And exactly how many loaner cats does your club hand out to newbies? And how many cats are in your kid's sailng program? And do you go out and run the rescue boat on Saturdays for the kids?

Wonder why there are so few kids in Cats? That's why.

See the thread up above, "What have you done for sailing today."

Uh, obviously your many years haven't helped your spelling at all!

And god I KNOW how fast you old farts are. Put me in any keelboat and I can make it go pretty good in a couple of days on the water. These "multi" hull things are a different beast! And when you are slow you are REALLY slow, like, a leg behind! Its embarrassing... But, I have faith that I will improve, and some day, some day, be able to beat at least one of you retirees.

Timbo ... Timbo ... Timbo

Oh what am I going to do w/ you???? I'll answer your questions .... as best I can ...

First we have (1) H16 donated to RHYCSS several years ago, and we have (4) private catamaran owners/club members that also will teach you how to sail a catamaran and if you are compitent will loan you their boat.

Yes, I and other club members keep an eye out on the Junior sailors (no matter what kind of boat) and have immediate access to the RHYCSS "Whalers" to render assistence if needed ...

As for "What have you done for Sailing today" thread .... check out pages 10, 11 and 13 .... look for Caleb's and my posts .... you may find them interesting and relivent ...

And ... I am currently awaiting a reply from Seaside Park Yacht Club about being able to use their facility as a launch point so that a Junior Multihull Class can be included in the Barneget Bay Yacht Racing Assoc's Junior Olympic Festival in July 2011'. Mr Buzz Reynolds/Event Chairperson has agreed to allow a Junior Multihull Class (on H16's) to compete but Island Hieghts Yacht Club is "max'ed out" w/ +300 boats launching from that facility ... so we are trying to get permision to use a neighboring Yacht Club's facility to operate from their property ... and the prognosis looks very promising at this time .... the 2011' Commodore of Seaside Park YC is in favor of this and is currently trying to get us permission from her "Board of Directors" ....

So I'm trying ... as is the members of Hobie Div11 ... and the HCA-NA ... and many others up here ....

(I hope to be able to "Offically" make an announcement about the JO's soon .....)

Harry
Member: Rock Hall Yacht Club
H18Mag/P19MX

PS to Sloansailing: I ain't retired by a long shot, I have many years to go yet.... but I do have alot of GREY hairs ....

So Harry, in your humble opinion, and trying to get this tread back on track, why is it so many catamaran sailors are "Old"?

Because us old farts are willing to spend as long getting the boat rigged and fettled as we do sailing, the young uns just want to do things " right now " and rigging and fettling just doesn't equate.

when you cant physically move as fast as you used to, you want to sail something fast?
Cats are (physically) easier to sail than dinghies?
trying to relive our childhood?

sailorsloan, I agree with all four of your points, especially
point 2) money is not the issue
and
point 4) the myth that yacht clubs are not cat friendly

I'm fairly disillusioned with "active" recruitment techniques.

Our club used to have demo days, when we'd all take our cats down to the marina and offer people free rides. We'd actually get a pretty good turnout (maybe 20 or 30 people). Take them for a spin around the lake and collect email addresses, send out invitations to come sailing with us again and keep them updated on club activities. But we never saw any of those people again.

We'd also go to the local boat show and set up one of the boats in the convention center. We'd pass out flyers offering free sailing lessons, collect email addresses, etc. But we'd never see any of those people again.

The people we have recruited just show up out of the blue at an event with an old POS boat. You chat them up, help them rig, give them a few parts from your spare parts bin, share your beer, dinner and campsite, and before you know it they've bought a new(er) boat and are the keenest members of the club.

I've given this topic a lot of thought over the years and something struck me recently about the participatory decline and age increase. It seems to me that sailing in general and multihulls in particular don't get much exposure, and there are preconceived notions about sailing (expense, stodginess)that we need to overcome. Sure you can take people sailing and it will stick with someone from time to time, but not all that often. We need to make a quantum leap in generating interest. We need to find people that are likely to jump into the sport. In order to do that we need more widespread publicity.

I was in a local watering hole enjoying a refreshing beverage the other day when I realized that all the TVs there were tuned to ESPN, Versus, Fuel or Speed. Versus and Fuel were all about 'extreme' sports - Snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, etc. This is the type of exposure we need. It's not something the average person could accomplish, but if they set their mind to it, it is probably something US Sailing could accomplish by working with those networks. A professional production of the Tornado Worlds, F18 championships or a regatta along those lines (on a windy day of course) would make a whole lot of young (and older) people sit up, take notice, and want to give it a try. I don't know if US Sailing would have any interest in doing that. I'd guess not but you never know.
Maybe even ESPN with their wider audience is a possibility. They have sailing from time to time, but the last thing I saw there was the Newport - Bermuda race, and the wind barely blew. Before that it was college match racing on a low wind day. As much as I like sailing I could barely stay awake for it.
It's unfortunate that when we do get some national exposure it is usually about a type of sailing that the average person can't participate in (college, offshore) and / or exceedingly dull. If we could showcase exciting and approachable sailing, make it look 'cool' vs. stodgy, interest and participation in our sport would grow.

Even though it's down the road a few years the AC in San Francisco should fit the bill for action TV.

Sailing is hardly a spectator sport. I'm more enthralled watching paint dry.

Funny you should use that analogy. I am literally sitting here watching a coat of perfection dry. You're right, it's not very exciting.
Some sailing has spectator (or at least viewer) appeal, some doesn't. If there was a catamaran channel that showed nothing but Extreme 40s, Tornadoes, AC45(s), etc, I'd probably never leave the house. Well, not in winter.

AC34 will raise awareness, but I don't think the uninitiated will come away with the knowledge that they could do something very similar but on a smaller scale, without a lot of effort.

Watching epoxy dry is slightly more interesting.

I had considered a slightly different approach i.e. trying to interest 7-11 or other chain store to use cats in an advertising campaign. But, I couldn't even sell the idea to other cat sailors.

There just isn't any real concensus. We aren't a group, just a disparate collection of folks with a common interest. Beyond the water's edge we go our separate ways.

"We have met the enemy and he is us"- Pogo

I just intercepted this on SA:

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=118994&st=0&gopid=3171742&

Correct... but ... as many have reported.... Taking people for a sail is almost a waste of time.... very few convert to sailing at any level. The goal of the AC or the TV exposure is to inspire.... You generate the idea... hey... I want some of that!
THEN you need machinery to deliver a good experience to the newbie.

I got sucked into bringing my Dart along with a friend and his Dart to a Washington Ski Club Beach House weekend.... After several hours of taking people for rides... I quit. The mindset was... Oh... I wanted to experience catamaran sailing... When you asked the next day if they wanted to go sailing again... No... it was fun but I did that already! I was part of the entertainment service!

The machinery that we need are Sailing schools that can deliver on the sailing experience. The newbie invests time and money to get... "some of that". For kids on cats... see my post above.

especially indoors with the windows closed

Exactly.

I had a recent experience that may offer insight to one of the problems.
I have been helping with the juniors by assisting with boat rigging and launching. Recently, I have wanted to work on my own sailing and after the juniors had launched I would rig my cat. I try and take one of the advanced juniors for a sail on my cat each week and if the wind is OK I will teach them to trapeze. This has worked well and they really enjoy cat sailing.
Back on land I was chatting to one of the dads who said that his kid loved sailing the cat but would not buy one as he knew nothing about them. i.e. the dad had sailed a mono when he was a child and was happy to buy a mono. Thankfully, I expect to see this father / son combination a few more times this summer and will spend more of my time making the dad more comfortable with cats because I know the son is already hooked.

Hey PGP,

... you could say that ... "this is like herding cats" ...

Yuk ... Yuk ... Yuk ...

That was too easy ...

Harry

Peter,

It sounds like you and I are using the same gameplan/playbook ......

Harry