Enthusiastic reception
There seemed to be an air of optimism about the Dinghy Show this year at Alexandra Palace. It was only anecdotal evidence, and I haven't yet seen the attendance figures, but people on stands felt there was a good atmosphere in the halls of Ally Pally. One thing that makes this show so special is that nearly everyone there is working on their own time, not being paid but doing things for their club or class because they are passionate about it. I think that's where a lot of that buzz comes from; you can sense that people are really excited about what they're doing.
That, for me, is one of the big differences between this show and the Boat Show in ExCel. It's got more of a homely feel about it. The other thing I liked was the greeting I and others were getting as we walked into the Show. I don't know who he was, but he was working on the RYA Stand and was clearly there to catch people who wanted some guidance around the show. I've never seen this 'first point of contact' before, but it's a great idea for anyone who is new to the show or especially for anyone who is totally new to the sport.
This stands in marked contrast to the anonymous reception - or total lack of it - that you get at the Boat Show. Not that it's just the Boat Show, it's really any of those big Shows - the Motor Show, Ideal Home Exhibition etc - that take place at ExCel, Earl's Court or the NEC. I mentioned this to the RYA's Paul Bayliss, who many readers will recognise as an RS600 and 700 National Champion, but whose day job at the RYA is focussed on encouraging more participation in sailing at grass roots level.
It got us thinking, maybe you take the RYA's 'meet-and-greet' idea from the Dinghy Show one step further and actually have Guided Tours around the Boat Show. This would be ideal for anyone who had turned up to have a look, but really didn't know anything about the sport. People can be shy in these circumstances, and even though most exhibitors would be more than happy to talk to show visitors no matter what questions they wanted to ask, people don't like asking questions that they think are going to make them look stupid or ignorant. The Guided Tour would perhaps be a good way of breaking the ice.
Sailing Pros
Talking about asking stupid questions, I heard an excellent idea from a keen Musto Skiff sailor called Rick Perkins. You may remember I wrote about Rick a few months back, as it was he who put together a fascinating online questionnaire to poll the views of Musto Skiff sailors and what they wanted from their class. Rick has also spent time at Minorca Sailing Holidays, where he worked a summer teaching newcomers the basics of sailing, and also helping some long-time club sailors improve their skills.
"It was very rewarding working with these people, because they really appreciated the improvements they made just in a week," says Rick. "The thing is, they might have been struggling with their gybing or their strong-wind technique for the last 10 years, and no one has ever taught them any differently." While the elite level and youth level sailors are well catered for, there does seem to be a lack of coaching structure for the everyday sailor looking to enhance their own skills.
Rick's answer to this problem is beautifully simple, and it comes straight out of the manual for running your average golf club. "Just about every golf club has got a golf pro that you can hire for an hour or two to help you out with your technique," he says. "Why couldn't we have the same at sailing clubs?" Why indeed? There are plenty of excellent sailors in their late teens/early twenties who have enjoyed all the benefits of the youth system and have probably achieved some formal coaching skills. I'm sure many of these talented sailors would leap at the chance to earn £150 for an honest day's work, passing on the fruits of their knowledge to other sailors. And I'm sure many club sailors would be perfectly happy to pay £25 for an hour's intensive tuition or coaching.
Or if you didn't want to charge club members for the service, you could create a duty roster just as many clubs do for race committee and rescue boat duty. A group of 20 or so of the most accomplished club sailors could give up one day a year of their own sailing to go out in a Rib and coach their fellow club members for the day. It sounds like such an obvious idea, I'm sure it must already exist in some clubs, in which case I'd love to hear about it. Please get in touch at the email address below if you've already set up or experienced just such an arrangement.
Meanwhile there are encouraging developments coming from the RYA in this area, following the formation of a Race Coaching and Training Group in late 2002. This has been set up with the express purpose of improving the racing skills of sailors in clubs and non-squad dinghy classes, and I understand some interesting research has come out of the Group's survey of sailors around the country. When I have more news I'll let you know.
Air Traffic Control
Since writing about Rohan Veal's breathtaking exploits in his flying International Moth, the whole world seems to be going foiling crazy. It looks like a new branch of the sport is just about to explode on to the sailing scene. Dave Spragg is planning on making his 14 go foiling, just for laughs. There is no likelihood of the 14s adopting full foiling for some time to come, however, partly because the class feels it has enough on its plate learning about T-foils and other recent developments. But as class chairman Victor Brellisford points out, there is another very good reason, and that is that Itchenor Sailing Club in Chichester Harbour has for many generations been the spiritual home of the 14, and even now has a very strong fleet there. Victor says the boats are about as fast as the harbour master would be prepared to sanction. Any faster, and there is a risk that the 14 would be banned from the Harbour altogether.
However, on the other side of the Harbour at Hayling Island Sailing Club, Clive Everest is planning his own radical foiler for competing in club competition. Clive, who is best known as the designer of the RS600 and RS300 singlehanders, has commissioned RMW Marine to build him an RS300 hull with the top 150mm of the boat chopped off. This removes the wide flares of the standard 300 hull, leaving Clive with a lightwind platform for him to float on in sub-foiling conditions - ie in winds of less than 7 knots.
Because he is designing a one-off dinghy for his own purpose, he is not governed by the rules of the Moth class. So he has gone down a completely different - and altogether more simple - foiling route to the one being pioneered by Rohan Veal in Melbourne. Clive has gone for the more stable ‘trifoil' arrangement, consisting of two large foils, one secured to each trapezing rack and angled at about 45 degrees projecting underneath the hull, and with the transom supported by a fixed T-foil rudder. There are no moving parts, unlike the highly complex Moth configuration, so there should be less to go wrong.
While Clive is spending some cash on getting the carbon hull built by RMW and the carbon deck by former Moth World Champion Roger Angell, the rest of the boat will be cobbled together from other people's cast-offs. The rudder and rudder box are modified 49er parts, the trapeze racks from broken bits of carbon mast, and the 8-metre mast an extended RS700 section.
The rig consists of a large, fully-battened mainsail, and a hoistable genoa for downwind sailing in light to medium conditions. Clive believes that the apparent wind will be so far forwards in all but the lightest of conditions, that there is little point in having a conventional bowsprit and gennaker arrangement. In fact, once the breeze gets above 12 knots, Clive expects not even to bother hoisting the genoa, such will be the speed and power generated by the mainsail on all points of the course.
Clive's intention is to be able to race his foiler against the 49ers and International 14s in Chichester Harbour. "I've not built the ultimate speed machine," he says. "The aim is to get foiling as early as possible and be very competitive from a Force 2-3 upwards." Clive says he could achieve higher top-end speeds in strong winds with a smaller rig, but despite the very neat arrangement that he designed for the reefable rig on the RS600, he has dispensed with any ideas of different rigs for different conditions.
He acknowledges that his Achilles' heel will be in sub-7 knots, when those big foils all become drag. But this is why he has based his design around the RS300 hull, a proven performer in light winds. Once he gets foiling, however, he expects to give the 49ers and 14s a good run for their money. Clive says there are so many unknowns at this stage that he is not prepared to commit himself to any speed predictions, but you get the sense he would be disappointed if it didn't reach 25 knots on the odd occasion.
Weymouth Mistress
Down in Weymouth, a trio of sailors are planning their own foiling assault on the Moth class. After being beaten for Tornado Olympic selection, both Hugh Styles and Adam May have turned their attention on singlehanded hiking-out sailing. But while Styles has returned to the low-tech world of Laser racing, in a second bid for Olympic glory at the trials in Weymouth this April, his former crew mate is busy developing something altogether higher-tech.
"I was totally inspired by what the Aussies have been doing," says Adam, who has teamed up with two other sailors for a three-pronged Moth development campaign. His partners in crime are Graham Vials, who also missed Olympic selection in the 470 class, and local boatbuilder Linton Jenkins. Adam is a former Moth sailor in his own right, and highly technically minded. In fact he and Linton have done a lot of T-foil development work on 14s over the past few years. So along with Graham's vast Olympic campaigning experience, here is a trio of talents that could really give the rest of the Moth world a run for its money.
While Adam has imported a set of foils from Australia, he is busy developing his own complete package, including a new hull designed, which is to be called The Mistress. "She's expensive, she will take a lot of your time, and she could end up hurting you badly early on the relationship," explains Adam, adding: "You could also look upon The Mistress as a younger, lighter version of what you've already got!" But while she's got a cheeky name, Adam and the team are very serious about developing a rapid craft. If things go to plan, the first Mistress could be up and foiling around the same time as Hugh Styles, Paul Goodison and others descend on Weymouth for their all-important trials. And later in the Spring, expect to see a trio of Mistresses engaged in some three-boat tuning at three feet above sea level. That will be quite a sight.
