Sail1Design Editor

By Airwaves Staff Writer Elizabeth Dudley

The J22 East Coast Championship was canceled in the early part of September.  It had to be rescheduled for a later date due to a “lack of interest”.  Four years ago, the J22 class, at least in the Annapolis area, was one of the strongest fleets.  But just a few weeks ago, before a major event was to be held in Annapolis, only nine boats had registered, even with the deadline looming.  However, this dropping off in numbers at regattas has not only been seen in the J22 fleet, but in one-design fleets around the country.

I am sure at some point in everyone’s sailing career, you have sailed an event and were disappointed by the attendance.  Or you have participated in the phenomenon of: I’ll sail if everyone else does.  But everyone else is thinking the same thing, no one signs up, and then no one sails.  The more boats that sail a regatta the better the competition.  The more boats that sail, the more fun everyone will have.

So then why are fleets struggling to keep participation numbers up?  And how can that be fixed? What makes a strong one-design fleet strong?

The answer, like everything else to do with sailing is not black and white.  It will differ from fleet to fleet, location to location, and everyone has an opinion.  Before writing this article I spoke with Joel Labuzetta, Junior Program Director at Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis, Skip Yale, owner of Yale Cordage and active in the youth sailing program of Falmouth, Maine, and John Loe, an avid sailor.  Each had their own take on the matter at hand, but many of their thoughts were similar.

Perhaps the idea they agreed on the most was that in order to keep a fleet strong, young people have to continue to be introduced in to the boat.  Joel Labuzetta gave the example of the V-15 fleet in Annapolis.  It used to be a strong fleet, but then everyone that was sailing the boat had kids and got busy.  There were no new young people in the class to keep it going.  It has fallen off significantly.  Like most other things in life, there is a succession: the old phases out and the new phases in.  The problem lies in the breaking of that cycle.  But then how do you keep the wheel in motion?

Typically, when a parent signs their child up for a junior sailing program, they sign them up to sail a specific type of boat.  Be it optis, lasers, or 420s.  The kids then spend their summers learning a lot about one type of boat.  This is certainly not a bad thing.  But Skip Yale says that the Falmouth, Maine area junior sailing programs have found success in introducing their sailors to “unconventional” junior sailing boats.

As a part of the programs the kids are in a different type of boat each day.  They not only sail optis, lasers, and 420s but are also given the opportunity to sail boats like the J24.  Learning to sail other boats, junior sailors are no longer restricted to junior regattas.  The idea is to get the junior sailors psyched to sail night races and the bigger events held in the area.  Maybe in this way, when junior sailing and college sailing come to an end, it will be easier for the young generation of sailors to figure out what to sail next.

Skip Yale also also spoke of the J24 Down East Regatta that recently took place in Falmouth, Maine.  Participants ranged from the young high school sailors to the “Tony Parkers of the world”.  42 boats showed up for an event that last year had numbers only in the mid-twenties.  Yale attributed part of its success to the diversity the junior sailors experience in the junior programs.  Yale also said that there were a good number of families sailing the event.  Parents and their children sailing and having fun is a great way to set-up the next generation of sailors.

On the flip side of that, Joel Labuzetta brought up the conflict of competition and leisure within the sport of sailing.  Sailing is such a diverse sport.  It can be more of an individual sport, it can be a team sport, it can be extremely competitive, and it can also be quite leisurely.  But in order to keep a one-design fleet strong, does the fleet have to push for one or the other?  Labuzetta suggests that they do.

Boats that go out on a Tuesday night for competitive racing do not want to be the only boat that is being competitive.  On the other side of that, boats that just want to have fun often do not want to deal with the seriousness of the competitive boats.  If there are conflicting thoughts among the sailors of the class, it could deter boats from going out and sailing.

Another discouraging factor to the sport of sailing, as John Loe stressed, is the economy.  It is a factor that is difficult to deal with but one that definitely has a strong presence.  Most levels of sailing take some amount of money, obviously some more than others.  Money is an easy way to get back in to sailing, but money is not always on hand.  Rather than buying a boat, it is cheaper to crew for someone who already has one.  You join forces to split costs so that you can sail, but then you end up with less boats.

There is no real answer as to why some fleets have so much success while others fade.  There is no set formula to revive a dying class.  The simplest answer may just be to encourage as much sailing as possible.  The more sailing opportunities there are and the more excitement there is surrounding the sport, the more participation numbers will stay high.  As Joel Labuzetta said, and as repetitive as it may sound, “A strong fleet encourages the strength of the fleet”.

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Opti Sailors Say the Darndest Things! By Margaret Boehm

We invite you, after reading this story, to share YOUR stories of Opti coaching. At the end of this article, there is a submission form to share your thoughts and stories of Opti coaching. Top story submission wins a prize. Enjoy!

 I started sailing at the age of 12 (fairly late for a junior sailor), which means that I began straight away on Lasers and 420s. My first experience with the Opti was when I was fifteen years old and began teaching sailing during the summers. All of my co-workers were college-aged boys whose size alone could sink the floating bathtub. That summer (and countless others), I was the instructor who had to fold herself into an Opti every morning. At first I resented having to squish myself into the tiny little boat daily, but as I got to know that boat and my young students I quickly fell in love with the Opti (and its sailors).

The Optimist fleet is considered to be the one of the largest and fastest growing fleets in the entire world according to the International Optimist Dinghy Association, boasting over 150,000 sailors worldwide. As an Optimist instructor, I relearned the basics of sailing through the eyes of an 8 year old junior sailor, and I quickly began to understand why so many Olympic Dinghy sailors credit their Opti experience for their most current successes.

“I think they are the best starter boats for the youth in sailing and I believe all the top sailors out there today would agree,” said Katelyn Kelly Cox, a Chicago-based sailor who raced Optis for five years before making the transition to 420 sailing. Bronwen McAuliffe coached Optimist sailors for 6 years at the Tiverton Yacht Club in Rhode Island. “I like that I had some of my students for 6 years and got to watch them grow up and develop as sailors.” McAuliffe believes that the easy maneuverability of the boat on and off the water makes the boat such a popular choice among youth sailing programs.

McAuliffe credits her experiences with young sailors as a factor in her decision to become an Elementary School teacher. “My students were usually rigged up, dressed and ready to sail before I even finished my morning coffee. There’s an innocence and enthusiasm that all Opti sailors have regardless of whether or not they are serious about racing.”

Richmond YC Opti Sailors

McAuliffe and I traded stories and anecdotes about our love for the “little guys” and realized that we both agreed on the same teaching philosophy with Optimist sailors. On the water communication is the key with young sailors. They learn the most when they are out on the water experiencing the idiosyncrasies of sailing. The concept of “irons” to young sailors is something that Johnny Depp mumbles about in his Pirate movies, and is not fully understood until they are out there on the water hollering to their coach because their boat has suddenly stopped moving and they are not going anywhere. “Being in the water, in an Optimist boat ages them about 10 years.  You can see their minds ticking,” said McAuliffe, “and then they get back onto the dock and return to being their goofy selves.”

I believe that to be an Optimist coach, you must have a certain attitude that is both patient and understanding, but never too authoritative. This is something that McAuliffe has noticed in her years as a coach, “420 coaches are always very stern and all business. Opti coaches need to have a different type of energy. The stern way does not work with 8 year olds.”

Something that I believe most sailing coaches can agree upon is that our students can be pretty funny and let’s face it-Opti sailors say the darndest things!  McAuliffe remembers a time when a young girl sailor was circling her Opti around a house boat in the harbor. After making a few delicate circles around the home, the student politely asked its owner if he was a hobo. “I had a hard time keeping it together as I explained to her that she shouldn’t be asking people in the harbor if they are hobos.”  My favorite Opti sailor moment was when I was motoring around the race course with a fellow instructor and a little Opti sailor with a very serious expression on her face luffed up and asked us to motor over. We braced ourselves figuring it would be something along the lines of why the sprit pole is not called the spit pole because that’s just funnier; or if she could capsize before we sail into the dock. Instead the young sailor looked at the two of us and politely asked, “Are you two married?” I could barely contain my laughter. I was fifteen years old and already being married off to my co-instructor, who spent his afternoons that summer half coaching, half mocking me from a motorboat with a megaphone as I skippered a 420.  Looking back years later, the question does not really seem too ridiculous to me if I think like an 8 year old Opti sailor. If you sail straight into the wind or directly towards an upwind mark—you will not go anywhere. If a male and female instructor are sitting on a motorboat together instructing-they’re married.

It is the simplicity of the sport that Opti sailors grasp that makes them a sheer delight for me to coach. Moments like these always pop into my mind when considering my post-graduate plans and “the real world.” I’
m definitely not quite sure if I’m ready to give up my summers with the Opti kids just yet…

Margaret Boehm is a senior Catholic University student. She has sailed and coached in the Chicago area and raced 420s at the national level as a member of Columbia Yacht Club’s racing team. As a student journalist/editor for her University’s newspaper, she assisted with stories that were eventually picked up by CNN and the Drudge Report. She also conducted interview with high profile Washingtonians Barbara Slavin of the Washington Times and Paul Begala of CNN. She has volunteered as an assistant high school sailing coach with DC Sail and sails V-15s out of Annapolis.