Encouraging young people to race yachts and keelboats
by Rupert Holmes 30 Jun 2016 00:46 NZST
29 June 2016
Team XP during the International Paint Poole Regatta © Mark Jardine
Rupert Holmes looks at initiatives at two clubs that have built strong pathways to encourage young sailors to make the transition into racing keelboats and yachts.
Thanks in part to the RYA's regional and nationwide squads and coaching programmes, sailing is a sport with a large number of very engaged teenagers. Many of these young people thoroughly enjoy the time they spend on the water, yet between the ages of 18-21, a huge number are lost from the sport.
So what can be done to entice them to continue sailing? To answer that question, we first need to understand some of the reasons behind people leaving the sport at that age. In many cases there are three key drivers – little or no money to pay for sailing once parents are no longer footing the bill; a lack of clear pathways for the many talented young people who don't make it to Olympic squads; and other activities that compete for a limited amount of spare time.
It shouldn't be difficult for clubs to address the first two issues, particularly as many boat owners find it difficult to recruit and retain a full complement of talented crewmembers. Yet this latent demand for young sailors is not always apparent to young people, who all too often don't see the pathways into keelboats and don't appreciate the value their high-level dinghy racing experience can bring to yacht owners.
As a result many young people don't feel confident to walk down the pontoons to approach owners on the off-chance they might be looking for crew. Nevertheless this is still often the way young people get to start keelboat racing, and often the method they would recommend to their friends. "The best way to start," says Harry Wilkes, a young sailor from Parkstone YC in Poole, "is getting on boats – we've rocked up and seen if anyone needs a crew." His team mate George Kennedy adds: "We ended up with a permanent spot quite easily and you'll learn tons and tons. Everyone's so keen on getting you into it – it's really good."
At this point the club introduced a J/24 to get youth sailors racing. This enabled a team of five – also including helm Liam Pardy, plus Eden Luke and Ollie Nustall – to form a team for the J/24 Autumn Cup in September last year. They were then approached by the class and asked if they would like their own boat.
"Duncan McCarthy and I presented the proposition to the general committee," says Kennedy, "and they signed off on it so we went ahead with the plan and picked up our boat from Dartmouth."
When we brought the boat back, it was in a state of needing some love, a lot of items were broken or in need of repair," says Wilkes. "So, slowly, we've been able to sand everything down, re-paint it, antifoul, equip new lines, and generally just making the boat look like it can pass as safe boat really."
The team also had a huge amount of assistance from people like Duncan McCarthy and David Lush helped massively with rigging, tips and sails, while other help came from sponsors including Quay West Marine Chandlers at Parkstone, XP Rigging and Harken.
With that kind of go-ahead attitude to help young sailors, it's perhaps no surprise that Poole has long been a hot bed of youth sailing, producing top names including Annie Lush, Lucy and Kate Macgregor, and Mark Lees.
The Royal Southern YC in Hamble is another club that runs a number of initiatives that give young people top-level opportunities on yachts and keelboats. A key plank in this was the establishment of the Royal Southern Academy, which provides sailing opportunities, including match racing for 18-25 year olds on the club's fleet of J/80s, as well as racing on larger IRC yachts, right up to TP52s.
The Academy was established at the end of 2009, with its first event an match inter-university match race in March 2010. Since then it has been hugely successful, with 125 members, who collectively reduced the club's average age by a decade or more. "They contribute to numbers by crewing on other boats, as most of them can't afford their own boats," says vice commodore Karen Henderson-Williams, "and by using the Academy's four J/80s."
"The key aims are to attract and retain 18-25 year olds and so bridge the gap between the Junior Cadets – aged up to 16+, and full adult membership," adds Henderson-Williams, "and to do this by providing a sailing and social programme designed by Academy members for Academy members."
Well known current names include Annabel Vose, Women's Student Match Racing World Champion and Alan Roberts of the Artemis Offshore Academy. Successful former members include Mini Transat veteran Nikki Curwen and Andy Shaw, who won the 145-strong XOD class in Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week in the class's centenary year. This year, many Academy members will again be taking part in the Cowes Week Under 25 Challenge across all classes. With a history of academy members having previously won several Cowes week classes, seasoned skippers should not under estimate the young sailors' potential.
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