Roy Dunster's Letter - A Comment.

One big factor that many commentators have not raised, is the impact TV has had on our sport. What I'm talking about is "rating Chasing". Look at rugby, the Super 12 is funded and driven by TV, nothing else, and that's a fact. The Unions and SARFU make millions from the TV rights, and it is that which funds the sport of rugby. We all know how the Currie Cup has suffered as a result. Soccer the world over, is driven by TV. Nothing else. Wrestling, Formula One, Basketball... you name it, the "successful" sports are those with big TV rights. As a result these sports are structured to serve TV.

I am sure you have all watched the small amount of sailing that is aired on DSTV. In almost every case, the event being shown is tailormade for TV. Only last week I watched a 20 minute show on a brand new class of "cat", designed and built specifically for TV. It's all about viewership and nothing to do with sport. As a result, it is only the exotic classes that get TV exposure, putting out the perception that anything less than what you see on TV is strictly "uncool".

It is TV coverage which markets competing sports to our ever shrinking pool of potential sailors. Club Sailing can simply not compete against this medium.

Further;
1. Club memberships have dwindled over the past 10 years, due to (a) emmigration and (b) a lack of marketing impacted on by the TV problem mentioned above.
2. Fleets have dwindled alarmingly - at a KZN Sailing meeting last week we heard how only 40% of the Class that attempted provincial regatta's actually acheived minimum numbers.
3. Same sailors sailing in multiple classes - due to an extent, to a lack of talent coming up through the system, and of course a lack of numbers.
4. Zero growth at Club level, of "racing sailors" coming into the sport.

Our Experience at HMYC:
We realised that we can not compete with the TV "Barons" and got on with growing our sport on a macro level.We listened to our members. They can not afford to own 3 different class of boat, and be competitive in all three. Time is a huge problem with so much pressure from families and businesses. A look at the club fleets showed that the majority of boats were in the 15 to 30 years old bracket. Most of these yachts have been owned by a multitude of people, all of whom added this gadet and that, resulting in no one boat being idendical to the next in it's "class". So to have one-design class racing at club level is a non starter, except for our Hunter Class but more on that later. What we have strived to do, is offer a mix in our club sailing calendar of "round the buoys" racing and "social" racing. For both types we always award prizes for "Scratch" and "Skipper and Boat Handicaps". This effectively gives everyone a crack at winning something, and has proven itself in so far as we get larger fleets at the "social" racing events. We have gone one step further however, and aside from having Portsmouth based Class handicaps, we have built in special allowance factors for inboard motors, large outboards dragging through the water, sailing without a Spinnaker, or sailing singlehanded, and having roller furling. Using statistics gathered over nearly 3 years of results, we believe we have got very close to perfection with these factors and handicaps, with all results in the past 11 months being within 4% of the 1st and last positions on corrected times. Result? Happy members who know they can finish last in a tub but still get a 3rd on Handicap. Happy Sailing Committee with as many as 34 boats on the water for a single club race. Plus, and this is a big plus, many of the cruising boats who started the season off making use of the special handicap allowances, have slowly but surely discarded them and now race with their Spinnakers, and take their big outboards off their transoms, and invite better qualified skippers on board to train them and their crews....

Further and very importantly, HMYC has the largest fleet of Hunters at any club in SA. These 19ft keelers are cheap to buy, from R7000.00 up to R25000.00 for top end of the fleet condition. The Class Rules are wisely structured to cut out "cheque-book" racing, and they are easily trailed from one province to another. This is the only class of boat we have kept "pure" in terms of handicaps at HMYC. We allow no special factors, which in turn keeps 90% of the fleet within the one-design Class parameters. At any club race, you can expect between 5 and 12 Hunters on the start line - all season! They are crewed by dads and sons, husbands and wives, grandads and and grandsons.

We believe that we have more or less transformed HMYC from a two-clique membership. We used to talk about the "racers and the Cruisers" as two sections of the club. The two never met. The two never mixed, socially or on the water. Times have changed. We have given ownership of the club back to our members, we have ensured that our club invests time and money on events and facilities important to both mindsets. We have instituted "Duty Officer" schedules where everyone is expected to give up a Saturday or Sunday every 5 months or so in the interests of the common good - the Club. This has given our membership a stake in their own club. We take turns to be barman or barmaid, and it works! Our little pub is a nice place to be, friendly and welcoming, with none of the cliques of yesteryear. The "racers" and the "cruisers" chat and rivalry is healthy. Interestingly, when there is a class regatta on the go, our less competitive guys get behind and support those of us who may have a chance in the regatta, with well wishes, and even support out on the water from their yachts. The price we have paid is that the very top end of our sailors have become sailing nomads, participating at regattas in multiple classes as they desire - but this is a growing trend which we believed we could not "buck" anyway.

So, in short, we have grown our fleet from the obvious pool, the "social" sailors, and we have embarked on a long term programme which involves juniors. Our Junior section has benefitted the most in terms of club financial investment, with more being spent on them in the past two years than in the past 10 collectively. Driven by unbelievably enthusiastic members, the Juniors have already given us a return on our "investment" and this has even sparked the enthusiasm of members who have dipped into their pockets and gone so far as to sponsor new yachts.

To end, I think we at HMYC have realised that SAS is powerless to help us grow our sport - that it up to us. We have made what difference we can, at Club level, and we believe that if every club in SA enjoyed the success we have, it would make a difference to our sport.

Grow the sport from grassroot levels, start over. Don't try and recapture what was the past, take a long hard look at what is available to us and use it to the best possible advantage. Drop internal club politics and interclub politics, and of course interprovincial politics in the interests of our sport. (This is already happening on a macro level via the regional email newsletter "Smoothsailing"). Through events such as the recent HMYC 9 Hour, interclub relations both in our province and outside, are on a far better footing, with relationships being formed and cemented at grass root level.

Long may this trend last!

Dave Claxton