Hey all, I just used Pete's CNN Main Sail link above to send a quick letter to the "Story Idea" people, available under the "Contact Us" link on their site at the top. If enough of us USA Sailors contact them, maybe we can get Main Sail on TV right here in the USA! What a concept! Here's the canned email reply I got. If one of you who frequent SA could please post the Main Sail link to their board, and ask them to email CNN and reques Main Sail in the USA, that would help. Oh, and here is the link to Gary Jobson's own site, I think we should bombard him with requests for more Sailing on TV here as well. Thanks in advance.

http://www.jobsonsailing.com/

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The USSA pres job is impossible.

The SA pitchfork crowd wants (any director's) head because they believe USSA is too Olympic focused. They want more focus on the rank and file sailing phrf, OD and dinghy's (mind you the budgets are separate but the BS is pushed that they are lying to us).

the Catamaran crowd wants his (any director's) head because they did not prevent the ISAF from pitching the Tornado and not the Finn and more focus on marketing of the pros and thinking that will grow the sport. (Mind you the Olympic half of USSA says that the Multihull sailors give the least amount of money to the Olympic program, corporate or private ---no difference)

So... when you say "it's not working" consider that the bus has about 50 drivers... progress in any direction will be slow!

I think Brenner is a SOB but he has the right idea for the Olympic program USA. He has focused the effort. In a olympic class he will have a two teams/ not 5, plus a development team plus a junior team. To be on the team, will cost you a lot of your money and to train and race in the EU. The individual team will always be at odds with the devil they know, USSA, because any money they raise will be taxed by USSA Olympic and that will burn. But it's the price of the ticket to play.

I agree with the SA crowd and don't want to pay a USSA tax to support this effort. USSA Olympic agrees and raises corporate money for this effort.. and I believe that is true.

Brenner is also trying to get the elite YC's to raise their game and set the bar higher so that US juniors have some training centers where they can step up their game before trying to compete world wide. Personally, I think this new area is the level that I think my dues should support. I think some USSA dues money would be great to seed these programs and partner with the YC's to move the ball.

I agree that USSA has neglected the PHRF world but on the other hand the PHRF world doesn't seem to want any changes. The regional rating scheme seems crazy to me but you don't tow your olsen 911 to new england for a PHRF weekend race.
I also know that the bottom half of phrf is slowly dying. I have no clue what leadership at the top should do in this area. Maybe... it's just keep the taxes low and don't bother us.

Mark. Try to focus. You're all over the board. One task at a time.

just saying... baxter, capron, jobson... All of them mean well and they get crushed by us for not "doing what we want".

It's an impossible job!

I don't think the olympics / pro stuff/ PR and exposure stuff is that important to growing the sport... I think USSA has it about right now. I also don't think USSA should be running sailing schools and boat rental operations. So we don't agree on what the new pres should do either. Right off the bat... one of us will declare Jobson a failure!

--I also don't think USSA should be running sailing schools and boat rental operations.--

So how do you propose to get any new people in, to grow the sport? Yacht Clubs are too expensive and exclusive, and not accessable to most people. I personally wouldn't join any Yacht Club that would have me as a member.

(except Gulport YC, because they are full of guys like me!)

You say,
Yacht Clubs are too expensive

Yacht clubs charge what the members decide they need to charge to pay for the place. (One just folded in New england). They come in all sizes and flavors and prices and focus on different niches of the sport. Join one and you can have a say in the fees after you see the budget. But in the end sailing is a recreational hobby... it will cost you disposable income and it's not cheap. A club costs you a bit more so that you can do more things with your sailing toy.

and exclusive,
Really... what club have you tried to join that excluded you?

and not accessable to most people. I personally wouldn't join any Yacht Club that would have me as a member.(except Gulport YC, because they are full of guys like me!)

Accessible is the key notion.
The non sailor who says... I want to learn to sail can take a sailing course from a private business. These guys usually have a way to keep sailing by joining a race fleet of the company boats etc. They can also charter boats to sail as well. They are accessible (open to public) and generally centrally located so the public can get to them.

You would have to convince me that marketplace for sailing training was under served and even more than that ONLY USSA could put together a business model to meet the need and make a buck. I think the industry trade groups and boat builders need to take on getting people into sailing. USSA should support the racers and their specific needs.

As a national organization ... If US Sailing tried to run operations like this, us as members, would be pouring cash into a hole forever. AND it would not convert a high percentage of these people into racers which is what the core mission of USSA is about.

What do you see that I don't?

I disagree. The Lahaina YC requests that your membership letter not be written on a bar napkin. It's the sailors and stink potters that keep the club going. The rest mostly are there for the food and drink.

Mark, here's a quote from the US Sailing Site, describing their funcions:

At the October 1991 Annual Meeting, USYRU voted to change its name to the United States Sailing Association, Inc. and to do business as US SAILING. The new name more adequately described the broader activity of the organization and clarified the administration's intention to fulfill every aspect of the responsibilities of a National Governing Body under the auspices of the Amateur Sports Act.

In recent years, US SAILING has created and maintained the definitive national standards for sailing instruction and continues to develop highly successful training programs for young and adult sailors. The organization has embraced and supported the rapidly expanding public access programs known as Community Sailing, continues to create high-quality instructional and reference materials for race officials, and field successful Olympic and Pan American Games teams.

Mark, it's no longer called the -US Yacht Racing Union- for a reason. That reason is, even they figured out that if you don't first concentrate on teaching people to sail, you won't have too many sailboat racers.

As far as exclusivity, why don't you go and try to join the Corinthian YC in Marblehead, MA, and let me know how many -years- and how many -thousands- of dollars that will cost you, and the Coral Reef YC in Miami, or the St. Francis YC in SFO. Even the pissy little club I used to belong to in MA many years ago had an "Application fee" of over $200, 20 years ago, and then, IF you were allowed to join, a $400/yr. membership fee as well as racing fees, instrucional fees, boat storage fees, etc, etc, etc.

If you wanted your kid to take Opti lessons, that cost another $120, and again, this was 20 years ago. I'm sure prices have not come down since then.

If I had to go through all of that to start sailing, I never would have started sailing. I'd be riding a Jet Ski, like millions of others. If you want more racers, you first have to get more sailors, some of them will want to learn to race, just like we all did.

Everyone still reading this, raise your hand if you learned to sail at a Yacht Club.

Hobie1616, that's one club, but we need 1,000 clubs like it. With no application fees.

No app fee would be nice but the reality is YCs are a business. If you peal back the the cheap drink and food prices you'll find they're offset by the membership fees and costs.

Add in expenses like club boat(s) maintenance, regattas that charge a $5 entry fee and a land lease we just had to shell out $150.000 for, and it suddenly becomes a very thin margin business.

Compared to the YCs on Oahu we're a bunch of hicks. Compare them to clubs like the St. Francis or San Diego and now were talkin' a lot of large whip out.

Personally, I still like the Hobie fleet concept. Cheap, motivated people and lotsa fun.

Exactly my point. None of all that extra crap at the YC will get more people into sailing. It has to be cheap and readily available if we are to get more people into sailboats. If after learning on something small and cheap, they want to go the full monty on a big club, fine, but I doubt if too many non-sailors join the St. Francis looking for sailing lessons.

I read the history differently.

USYRU was required to add the admin functions to comply with the Amateur Sports Act. It's ironic really... The "I haven't seen a gift I did not take from a good ol boy aka Senator Ted Stevens" wrote a law that was put into place to stop a lot of the BS and gifting in team selection etc etc. It attempted to take the good ol boy network out of sport and settle it on the playing field. USYRU took the new name and responsibility to comply. It's just taken 25 years to get in full compliance.

Then you had mission creep. Yes, they wrote the standards for training certification, developed training programs etc etc. They did not say we want to open sailing schools nor do they plan to. Moreover, they bigfooted a competing certification program out of existence... The Red Cross was a small certification program and it used to certify sailing teachers in my area ... oops my certificate is not valid anymore in the US Sailing era. My point is that the mission creep was a bit of a land grab... not a move to fill a vital service. Still, I am OK with the nationalizing of training of instructors, RC and judges mission. I just want them to re focus on service to the rank and file racing sailor who pays their dues. Since none of my dues goes to Olympic... Just don't screw it up or misrepresent the 6 ring mess to us. I certainly don't want any more focus on learn to sail...

The builders and marine industry need to promote the pastime of sailing... not US Sailing.

Yacht clubs, Hobie fleets, Catamaran clubs are the front lines of converting a pleasure sailor into a racer.

Back in the day... did your hobie fleet have learn to sail programs.... I don't remember hearing of any. The Hobie 101 program is a fairly new program pioneered in the North West.

I don't disagree that we need more sailors before you get more racing sailors... It's an issue of should my dues pay for it.... No! I want Jobson to focus on improving the game for the rank and file racing sailor. Just put the Olympic side show in a box and set it aside.

I learned to sail at a yacht club, but it was my father who taught me. Back in the 1940's and early '50's I don't think there were such things as sailing centers. Our club didn't even start a junior program until 1957 or '58. During the last 50 years sailing has come a very long way as far as public awareness, accessibility, and training programs.

>>Just put the Olympic side show in a box and set it aside.<<

I'm with you 100% on that Mark. I also agree that the individual boat manufacturers should do more to bring in new people off the street, vs. trying to swap one boat for another.

We differ in what we want US Sailing to do for the members.

I think they already do a very good job of supporting racing sailors with all their RC schools, Judges schools, etc. I have no idea what all the PHRF bitching is about as I left that world back in about 1983 when I bought a J24 and started racing one-design, but maybe that should be addressed as well.

I think part of US Sailing should be to come up with a way to expose new people to sailing. People who live near the water but have never been out on a sailboat. People who might want to learn but can't afford to join a traditional YC, or have busy schedules that don't allow a daily sailing class for a week or two straight. Right now the only way a person can learn without joining a YC is to join a Community Sailing Center, which are a great way, no doubt, but I would like to see more of them around the country.

We bitch about low turnouts at regattas, well, how do we bring in more people? "Go join a YC" is not the answer in my opinion. The RYA has centers all over England where any person can walk up and rent a Laser Pico, or Windsurfer, for about $30, and they have instructors on site, ready to go.

Something like this is what I am talking about doing here. These are not huge, big money operations, just a few boats and a storage shed with a couple instructors (teenagers, summer job type stuff) there to get the newbies started.

Maybe US Sailing should have nothing to do with it, but certainly there should be some national teaching and lesson standards, so a newbie could go to any of these sites and say, "Here's my card, as you can see, I have completed lessons 1-4, I would now like to lean spinnaker work in lesson 5." Put him/her in a boat, and off you go. I really think some sailing centers make it too hard for any new people to get in. Unless you join THEIR center, they won't talk to you. This is where US Sailing could set some guidelines.

22 years ago I got a flight attendant into sailing at the Boston Community Sailing Center. We just walked in, talked to the guy behind the counter for a while, explained that she lived in Boston and was looking to learn to sail. He said, "Well, we offer lessons on Tuesday and Thursday nights, can you come back then?" I said no, we will be gone by then. He said, "Well I don't have any istructors available right now." I said, "I know how to sail, and I can take her out if you will rent me a boat." He gave me a short written test to take, asked me some boat handling type questions and then rented us a boat. We had a great time and she did come back and join for the whole summer program. But if he had not rented us the boat, I doubt if she ever would have come back.

But that's Boston, a big time sailing oriented area with a really good community sailing center. If we had 1,000 more just like that we wouldn't be having this discussion.

No doubt!

Underlying a 1000 community sailing centers is the assumption that American's have some demand for this green water access/recreation.

I haven't seen any evidence for this.

In fact, Hobie Company get's more interest in their Kayak, pedal sail canoe/boat ... almost as much interest as the 16 back in the day. So that is where the market demand is going...

Unfortunately, this activity is even farther from racing then cruising sailboats.

It seems to me... the path forward is to make sure US Sailing does an excellent job of supporting racing. Trying to push demand for sailing is like pushing on a string... ineffective and frustrating.

Basically we differ in our view of the way forward.

They don't. Most join to be able to flash the membership card and hang with the other society types.

J-World and the Colgate School seem to be doing well. So there is a demand for lessons on big boats.

If you are talking about small boats, there are MANY places that have teaching programs, but nobody knows about them. They are not ADVERTISED properly.

When I google "sailing lessons," I get 378,000 responses.

They are not ADVERTISED properly.


Mary, Exactly, that is what I was trying to point out in an earlier post, the one about National Geo. Adventure Magazine. Not a single "Learn to sail" ad in the whole issue except one tiny Colgate ad way in the back. I would think both US Sailing and Hobie Cat would be running a joint, full page ad in every outdoor type magazine you could find, from Hiking to Biking to Nat. Geo Adventure.

And Mark, I think Hobie is selling a lot more kayaks because;

1. they are much cheaper than a Hobie Getaway, Wave or H16

2. there is zero learning curve.

3. you can launch it just about anywhere and no trailer is required.

I think if Sailing could reduce these obsticles by setting up sites where a cheap lesson could be had on a cheap sailboat, with minimal time and expense, a lot more people would try it.

I am reminded of that old saying, "There are only two things we need more of, Time and Money."

So take away the Time/Money obsticles, make sailing cheap and quick to learn, you will get more people started. Get more people started, you get more people racing. More people racing means more US Sailing membership. More US Sailing racers means a better Olympic team, not that I care about the Olypmics, because just like the America's Cup, I think it's a huge waste of time and money, but at least it's not -my- time or -my- money.

I think one of the best places for sailing articles and advertising is the airline magazines.

I tried to get our Marketing guy at Delta to take a look at that, he said they spend all their money on Golf, because, "Everybody Golfs". Ugh...