e-Mailbag- P class handling statistics

by David Pierce on 12 Nov 2007
David Pierce presents some interesting statistics on whether sailing a P-class makes you a better boat handler later in your sailing life:

Here is a little bit of analysis that might make interesting reading for Sail World.

At the recent Starling North Island Champs, 81 skippers sailed, of which 37 (46%) were ex P Class skippers and 43 (54%) were not. The last race was run in highish winds, with the result that only 29 skippers finished. Of these 16 (55%) were ex P class skippers and 13 (45%) were not. The evidence appears to point to experience in a P being an advantage in higher winds.

In terms of results, 9 out of the top 10 and 13 out of the top 20 were ex P class skippers. This appears to point to ex P Class skippers being faster.

Perhaps it is time for those parents who think they can skip the P Class to look at the evidence and accept that their skipper will be disadvantaged if they try that 'short cut'.
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Paul Pettit replies:

Message: Perhaps Yachting NZ should have tightened the P-Class rules years ago so that the P-Class was affordable for the majority.

Allowing carbon fibre masts/foils etc for this class was a crazy idea and has priced competitive P-Class boats that have no international competition off the market for many optimist parents.

And, changing to rotating masts with carbon fibre allowed for foils etc for the starling were poor choices. The more yacht racing is seen to be won by the kid with the richest parents to more parents won't be able to afford to have their kids participate.

I suggest optimist then laser 4.7 is a more logical step. At least the laser can be upgraded to radial and then full rig as the child grows. And, the laser is an international boat with international competitions.

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Sender: David Ingram

Message: I fully agree that allowing high-tech gear in the P Class was short sighted. My observation about P Class value is that because it is such a cow of a boat to sail in a blow, it scared off all but the the most fearless of the young kids who began their sailing life in it. This began a process of natural selection that served its survivors well, with the cream well prepared for their future illustrious careers. A good thing then that the Opti arrived to provide pleasure and relief for the other 98% of youngsters.

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Sender: Kevin Robertson

Message: Interseting stats on Starling North Islands. I find it alarming to base your view on results from one regatta. To me the difference was only three boats and that means nothing considering the conditions that these sailors sailed in. What about gear failure, I understand that there is a small enquiry from his regatta as to why there were so many mast failures on the Starlings.
My other point is what constitutes a ' P Class Sailor' these days. My observations are that many of our sailors sail a P for a very limited period in a season and also a very limited time. I think Scott Kennedy was the last P only ( no Optimist sailing) sailor to win major regattas in the P and that was about six or seven years ago. I agree that the P class helps you better understand and appreciate the tuning and boat handling of a small boat but the fact remains that less and less sailors are chosing to recognise this and our top sailors even the current Opti World champion ( a NZ er with limited P sailing)would put there sucess down to many hours of hard work on the water and sailing in big fleets. This is what Opti offers here in NZ and the P does not anymore. There cant be too much to wrong with the current state of our Junior and Youth sailors who are currently top of the world in the Optimist and 420. Have a good look at the reasons for these sailors success and you will quickly find it is not only the boat they sailied that produced the results for them.

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David Pierce provides some more analysis

Looking at the subsequent correspondence, one commentator didn’t like the argument based on one regatta, and also made the comment that it ignored evidence from 420’s so let’s look at the last 420 nationals and the 420 worlds to see whether those who go Opti-420, Opti-Starling-420, Opti-Laser-420 do better or worse than those who go through the P.

Another questioned what 'being a P Class Sailor' meant. The data included any sailor that had sailed a P at any finishing position in any one of the 4 biggest regattas of the season (Winter Champs, NI, Sir Peter Blake, Tauranga Cup).

2007 420 Nationals
32 boats sailed. The top 17 positions had ex P Class skippers, and most had ex P Class crew. The bottom 15 positions had only 2 ex P Class skippers.

2007 420 Worlds
In the male section of the gold fleet New Zealand was up against 5 French crews. France is the home of the 420, with thousands of kids in this class. These 5 French crews in the gold fleet had come out of the Opti at the top of the fleet into the 420 in 2005 or 2004 without having had further experience in any other class. New Zealand took top 3 places (all P sailors), 6 of the top 10 places(5 out of 6 crews P sailors), with the best French boat (their national champion) at 9th. The beachtalk says the French should be the ultimate proof that leaving an Opti at the top of that fleet entitles you to master the next class with ease, yet the evidence suggests otherwise.

In the female section the top 4 places were taken by NZ sailors, with 5 out of those 8 sailors with P Class experience.

2007 Splash Nationals
Only 5 sailors out of 36 had P Class experience, and were placed 1st, 5th, 7th, 10th and 11th, all in the top third.

The point of examining the evidence is to see whether or not those who do a decent spell in the P have an advantage in top level competition compared to those that do not. I think that the evidence points in the direction that they do. This could be for a range of reasons including:
- the P attracts the top level sailors because:
- it is a challenge,
- has great silverware,
- dad sailed it,
- they actually like it,
- and so the group lifts the standard for everyone else who goes through it,

- it is a tough boat to sail and allows no room for sloppy technique – errors are immediately exposed, and that is the best way for kids to learn fast, even if it is a bit tough on them. Who would suggest that the rugby coaches up and down the country should cut out scrum and lineout practice 'because it is hard' so as to attract more kids into sport? The All Blacks are where they are because as kids they went through a toughening up process parallel to the drill of the P Class,
- it teaches hiking in a fully horizontal position which the Opti does not. A Starling, Splash or Laser will not stay level (and fast) without proper hiking technique.

The point is not about addressing the needs of every sailor, and the article was not even hinting that every kid should have to go through the P, though see the end of the article for an interesting story. There are those kids that simply want to sail on sunny days, preferably with an ice cream at the other side of the bay to aim for, and they should be encouraged to sail boats with a low sail area to beam ratio and go out and enjoy. Whether that boat is an Optimist, Mistral, 420 or Mirror is irrelevant. I have a son in that category, and he still enjoys putting his lifejacket on when the conditions are right. Then there are those kids that enjoy a bit of competition, but have other things in their life as well, or are not prepared to put up with the discipline of rigorous fitness and technique training. They can enjoy staying in the Opti until 'aged out', teams racing in the 420, racing the Starling or Splash, but without the expectation that they will be collecting silverware. The fact that