Sprint 15 and young sailors

[Carl from Gurnard]

With a thought to the RYA’s ridiculous proposals and with a desire to get some unused 15’s salty, we are organising a Cadet Sprint 15 test sail day at Gurnard.
For a club which has an historical anti-cat bias I have been pleasantly surprised by the positive response from many of our mono-hullic members and their children.
The longevity and popularity of the 15 is a testament to certain members of this great class association but no boat can continue forever without a throughput of youth.
I believe that the features that make the 15 great as an old man’s boat make it ideal as a young person’s boat too. For a long time I have wandered how to get kids interested in a boat that so few of them have expressed an interest in. I am unsure as to why it has taken so long to come up with the idea of asking them if they would like a go.
Our event is on the 3rd November, or every Saturday after until we get the right weather conditions, and so far it looks like we are going to get a good turn out. I will inform you of the outcome.
Have any other clubs tried this sort of event and if so what were the results?

[Bob Carter]

Sounds Great
Well done
Bob

[Brian Phipps]

Hi Carl, Yep, well done to you and your club team, we are doing a similar thing down here at Windsport "A Young sailors catamaran sailing day" with instruction and hands-on sailing. We have done it a number of times in the past and it has given young sailors a taste of catamaran sailing and brought some sailors to what was then the RYA youth cat program, lets hope that more ypung sailors will get involved in cats at club level and some will go on to feed our international and Olympic catamaran sailing.
Brian

[Andrew Hannah]

We had a go at Thorpe Bay earlier this year, before this RYA/Olympic thing exploded into our faces. It was badly billed and with short notice. And lack of wind ensured a poor turnout.

We will have another go in 2008. Carl's idea of nominating successive saturdays until a good day is had, seems a good one. I will take Carl's idea to our sailing committee.

Andrew,
TBYC.

[Bob Carter]

Andrew
Where did you get the boats that you used? What was the deal? Who brought them to Thorpe Bay? Did you have to pay?
Any advice or answers would be appreciated.
Regards
Bob

PS The promotion thing is easy to deal with. The Youth Cat event which just happened at Herne Bay I put on the Y&Y website (too late) as the people who were organising it were not familiar with how to do it. This was the posting.
Shortcut to: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=138860

There are lots of other websites we can use as well.

I'm hoping that they will do a report to up the profile of such events.

Carl - will you advertise your event to increase the profile? Let me know if you need any help.

[Andrew Hannah]

Andrew
Where did you get the boats that you used? What was the deal? Who brought them to Thorpe Bay? Did you have to pay?
Any advice or answers would be appreciated.
Regards
Bob

Hi Bob,

At TBYC we have around 200 cadets who mostly sail Picos (55 boats), RS Fevas (9), RS 200s (4), Lasers (4), 29ers (3), MPSs (2) and various Mirrors, Laser 2000s etc. Some of our cadet leaders sail cats themselves and felt the choice of boats was narrow, ie all monohulls. They also felt we were not doing enough to give our cadets a choice to sail cats.

The programme was to either crew in H5.9s and Spitfires, or to helm Sprints and Dart 16s. We had the use of a single Topaz cat which the manufacturer provided free. The instruction was entirely in-house. Depending how this thread develops, we might do things differently in 2008.

Andrew.

[Carl from Gurnard]

Hi all
We had just had our Sprint 15 Cadet Day and although there was very little wind it was a surprising success.
We launched four Sprints and managed to get a Cadet out in each one just before the wind disappeared.
Robin Leather was busy for the whole day running his dry land trapezing tutorials which meant that every Cadet got onto a Sprint and learned about harnesses and how to trapeze even if most of them didn’t get onto the water.
The amazing temperature, sunshine and our new Café meant that no one was in a rush to disappear and the Cadets and their parents waited patiently for the breeze to re-appear which unfortunately it didn’t.
Another day has been arranged for November 24th. We have stopped taking bets on it being a force 6. I will inform you of its outcome.

[Carl from Gurnard]

Hi
We had a second attempt at our Cadet Sprint 15 day last Saturday.
It was freezing with thick ice covering the trampolines. We got about 6 cadets out on the water before the wind got too strong. On the final trip I took an experienced 12 year old out but the wind had really got up and I pushed it a bit too far. Reaching with him on the wire we pitch-poled very dramatically. He was a bit hurt but he definitely doesn’t think that the 15 is an old mans boat anymore. We have decided to hold another event in the spring and it has been suggested that I take more of a shore based role.

[Andrew Hannah]

I have dragged Carl's thread up again, in case we forget about training.

At Thorpe Bay, we have 55 picos sailed by cadets. The next boats up, are the RS Feva and 29er - both two-man boats. The 29ers are a flop owing to their transient ownerships. Meanwhile, Musto Skiffs were a five minute wonder and are now in decline. Expensive Moths are now the rage among wealthy parents.

I sense a vacuum. To my mind, the Sprint would give cadets a boat where they are guaranteed competition (against adults). By latching onto an adult class, parents would know the Sprints will be around in a few years time.

I would be interested in hearing from other clubs, whose cadets have gone down the Sprint route, instead of into Fevas, 29ers, and the moribund Lasers.

Was there any opposition from parents or class agents?

At what age, can a cadet be said to be able to sail a Sprint on his own?

Andrew.