the sport got active and made it cheaper by creating classes that ranged from Snipes, Herons and VJs to JOGgies, half tonners and TS16s. Leading people in the sport used to help make it cheaper. John Illingworth encouraged JOG racing in a very important way. THe CYCA used to have a Half Ton Committee that promoted the 30 foot cruiser/racers, and a JOG class that promoted the smaller boats. People could get into the sport at a high competitive level without spending a fortune. That attitude has been utterly left behind in a yachting scene that often seems to be elitist in its attitude towards money, but often encourages mediocrity in sailing.
One of the reasons I'm not racing my 36'er much is because we fall in between two stools. If we get serious and get into the offshore scene, we are regarded as a "6 knot **box". If we race locally, we just add to the perception that the sport is all about big (by local standards) boats and that will discourage the small boat owners and potential owners.
In off the beach classes we're often doing OK because we don't fall into the same trap; we encourage beginners and keep the prices down. Our little inland country club is concentrating mainly on Lasers and doing very well. My windsurfer class is all about simplicity and economy and is by some measures the fastest growing class in the world. We CAN grow the sport if we concentrate on making it accessible and encouraging for newcomers.
There's a couple of economists at RMIT who have used windsurfing for a case study on "technological overshoot" - the fact that sports and manufacturers tend to concentrate on making gear more and more expensive and less and less accessible because it's easier to sell to the committed users, but that beginners are therefore turned off. It's dead right, IMHO, and many of the top people in the windsurfing industry have learned the lesson. Hopefully sailing will learn the same lesson before the sport crashes too much more.
Bundeenabuoy
> 9 months ago, 13 Feb 2019
