Summer Dinghy Sailing - Weekends

[Hugh Sheehy]

Folks,

We've reached the end - or nearly - of the first round of races so it seems good timing to send this email. 

This year saw the popular continuation of a previous idea - with Lasers only sailing on Tuesdays - and the move of weekend dinghy sailing from Saturday to Sunday.  While Tuesdays are reasonably well attended, the weekends are a different matter. There's been an improvement in numbers on the water, but it's not been a dramatic improvement, hence this email.  If I do a quick review of fleets you'll see what I mean. 

• The IDRA14 fleet is turning out in their accustomed numbers, typically something between 3 and 5 boats
  
• The PY fleet has been in the range 4 to about 7, Vagos, a Finn, a K1 and an OK dinghy. plus a couple of Lasers who like to race weekends too. 
  
• The Fireballs have been very sparse so far, with only a few on a couple of occasions. 
  
• The previous RS participation has vanished and the idea of a dedicated RS fleet has been abandoned. 

That means a typical Sunday fleet of 10 boats or less. While the IDRAs were away for a very good reason, last weekend was perhaps an example of what the DBSC is unlikely to see as healthy, or worth continuing to support. There were 4 single handed dinghies on the water on Sunday. Just 4. And I think only 3 were actually entered. The sailors were outnumbered perhaps 2:1 by the DBSC organizers, committee boat, RIBS, etc.  Even if the IDRAs had been there with 3 or 4 boats, the sailors would have barely outnumbered the organizing staff. While more boats have entered than turn up, the cost ratio must still be brutal for the DBSC.  Plus, it does indicate that there's an unresolved problem with dinghy sailing at the weekend in the summer.   It seems Sundays are better than Saturdays, but not by much, so there must be something else we can do.  Mornings? In-harbour? More, shorter races? 

I've made a little survey about the question. Please have a look. It should take just a minute or two.   http://goo.gl/forms/cd1cjBA7XvAl0CW22

Thanks

H 

 

[Hugh Sheehy]

Hi all,

12 responses so far. 

If you haven't already - please get onto the site and spend the single minute to give us some insights on what we want. 

H

[Hugh Sheehy]

Hi all,

Please do take the time to go to complete this survey.  I'll wrap up the results soon...trying to draw some conclusions from the various suggestions. 

H

[Dun Laoghaire Dinghies]

Folks,

summarizing the survey results....with detail below. 

First, only 15 responses in total. Of those, 9 are already sailing, three more will sail later in the year, one more would like to but won't, and two don't want to.  That's across Laser, PY, with no responses from other fleets. . 

Overall the theme seems to be that most of the dinghy sailors that sail in winter and on weekdays in the summer have severe limitations to time availability on weekend afternoons. Either people are sailing keelboats on Saturdays, or with family on either day.

While the move to Sunday has been a success in that the numbers have been better on Sundays than they were on Saturdays in previous years, the numbers are still low.  The main suggestion for Summer dinghy sailing at the weekend is to move to Sunday mornings, in the harbor, and to make it more casual rather than a full season's precommitted racing.  And I have to say that with such low numbers on Sundays I can only imagine that the economics suck for the DBSC. 

So, my take is that we're unlikely to get another year of Sunday sailing with such low numbers, that moving back to Saturday doesn't seem to make much sense either, and that something else is worth trying. Agree/disagree??  I don't think the IDRA fleet are involved in this group, so they may have a different view, but their numbers seem too low to finance a full on Sunday racing schedule by themselves. 

Oh, Tuesdays are out of scope for this discussion!

H

 

Summary

What type boat do you sail?

40%53.3%

Laser	8
Fireball	0
IDRA14	1
Vago	0
RS 200 or 400	0
Other	6

Laser	8	53.3%
Fireball	0	0%
IDRA14	1	6.7%
Vago	0	0%
RS 200 or 400	0	0%
Other	6	40%

Would you like to sail dinghies at the weekend in the summer?

86.7%

Yes	13
No	2

Yes	13	86.7%
No	2	13.3%

If you would like to, but aren't yet, do you plan on sailing later in the year?

20%20%60%

Not applicable - no interest in sailing.	0
Not applicable - already sailing	9
Yes - I'll sail later in the year	3
No - I'd like to, but won't sail later in the year	3

Not applicable - no interest in sailing.	0	0%
Not applicable - already sailing	9	60%
Yes - I'll sail later in the year	3	20%
No - I'd like to, but won't sail later in the year	3	20%

If you would like to, but aren't planning to or able to sail, what's the reason?

Abroad

Time & Timing - too many other commitments with family on Saturdays and Sundays, then if you do make a commitment the racing or product needs to be worth it. Sunday afternoons take up most of the day.

If you don't want to sail dinghies at the weekend, why not?

Tuesday racing best as lots of other events at weekends over summer - sailing and non-sailing!

Insufficient entries / competition

Or now, it's family time on weekends, just making Tues is a struggle.

Have you any suggestions for increasing participation in summer weekend sailing?

No

Sunday morning sailing?

I would prefer to have close racing inside the harbour akin to the frostbites, its safer you will get a lot more dinghies out , also have a start time of 10am rather than the afternoon.

Perhaps have an earlier start e.g. 10.30am to allow racing to be completed by 12.30 - 1.00pm so that sailors can still fulfil family and other commitments in the afternoon and to also include junior sailers that have reached the ISA training grade of level 4.

No.

No racing in June, July or August. 6 wk series starting in Sept finishing 2nd week in October. No need for DBSC, 1 rib, 2 marks, gate starts, fleet curated results. Fleet decides FG, aim for earlier, FG 10.30. if there's wind go early, if not wait for the wind. Communicate via whatsapp. Allow coaching in context during racing. Don't take it too seriously.

Get the number of everyone's boss/teacher and demand the free up their Tuesday evening. Same applies to Sunday switching boss/teacher for wife/girlfriend.

Not sure ... Pay as you go, plus some social element? €10 for a sail and a burger?

Run an open day, no entry fee or voluntary donation to RNLI. Maybe turn it into an RNLI fundraiser with 5 Euro entry fee, small prizes for winners in each class??

Friday evenings - think you could get the same numbers as Tuesdays on a Friday evening and run a short monthly league in July & August, Maybe Sunday mornings earlier in the summer May & June ???

Mini regattas entice people as they don't have to commit to every weekend.

You're starting the right way - ask people what they want to get out of it ...

Have an early start 10.30

I think the good turnouts on Tuesday and poor weekend turnouts in the past and present are a result of dinghy sailors sailing keel boats on Saturdays. The Sunday option is great for people without children but most people need a family day at the weekends. There are only a few people who can justify 2 days sailing at weekends. Luckily I am one of them. I think a parent with a child sailing Optimists on Sunday are a prime target for Sunday racing but i think they get nabbed for launching , admin and land based duties. Maybe there is no solution to Weekend dinghy sailing numbers as long as there is a strong keel boat racing scene in Dublin bay.

Number of daily responses

On Wednesday, 8 June 2016 10:29:25 UTC+1, Hugh Sheehy wrote:

[MacAree, John]

Feedback for what it is worth :

 

Sunday or Sat sailing in the harbour will attract more people, last Tues night racing in the harbour was a huge success with a large turnout lasers/fireballs/idra/finn etc

Timing am I would have thought was better

 

John

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[CRAIG SEAN]

Hi Hugh,

As Laser class capitano (retiring next yr btw !) I’ll reply here if it helps.  Yes, the reasons you mentioned below were exactly why I responded to DBSC when asked in the winter, after talking to other Laser sailors, by saying we wouldn’t really come out Sundays.  Our focus remains maximizing turnout midweek and it’s only the second year where we’ve had a second race on a Tuesday, so we’re already getting more racing by virtue of this change only introduced in 2015.  Twenty two races already this season.  Furthermore, by switching to midweek-only as we did in 2015, we are offering much improved value at approx. 150 entry fee and only 100 quid Under 25.  Adding weekend racing pushes up the cost.  You could look at Sunday mornings and maybe running 4-6 really quick races as something different but, hey, my firm conviction is let’s concentrate on Tuesdays, regardless of the dinghy we sail.  It’s interesting that not only do we have great Laser turnouts but I think I’ve seen almost 10 IDRAs out recently which is fantastic to see.  Your PY turnouts have been pretty good some nights too and focusing everybody’s energy on the one midweek night is the way forward to convince DBSC and everybody that summer dinghy sailing still has a great future. Even Tuesdays were looking a bity dodgy 2 or 3 years ago, when it was mainly just Fireballs, who hopefully will stay up or close to double figures too. 

 

On PY as you know there must be good potential to increase participation amongst INSS, SID and NYC Wayfarers/RS Ventures on a Tuesday night.  It’s so good to see the Vagos out there with us and I know you’ve put big work into that personally.  I would suggest 2 PY starts perhaps ; you guys in Finns, OK, K1, Solo etc and a separate PY (Intermediate) start for these Sailing School/Club boats that could have their own separate results and prizes and race over less laps to avoid delays in getting Race 2 away for everybody.  It’s also demoralising for them if they get tailed off or take longer to cross the start line, etc.  As guys get better they can graduate to full PY.  

 

Best,

Sean

 

From: Dun Laoghaire Dinghies [mailto:dldin...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 20 July 2016 11:07
To: Dun Laoghaire Dinghies <dldin...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Summer Dinghy Sailing - Weekends

 

Folks,

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