Somehow, I think the following has some connection with the long-range program of the US Sailing's Olympic Sailing Committee.



When the announcement was first made about this new Elite Youth Development Program, Dean Brenner, chairman of the US Sailing OSC said, "We strive to support our athletes who will compete in the Olympic Games, not only in 2008, but also in 2012, 2016 and beyond. We are focusing on elite youth development, and initially on singlehanded classes. Over time, our intention is to broaden this program to include other Olympic classes."

Sounds like a great program, and I guess we can only hope that it might someday include multihulls.

Actually, it is going to take more than "hope." It is going to take a lot of effort on the part of the multihull community to create an "Olympic path" that will be recognized by US Sailing, since it obviously is not happening through the yacht clubs.

Paid for by Vanguard

You are right. Thanks for saying it.

However, we would probably not complain if Hobie and/or Performance were paying for training programs for catamaran sailors.

Follow the money.
-Deep Throat

Thanks for the invitation Caleb. I now fly international only, so I won't be laying over in Seattle any more. It was one of my favorites though, I loved to walk down to Lake Washington and look at sail boats and sea planes all day!

I have been very fortunate being able to sail at most of my international layovers, always with someone I met through this forum, so I would like to thank Mary and Rick, because without them keeping the whole thing alive, it would be a very sad state of affairs for cat sailing here in the states!

I've been lucky to sail with Dermot and Stephen in Dublin, Wouter in Holland, Andi in Switzerland, and Erez and Izzy in Tel Aviv. All of these guys have been fantastic hosts and very generous with their time and boats.

I would highly recommend that if you are traveling out of the states, (or even in the states) you mention it on this forum. If there is a cat sailor near your destination he can get you pointed in the right direction to find some good cat sailing.

What has amazed me the most in my travels is that in all these international locations they have BETTER cat racing organization than we have here. They have clubs that are happy to include cats rather than treating them like second class citezens, or banning them all together, like most clubs do here.

Sailling in general is much more accepted as a passtime in most other countries. I have long wondered why that is. My personal theory is that a lot of it has to do with our cheap gas (50% of what the rest of the world pays) so our recreational boaters are much more likely to buy a power boat or jet ski.

The other reason I think sailing is more popular in other countries; sailing takes a whole lot more work, thought and intelligence to master, than a jet ski. As many of you with children in public school here in the states know, the US has fallen to about #17 in the world ranking for education, science and math especialy are getting very poor marks. And our kids have access to at least 120 chanels of TV, so every day after school, they can plop down on the couch and watch 5-6 different cartoon channels, rather than go out doors and break a sweat.

So I think the two things together have led to sailing becoming a small niche sport for most Americans, no close clubs, no access, few programs to get them started, etc., where as most other countries see it as a great way for kids to learn about science, weather, water, nature, with no money spent on gas!

If you ever pick up a "Yachts and Yachting" magazine, (the Brit's version of Sailing World, published every two weeks, and it always has a few pages devoted to cats) you will see quickly how much more effort they put into sailing.

As for insurance, NAMSA offered the same benefits. No one ever took advantage of it, but it was there.

I do get a pretty rule book every year from US Sailing.
Rick

Does NAMSA still offer regatta insurance?? somehow, I hadn't even thought of NAMSA for this purpose.

Rick, I think we only get that pretty rule book once every 3 years, right? And don't forget the little quarterly Junior Sailing 6 page magazine.

But this whole "paid for by Vanguard" thing brings up another issue. Why doesn't Hobie and Perf. Cats do more in the way of advertising/funding/sponsoring some kind of youth -learn to sail- type programs like Vanguard does with their Opti's, Lasers and 420's? I know the standard (lame) answer is "There is no money in it so they won't do it..." but to me that is a "Chicken or the Egg" type argument. To create some demand for their products, they are going to have to provide some way for the kids to get on board a cat, at the entry level, just like the Opti. Then once they have learned the basics, they can progress to a youth cat, then an F18.

Seems pretty simple but that will require getting the stodgey old Yacht Clubs to buy some Waves, or Nacra 450's, get some cat instructors, get some youth cats and some F18's, just like they do with their dinghy programs right now. If you don't put the product out there, nobody will want to buy it, how could they if they have never been exposed to it in the first place?

And where is US Sailing in all this? They write the rules and train instructors but then don't offer any physical locations to rent or sail. You must first join the club at some location and then -maybe- you can use one of the club boats, but only if you are enrolled in their lesson program.

I would like to see a nation wide, open to public (no yacht club membership required), sailing program where on any given weekend, a mom, dad and family can show up, get a boat, get an instructor if they need one, and get out on the water, without all the time, money and snooty b.s. involved with joining a "yacht club".

You can do this today with a jet ski, a power boat, even an airplane if you have the qualifications, but not a small sailboat. And the manufacturers wonder why they aren't selling more boats??

Timbo, you have described our program in Seattle, www.sailsandpoint.org.
Caleb

Caleb, I just looked at your web site, that looks like exactly what I'm talking about! Now my question is, why do we not have clubs like this nation wide? I wish I had known about this when I was spending a lot of time in Seattle, riding the bus up to Dusty Strings and the Red Door pub! Boston has a similar comunity sailing center that I have been able to rent from, but most big cities don't, unfortunately. In England, they have RYA centers like this all over the place. I used to walk from Brighton to Hove to rent there and race with them. Great fun. But when I have gone to the US Sailing centers in Martin County (Stuart, Florida) and Sarasota, and Miami, they just look at you like you have two heads if you ask to rent a boat!

It would be nice if US Sailing were to offer a certification program where you take a test, writen and on the water, in one hour or so, then give you a certification card which would allow you to rent at any US Sailing facility nation wide, if they have boats available.

Here's an idea, if you enroll in a US Sailing course they give you the first year of membership free, with half price rentals for the first year.

Tim, the Boston Sailing Center was one of the models our Founder, Jonathan Edwards had in mind when he established Sail Sand Point. More is in the website about the History. Since joining the Board at SSP in 2000, it has been a slow but steady program to add Multihulls, first in storage, and now directly in the programs.

The US SAILING Training Center is an idea we have tried to promote at US SAILING. So far it has not gained traction. We do offer all levels US SAILING instruction training here. Our Executive Director is the Regional Director for Training. All of our classes are based on US SAILING programs, with Level 1 Instructors. Example, Chris Fuller,and Callie Wade, one of our teams that will be at the US Youth Mulithull Championship in CA later this month are both Level 1 Instructors.

I agree, US SAILING needs to support and promote Community Sailing Programs. There is a Community Sailing Council and Multihull Council in US SAILING they just do not get enough support. More people need to step forward and volunteer to take part in their meetings and programs. I have been attending their meetings for six years, and serve on the Multihull Council. All sailors are welcome to attend.

Caleb

All it takes is people with the idea and people to volunteer. It won't happen by just wishing it to be so. This is not a criticism or a critique - just pointing out something that is so often overlooked.

OK, Since I'm a US Sailing member now and for nearly 30 years, and I used to instruct way back when, I offer to certify any cat sailor who comes to Sebring, for free! I will even give you a Certification card and everything. Now take that card to any US Sailing center and see what it gets you.

They already HAVE the boats, they HAVE the instructors, but they don't want you there, unless you are going to sign up for a week of lessons or more. But if you can find a motel with sailboats, you can be on the water in 15 minutes, with no instruction at all.

Or you can go to the Sand Point sailing center, or the Boston community sailing center, and not be a member of anything, and pay no dues to US Sailing, take a quick test to prove you know what you are doing and they will gladly rent you a boat. It's not rocket surgery. How do they expect to grow the sport when they tell people who already know how to sail, No, we don't rent by the day. The biggest road block to sailing is access. US Sailing has the access. How about they put some people out on all those boats sitting there collecting bird poop?

If a single cent of my dues money is being spent to support the many US Sailing Centers, why can't I rent their boats?

To get back on topic, shouldn't US Sailing support all forms of sailing in which it has members who pay dues? That would include board sailors as well as cat sailors.

Has everyone officially registered their complaint at this site: http://www.usmultihull.org/

Yes I did.

Doug Snell

I think that this one statement about states it all. We will only support those disciplines in which we can medal and nothing else. I know that the point of going to the games is to win events and medals. I think that this view is very shortsighted and lacking of any true integrety. Do we look at all of the disciplines in the Olympics and only show support for those in which we can medal and reccommend the removal of all those in which we find it difficult to compete in? As far as sailing medals, last time I looked the US consistently medals in the Tornado class. Not always gold, but medals nonetheless.

I do not know John Lovell but do know Lars, not well, but through the A-Class. It seems to me from our conversations that he walked away from the Olympics due to the extreme cost of campaigning. I know that there were some personal considerations involved as well, but cost still was an overiding factor. Watching Lars race at the A-Class mid-winters and pre-worlds was nothing short of amazing. It is difficult to understand the whole allocation of grants to sailors. It seems that we will only support one at a time, especially in the Tornado class and then it is at a bare minimum only. There is a great interview with John and Charlie on the Tornado website tornado.org from around the time of the worlds as well as one with Darren & Glenn. Both these interviews spell out quite a bit of the difficulties involved with campaining a boat at the Olympic level, especially in dealing with the overwhelming financial and fundraising issues. If there were greater availability to grants, sponsership and other sources to defer the costs, you might have a Lars Guck and others competing at the Olympic level instead of having a one boat show of it. How do classes such as the Star class have 4-6 truly competitive boats for the trials and the Tornado class has only one, possibly two contenders? Support and development needs to begin earlier then it now does and funding needs to be looked at in a different manner than it currently is. Whether funding is setup through US Sailing, OSC, boat sponsership and other means does not matter right now because it just does not work. I do not have an answer to this issue, but know that it needs addressing.

Timbo,

As you are familar with equestrian events, am I correct in assuming that equestrian and sailing are some of the few Olympic events that the competitor uses their own equipment. If so does, the equestrian community have similar issues with their organizing body?

Jack

I'm not sure how they do the Olypic level Equestian events, I know it takes boat loads of money to compete in the Equestrian events though. They do use their own horses, and they have to fly them there, vet check them, board them, etc. If you think boats are expensive, try horses!

Most of the Olympic level riders are independantly wealthy or from a family of great wealth, and most are in their mid 30's-50's, as it takes a lifetime to aquire the skill (and money and horse) to compete at that level. In that regard it is a lot like sailboat racing, except the boat isn't going to kick you in the head and kill you...

I don't know how they pick which of the many different Equestrian events they are going to use in the Olympics. I think they do Dressage, Stadium jumping and open course jumping, but I'm not sure.

My kids are nowhere near that level and on my limited income, they never will be! But they do like to watch it on TV. I've told them if they want to ride in the Olympics, they really need to mary well.

Quoted from ISAF's Strategic Plan dated November 2005:

"Olympic equipment will be selected to be accessible, popular, respected, affordable and
to offer maximum value on investment."