The Dinghy Show
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2022 11:04 pm
I just wanted to say thank you to all those from both the Class Association and Windsport who I met for the first time over the weekend at Farnborough. Helping to run the stand was a real privilege; as a very new recruit to the class I was not the obvious choice to persuade others of the Sprint's seductive qualities, but fortunately Mark Aldridge, Ed Tuite Dalton, Jenny Ball and others were on hand to do that. For myself, I stamped a fair few Treasure Trail cards and was highly successful at enticing a stream of small chidren to take charge of packets of sweets. It was hard work I tell you, but I persevered... !
And having a Sprint that for obvious reasons has been lying de-rigged and under a cover in the dinghy park since I bought it a month ago it was good to see one rigged and theoretically ready to go. Compared to boats of which I have practical experience - Finns, Merlins, Flying Dutchmen - the Sprint is a pretty simple craft and yet it is surprising how much there is to learn from walking round it, examining it and asking what to the cognoscenti must be some pretty dumb questions. But all were willingly answered with grace and patience and I drove home with a much deeper understanding of the boat and how to drive it in various conditions; I am now even more impatient to get mine rigged and onto the water and see how my new (to me - ex Mark Aldridge) sail looks with some wind in it. It was a pleasure to meet you guys and I look forward to doing so again; next time it won't be indoors, the sun will shine, and a fresh breeze will eddy across the smooth and inviting water.
I thought the show itself was good, and better than I had anticipated. I was on the RYA's Dinghy Show Committee for some years a long time ago - I was one of those who masterminded the move from Crystal Palace to Alexandra Palace and it was a very different beast then. At Crystal Palace it had been all about the class associations, with the occasional retailer and a few clubs thrown in. The move to Ally Pally coincided with the boom in manufacturer's products and gradually it seemed that many established class associations were feeling squeezed out and questioning the benefits they would get from making the effort to attend. Several did the math and stayed home, becoming perhaps more noticeable by their absence than they ever would have been had they turned up. This weekend class associations were out in force - whether the new venue played a part in that or whether it was optimism at what we hope is the end of Covid I'm not sure, but they and their members were once again undoubtedly at the heart of the show. Sailors and boats are what our sport is all about and for the first time in a good few years I walked around the show feeling more like a dinghy sailor and less like a punter and prospective part of someone's sales target. Maybe that's just me, but if others share that view it can only be a good thing.
And having a Sprint that for obvious reasons has been lying de-rigged and under a cover in the dinghy park since I bought it a month ago it was good to see one rigged and theoretically ready to go. Compared to boats of which I have practical experience - Finns, Merlins, Flying Dutchmen - the Sprint is a pretty simple craft and yet it is surprising how much there is to learn from walking round it, examining it and asking what to the cognoscenti must be some pretty dumb questions. But all were willingly answered with grace and patience and I drove home with a much deeper understanding of the boat and how to drive it in various conditions; I am now even more impatient to get mine rigged and onto the water and see how my new (to me - ex Mark Aldridge) sail looks with some wind in it. It was a pleasure to meet you guys and I look forward to doing so again; next time it won't be indoors, the sun will shine, and a fresh breeze will eddy across the smooth and inviting water.
I thought the show itself was good, and better than I had anticipated. I was on the RYA's Dinghy Show Committee for some years a long time ago - I was one of those who masterminded the move from Crystal Palace to Alexandra Palace and it was a very different beast then. At Crystal Palace it had been all about the class associations, with the occasional retailer and a few clubs thrown in. The move to Ally Pally coincided with the boom in manufacturer's products and gradually it seemed that many established class associations were feeling squeezed out and questioning the benefits they would get from making the effort to attend. Several did the math and stayed home, becoming perhaps more noticeable by their absence than they ever would have been had they turned up. This weekend class associations were out in force - whether the new venue played a part in that or whether it was optimism at what we hope is the end of Covid I'm not sure, but they and their members were once again undoubtedly at the heart of the show. Sailors and boats are what our sport is all about and for the first time in a good few years I walked around the show feeling more like a dinghy sailor and less like a punter and prospective part of someone's sales target. Maybe that's just me, but if others share that view it can only be a good thing.