Worth it? A Look at the Costs Involved With One-Design Regattas

A Look at the Costs Involved With One-Design Regattas

by Airwaves writer Jen Mitchell, jen@sail1design.com

Brought to you by Mauri Pro Sailing

In a down economy it only seems natural to re-evaluate where your spending is going.  Airwaves decided to take a look at the costs involved in one-design regattas; travel, boat maintenance, etc.  There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to packing up your boat with your crew and heading south for an event or across the country.  I looked at some popular events: the Annapolis NOOD, Key West Race Week, and J22 North American’s and Midwinter’s to evaluate how one-design regattas are fairing in the economy over the last four years.  Because there are a lot of boats to analyze I narrowed it down to looking at three classes of boats J22’s, J80’s, and J105’s.  There are a lot of logistics that go into arranging a trip with your boat, so I reached out for some advice and information from sailors who travel and compete in big events regularly, lets get started.

First thing is first, what do you need to do to prepare to travel with your boat? These tasks range from the basics: having the registration for your trailer up to date, taking the rig down and the boat tied down to travel, preparing the car, or getting a container reserved for shipping.  You make all of these arrangements to travel to the regatta and then do it all over again on the way home.  The list goes on and on because you cannot forget to pay for accommodations and food.  I decided to look at some numbers to begin to get an idea of what we are working with.  Here is a hypothetical situation:  an estimated cost of brining a J80 from San Diego to Key West Race Week in 2011 including a new set of sails, the registration, and shipping fee: $775(registration)+$6810(new set of sails)+$3542.78(shipping fee)= $11,127.78.  Now this is just an estimate, but it begins to show the numbers we are working with.  Not to mention that there are a lot of people who like to be in Florida for the winter, so competing for flights and accommodations is another challenge.  It is a good idea to plan ahead.

When I looked at Key West Race Week in particular, I saw a lot of strategies posted on their site on finding discount accommodations and an example of how the J80 fleet banned together to participate in the event on a budget: http://www.premiere-racing.com/keywest11/pages/KW11_affordable.htm.  Check out the link for the J80 story and more information.  This shows the awareness that we all have on spending and sailing.  With all of this economic downturn talk I then turned to the fleet participation at Key West and the Annapolis NOOD over the last four years here is what I found:

Key West Race Week: Number of Boats Participating

Annapolis NOOD: Number of Boats Participating

There is no doubt that it is expensive to travel to a regatta, but how has our economy really affected one-design racing?  In this small sample, it appears that the numbers have grown in the J80 fleet, where there is a decline in numbers in the J105 fleet.  One reason for an influx of boats could be that the people who sail larger boats are downsizing to smaller one-design boats.  Perhaps boat owners in the PHRF fleet are making a move into one-design sailing for a more manageable boat, it would make sense to downsize to a boat with fewer moving parts and that packs up with ease for travel.

I asked my good friend Pat Donegan, who sailed for Georgetown University and is an avid one-design competitor (he recently returned from London where he sailed in the British-American Cup at the Royal Thames Yacht Club) what he is noticing with competition in the last few years.  In thinking about costs associated with racing, I asked him whether he thought it is important to buy new sails for an event and he responded affirmatively, “Yes, when gearing up for a big event like a North Americans or Worlds the top ten or so competitors all have new sets of sails for each event.  The second tier boats may buy one new set, but use it for all the big events. In events such as the NOOD’s, East Coast’s, or Midwinter’s, people normally sail with used sails, however, some of the less experienced boats use brand new sails, as these are their top events. Overall, if you want to compete you need to budget for a new complete set each year. The differences are amazing.” I then took a look at what a new set of sails will run you, for a J22 a set of new sails starts at $3670, for a J80 it’s around $6,810.00, and for a J105 it’s around $10,517.00 (source: North Sails).

There are some classes that put restrictions on how many sets of new sails you can buy in a year, but for example the J22 class does not.  I can see how this kind of restriction can be a cost-cutting method.  Greg Fisher, an accomplished J22 and Thistle sailor (among other boats), and a veteran sail maker who worked for North Sails in their One-Design department for 20 years, says that “in the last couple of years people are back a bit on purchasing new sets of sails, maybe they will hold off on a new spinnaker one year and wait until the next.  At North we would offer some discount prices to help encourage buying new sails.”  Greg is now in his first year as the Director of Sailing at the College of Charleston.

While we are talking about the J22 fleet, let’s take a look at their numbers in regatta participation:

J22 North Americans: Number of Boats Participating

J22 Midwinter’s: Number of Boats Participating:

There is fluctuation over the last few years in these events, but among the ups and downs it shows that at least last year there was an increase in fleet participation.  After seeing these numbers I understand that the economy could have people down a bit, but I did not feel confident yet saying that with the costs associated with one-design regattas people are shying away from travelling with their boats.  Therefore, I inquired further with my sources.

Greg Fisher confirmed with me that over the last ten to twelve years there has been a tighter market with new sail purchases and both he and Tom Sitzmann, owner of Sail1Design, remarked on remembering the days when there would be 100+ boats on the starting line in one design regattas and nowadays the numbers are much smaller.  There appears to have been a decline in participation in the larger regattas over a period of time, but is it due to the recent economy or is it other factors that compete for our time that has brought numbers down in the last decade?  While the costs are certainly great and our economy hurts us, it is obvious that sailors still love to sail.  It is a release for people to get out of work and hit the water.  It seems the passion for sailing and relief that it can bring keeps the fleets going.  Both Greg and Pat explain that sailing is leisure and it seems people make money available and at the national level there is still excitement.

With the information that money is tight, but people still want to sail I then asked my sources what they thought some cost cutting ideas could be, and how do we drive more interest into sailing one-design.  Although we find interest on the national level, we need to keep the regional sailing exciting and competitive to bring new people into the sport.  Pat mentioned to me that it would be beneficial to get more local sponsorship for events and more businesses involved.  With this there more events could be scheduled around a regatta, like educational clinics, professional demonstrations, and presentations.  This, to me, seems like taking care of some costs and bringing in education for new and existing sailors to benefit from.

An interesting point that I discussed with Greg was the other factor that competes for our time: families.  One thing that has kept Greg happy in competition is when a regatta is able to provide more bang for your buck and have entertainment for families.  If you can make a regatta a kind of vacation, then you can combine sailing time and family time into one trip.  While regatta registration fees have not decreased with the economy, they have tried to provide open bars, bands, games, and meals to accommodate competitors and their families.  There is nothing better than when you can go to an event and have great sailing, competition, and a lot of fun on and off the water.  Greg found this very successful when he sailed in Thistle North Americans in 2010, where the social aspect and sailing aspect really meshed well together.  It is a tough balance to manage, but one that can keep interest in one-design regattas and help people manage the costs of sailing and plan for some fun.

At Airwaves our initial hypothesis for the costs of one-design regattas and travel driving down participation in events, seems to be only partly true.  There are more elements to consider, and perhaps it has something to do with the group of people who sail one-design and the phase they are in in their lives, but this information and the conversations I had certainly opened my eyes to what is going on with one-design competition on the national level.  While some numbers are down in some fleets, there are still a lot of people travelling to national events.  As Greg exclaimed, “the sport is a healthy one, but we need to bring in new sailors and keep up the enthusiasm.”  I heard nothing but enthusiasm for sailing from my sources, which shows the passion and excitement out there.  We need to keep the conversations flowing among our classes on how to keep costs manageable and have a great time racing.  Do not let the economy get you down, get together and get out on the line.