Welcome to the opening issue of First Beat. I hope that you enjoy the subject matter covered in the articles below. If you would like to comment then please feel free to send me an email to second_reach@bearfacemedia.co.uk

As long as your comments are relevant to the subject matter and conform to the same standards of values that you could expect in any reasonable conversation on dinghy related matters, then your views will get added to the subject. It is not the intention of the website to act as a censor but at the same time, the aim is to keep the debate firmly on subject.

Should you have a topic that you think would make a good subject for a Bearfacemedia investigation and article, please feel free to write to me direct at

davidhenshall@bearfacemedia.co.uk

So…read on and do not forget to add your comments should you wish too.

On my way to Brisbane for the International Contender Class 40^th World Championships, I stopped off for a 48 hour look at Singapore. I had always wanted to visit this city, with its charming blend of east meeting west, but there was more to my decision to break the long trip south at this point. In a little over 8 months, Singapore will be hosting the 2010 Youth Olympics, with sailing being one of the 26 sports where medals will be up for grabs.

It is to be expected that Singapore will host a wonderful event when the Youth Olympics are held in the City during August 2010. The bigger issues surrounding the Games have had little debate and as for how the event is funded by competing nations, just read on below. 

Now without sounding like something of a killjoy, I struggle to get my head around the concept of an Olympic Games just for people who, in just a few years, will be eligible to compete in whatever tournament they so wish. The development of the Paralympics has been a wonderful showcase for any athlete carrying a disability and no one would want to curtail their chance to have an event of ‘global’ standing that they can compete at. But  is there a danger that the modern trend for creating ‘spin offs’, be it in reality TV shows, or in the well intended Youth Olympics, just ends up devaluing the original concept?

For those bearing the badge of youth (midway into what used to be known as the teenage years) there are already competitions aplenty. These are increasingly crammed into the years of what used to be childhood, which in reality are precious few. The ‘Youth’ who do attend will be the chosen cream of the crop of whatever squads are needed at that moment, but as there are far more youth sailors than adult Team sailors, there must at some point be a culling in the numbers. Is this really the nature of sport – that on the brink of adulthood, you are told that you will ‘not make the grade’ for the next rung up the ladder and are from that point on discarded.

Along with a few other nations, the UK is today in a blessed position, in that the sailors it discards are probably better than the best of the best in many other countries. But the harsh justice that awaits youngsters today as they reach the end of the conveyor belt of youth squads is as unkindly as it is wasteful. The RYA has expressed concerns about the situation, but as they continue on the treadmill towards more medal success, have little room to make changes.

If you wish to express your own views on the situation with Youth Sailing, send me your comments at

second_reach@bearfacemedia.co.uk

The ever increasing cost of being competitive

The already discussed Youth Olympics in Singapore bring into focus yet another issue that is impacting on dinghy sailing. As the only people competing will be those selected from the Youth Squads, the logistics of them getting their boats and gear to the event will be taken care of by the RYA. All the sailors will have to do will be to get themselves to whatever airport is chosen for them, present their passport and they are off on a wonderful adventure at the expense of the tax payer, Lottery supporter and RYA members. Compare that with the experience of those sailors who are too old to be squad members and though they may be sailing full international classes, get not one penny in the way of assistance.

A container full of Australian Contenders arrives at the recent World Championship, courtesy of some generous sponsorship from Toll Pacific. Without their financial assistance the event would have been less well supported, a situation that will increasingly be a worry for the organisers of major championships.

No wonder that a well known personality, who works in the sport providing high class equipment across a large number of classes, should show concern. He points out that the disconnect between those who pay to participate in the sport (often dearly) and those who are paid to participate, has never been so wide. Worse, the gulf between the rarefied atmosphere at the top and the credit crunched masses that form the majority of dinghy racers looks set to grow even wider still.

For a long time dinghy racing was a place where the Corinthian spirit of the individual could still flourish, but with the ever increasing cost of keeping a boat at the peak of competitiveness, those days look to be a thing of the past. There is an undeniable aspect of the sport that suggests that someone has to pay for all the boats, gear and clothing that ends up with a squad label stuck to it, with much of the burden ultimately being paid by the weekend sailor. Maybe the time has come already when sailors are stopped from travelling to events overseas on cost grounds alone. The further the event from these shores, the more likely that many potential competitors will weigh up the cost of getting boat and self to the event and decide to stay at home. This has the knock on effect that international classes then cease to enjoy the widespread, global appeal.

The situation in the UK is made worse by the parlous state of the £ in comparison to other currencies, but this is not the only factor. Too much of the money coming into the sport is going to too few sailors, a situation that may well come back to haunt not just the RYA, but the whole nature of the sport of dinghy sailing. Yet along with ISAF, the people who really should have their finger on this pulse (and feeling it beating ever more weakly with every passing international event that has been starved of funding) seem oblivious to the issue, as they continue to pull money out of the sport to pay inflated wages and expense account funded trips around the world.

Are you a tax paying, RYA member who buys Lottery tickets? If so, how do you feel about paying three times over for an elite to go sailing? Send me your comments to.

second_reach@bearfacemedia.co.uk

It was the Thatcherite mantra of the 1980s that declared that monopolies were fundamentally flawed, with competition being the key to giving the ‘consumer’ a better deal. The argument ran that the more competition that existed in any given market, prices would be driven down, yet at the same time development of new offerings would be driven forward. And so it has proven to be, with everything from mobile phone deals to health care, Utility Services to Banking all subject to the growing pressures of ‘market forces’.

So it is something of a surprise that dinghy sailing is running totally against this trend, with less and less competition creeping in to the market, with the result that in a worrying number of instances, once again it is the poor  club racer that is left getting a poor deal. Whilst there can be no doubt that the rise and rise of the SMOD has had a hugely beneficial impact on the sport, there has to be a concern that for a variety of reasons, many traditional classes are turning into de facto SMODs. ‘Deals’ may be done by a class with a supplier to ensure a good price for gear, but it should not be at the exclusion of other suppliers, for that is just the creation of a monopoly supply.

Other classes have gone one step further, with hull, mast and sail becoming subject to these restrictive practices. Classes and builders will point to how they are ‘better’ for the sailor, but the reality of price control seems to be lagging behind the marketing rhetoric.

If a builder wants to introduce a new class into the market, then that in itself is not a bad thing (despite all the comments about the proliferation of classes fragmenting the sailing scene) as it is nothing more than the mark of a sport that is experiencing healthy progressive development.

Despite the many negative comments, mainly concerning the proliferation of new classes, the development of  a new boat has to be the sign that dinghy sailing is still a healthy sport. So we can but wish Steve Cockerill and all at Rooster well, as they push through with the launch of their Project X dinghy. For Steve to reach his goal of producing a cost effective package, sailors interested in the new class will know from the outset that they are buying into a single supplier product.

Given the cost of market research, then tooling for the production of a new boat, it is understandable that anyone launching a new class will want to see a return on all the up front investment, this too is nothing but a sign that the market forces are working as they should. But if the cost of a new dinghy is ‘X’, then the element of this figure that is down to the hull is probably no more than 20% of the total, with the rest of the cost being in spars, sails, fittings and other sundry items (covers, combis and the like).

In these days of strict quality control, why is there no competition allowed for the provision of these items, a situation that would surely allow the paying sailor to get a better deal than he is seeing at present. If gear from supplier ‘A’ is found to be superior, yet cheaper than the competing product from supplier ‘B’, then let both be available – thereby allowing supplier ‘B’ to get his act together to produce a better, more cost effective product. This is nothing other than the market forces of competition at work, yet in dinghy sailing, they are not working and it is the like of ‘us’ – the paying dinghy sailor, who is getting clobbered at each and every turn, often paying more than he should for an inferior offering.

In comparion to the Rooster Project X dinghy pictured earlier, the Solo has always been a firm bastion of freedom of choice. As this superb picture from David Gates shows, hull, mast and sail can all be sourced on an individual basis. There is though a worrying trend, that in some segments of the 'non-smod' sailing scene that choices are being restricted. This may well not be an issue for the sailors paid to promote rigs, hulls or products but for those who ultimately pay the bill - the open meeting and club sailor, this is a trend that will in the end result in higher prices.

Out in Brisbane, I watched some youths sailing a local 13ft skiff, a boat that has been introduced in response to the monopoly situation in the supply of other similarly targeted youth boats. One can but applaud the initiative, yet at the same time, there is still the underlying concern that to progress further, at some point the sailors will end up paying ‘through the nose’ just to be a part of the bigger than local dinghy scene. In the UK, with its highly fragmented dinghy scene, one could argue that competition exists and is healthy, but that is something of a facile view. A trawl through the UK scene shows that the worrying trend towards single supplier is on the up, further evidence that all is not as it should be. Worse, there are stories doing the rounds that some ‘single builders’ will now only commence work on a new boat once the builder has confirmed orders for more than just a single boat. In these difficult financial times, that can be tantamount to a new boat being ‘not available’. Market forces suggest that the only recourse in this situation is to change class, but is this competition at work, or just desperation?

Have you been caught out by a monopoly situation, if so, leave your comments at second_reach@bearfacemedia.co.uk