RE: Roy Dunster's letter in Sailing Mag May edition.

As requested, here is an observation or two on Roy's proposals to get sailing on its feet. And because we have to be realistic, I think it may sound negative to some people.

The Good news:
Thanks for Roy's positive attitude and attempts to get more boats on the water.

The Bad news:
There are negative factors outweighing the positive ones.

I think that Roy is right, and he's wrong:

He's right in saying that we need boats on the water. For me, no solution can be built without considering its essential elements or building blocks. The building blocks for the solution we are looking for, are the individuals, the sailors who get up in the morning and go and sail their boats.

But if those people are finding other things to do, for whatever reason, be it diminishing real incomes, better/cheaper hobbies, interests, computers, or the stresses of coping with our changing world, then what can be done about it?

So I think Roy may be wrong here: Before we go talking "ownership", sponsorship, media rights, professional bodies to run the sport, and an ombudsman, we should think money. None of these fine things will come to us, or anyone who may want to take on the ownership task at risk, without money.

How do we get a funding source, without getting either the boatowner, or the media (ie general public), interested?

There are a few hard facts that need to be swallowed - including:

a) sailing is not a spectator sport. Not even for other sailors. To be honest, I'm an average (Laser) sailor who just enjoys his (diminishing) weekend racing, and I'm not really interested in watching boats sail, or keeping up with the top guys and goings-on in the world (except of course our locals making good overseas like Gareth Blanckenberg, amongst the top ten Lasers worldwide, whom we all think the world of). And I'm not the odd one out, as can be seen by the lack of membership of the Laser Association here in Natal at least. So how do we see the media getting interested? I don't see it. Sponsorships on a Provincial or local scale? I don't see it.

b) sailing is 'elitist', not popular with our politicians. In fact, popular with hardly any of our people of colour, no matter how hard we push the development side. So Government funding will also elude us.

c) The slackening off of sailing as a sport or hobby is a natural function of the way of life, the way things are evolving, here and in the rest of the world.

d) Most sailors sail for fun, as a preferred thing to do. They can't be forced to like sailing, they must be coaxed. And as they are volunteers, they can't be squeezed for money to fund revitalisation efforts.

So I conclude, if we want to persist against the odds, we must work on the building blocks first. The weekend sailor. But cheaply. It can only be done, and funded by, the already-existing Clubs' infrastructure and people. Here is where the secret lies - they must look to the strategies needed, with SAS, and with the membership.

Some positive influences may include:

· the kind of thing that Andrew Heathcote does with his (superb) newsletter;

· getting the local clubs together for joint events (such as Round the Bay handicaps, where there are start- and finishing-lines at each Club, co-ordinated timekeepers, and a prizegiving somewhere central)

· informal coaching on the water, boat swapping, organised starting practices, etc

· cheaper class boats; more Masters and Women's events in all classes (to bring families); more club loan boats; etc

· efforts to network and build kinship (not cliques);

· survey existing and past membership of Clubs for ideas, classify reasons for not sailing any more, so as to work on strategy;

· more listening to the ordinary Club members, changing to what they prefer, avoiding Committee dictatorships, and not worrying too much about the ever-present curse of apathy.

Maybe that's one approach to getting bigger fleets and renewing our sailing culture. Just a thought - use it, don't use it, etc

Cheers,

Bruce Edward

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