Mary
I just read your article about the Junior Olympic Festival at the Coral Reef Yacht Club.
It’s fantastic to see that you are clearly passionate about giving youth sailors the opportunity to get involved in multihull racing. We are all getting older and without an influx of new sailors the brand of sailing we love so much will disappear.
I was unfortunately not surprised to hear that the Coral Reef YC decided to go with the 29er instead of the Dragoon. The reasoning, I doubt, has anything to do with prejudices against catamarans. The 29er is an established junior boat. It is relatively new, but junior sailors, particularly on the west coast, have taken to it. The Dragoon is not an established junior boat in the US. The Dragoon is an experiment that has not yet begun. Given the choice between a boat that many kids across the country are racing and an experiment how can we blame them for going with the established class. Yes maybe they could have done both classes but I’m sure you know how hard it is to organize a regatta that has just gotten too big.
On the subject of US Sailing, first of all WE are US Sailing. US Sailing is not some big powerful regime that can dictate what boat people sail. Don’t count on them to push youth multihull sailing. US Sailing will jump on the bandwagon when everything is up and running, just like it did with dinghies in the beginning. US Sailing will also jump right off of the wagon when things go bad, just like it did with boardsailing. Of course if we want to push multihull sailing in the name of US Sailing they will be happy to let us do that, after all WE are they.
You rightly point out that the Olympic committee has something to gain from an Olympic path in multihulls. The US Olympic Sailing Committee however has scarce resources. They have enough trouble budgeting for the now let alone the future.
What is the solution? I’ll give you my opinion. We need to establish a junior multihull class. If there is an established grass roots circuit it will be much easier to get into the bigger regattas. Regatta organizers will see that kids are actually sailing these things. This will require some manufacturer to be as aggressive in marketing as Vanguard has been(the manufacturer of 420, Laser, Opti.). Multihull manufacturers need to realize that you have to give away boats in the beginning. They need to provide charter boats at events. Basically they need to loose money to make money. No multihull manufacturer has shown that they can even come close to Vanguard’s marketing skills.
What can we do? We need to do what the YC’s have been doing for decades. Teach kids to sail in cats. How many juniors sailing programs are there for multihulls? We have a long way to go but it’s up to us not US Sailing.
Thanks for starting a thread on this important subject. Just a couple of reponses to some of your points:
Coral Reef YC did not make a choice between the Dragoon and the 29er this year. Last year the 29er had asked to be admitted to the Orange Bowl Junior Olympic Festival (JO). They were turned down partly because of lack of storage space for them at the venue -- the 29ers are wide, just like the cats. However, Coral Reef did promise the 29ers they could be in it this year -- it was an additional fleet, and they had to find additional places to put them. So when we came along and asked to get multihulls in this year, they said they already had too much on their plate with adding the 29er. So we are optimistic that we will be able to get a multihull into the event next year -- especially since we already have a place to put them, race committee, boats, etc. to handle the multi course.
Regarding the Olympic Sailing Committee of US Sailing, they do not need any financial resources to provide an Olympic path for the multihulls. All they have to do is say "Yes" and open the gate to us and put some pressure on the yacht clubs hosting the JO's to include the word "Multihull" in their Notices of Race. The catamaran community, including NAMSA and NAHCA and all the local organizations near each JO will do all the work.
Here is the text of an e-mail I sent to John Williams, our Area D Rep, before he left for the US Sailing Annual General Meeting:
John,
All this other stuff (suggestions given to him on this forum) is fine, but I don't think time should be wasted on it at the meeting if it is at the expense of what is probably the primary issue -- youth sailing and getting catamarans included in the NOR's for the Junior Olympic Festivals. I know the Multihull Council and/or Committee cannot specifically get behind and promote a specific boat for youth sailing. It kind of has to work the other way -- some manufacturer has to come forward and offer a boat for youth sailing, and then that boat sort of automatically gets promoted just because it is there. That's how it seems to work with the Lasers and the 420's and 470's and 49'ers and 29'ers. I just don't know if we have a manufacturer willing to step forward and help out.
Art Stevens is working on this, I know.
Maybe we should not be forcing one specific youth boat on everybody. Maybe we should work with the boat that is most available in different parts of the country for different JO's. Right now, one area has Mystere 4.3's, at least two areas have Hobie 14's, another area has Hobie Waves. Kids could be sailing on Isotope 14's in the Carolinas.
I know at the yacht club where I grew up, we sailed Thistles in our junior program, but when the kids went to the next ladder level, the Interlake Yachting Association Junior Championship, they had to sail on Rebels (which the kids hated because it is a dog compared to a Thistle). So it is not like we have to have the same boat everywhere -- anything with two hulls and whatever you can get cheapest in your area.
Nobody ever seems to think about Aquacats. I don't know what the cost is, but they still make them, and it was Randy Smyth's first cat when he was a kid (he and his brother sailed it to Catalina and back). That, too, would be a great training boat for kids (like the Optimist dinghy, it can handle a lot of wind). We need to think out of the box and consider all the options available. And cost is a big consideration.
Anyway, the big thing is to get catamarans included in the NOR's for the Junior Olympic Festivals so we know they are invited. That is the most important first step. Nobody gets ready to go to a party if they know they are not welcome. Once we know we are invited to participate, we can work on getting the boats there and the kids there. We won't be there for all of them, but we will be there for some of them. And it will be a beginning.
US Sailing expects us to prove we have a nationwide, consolidated youth program before we are invited to participate in the JO's. I, on the other hand, think it is US Sailing's job to promote youth sailing and provide an Olympic path for the catamaran sailors. It's not really a tough job for US Sailing. All they have to do is say "Yes" and provide the path. It's up to us to follow the path.
Mary
I agree that local areas should just go with any multihull of their choosing. Before the club 420 dominated the Jr scene all different areas had different boats. Eventually one will dominate but not from the beginning.
I think the way to achieve the goals of being in JO events is to work on those areas that have active Jr multihull racing. That’s the key that something is already established as an active Jr fleet.
I also agree that this is the most important issue for the multihull committee.
Just read this on the US Sailing site.
"A proposal to create a US Youth Multihull Championship did not pass."
http:/
What this amounts to I guess it that the US Youth Multihull Championship, that acually does exist but is not an official "championship", will not get as much publicity as the other National Jr Championships.
These people should know that the World Youth Sailing Championships is going to have a multihull (Hobbie 16) division starting in 2004. You'd think it would be good to get a head start on ramping up the jr trainning.