My point is that yacht or sailing clubs are not the issue in their own right, but that it makes no sense to regard the sailing scene through yacht (or sailing) clubs alone. Say, if a whole class of boats don't belong to such a club should ISAF not count them ? Again, the example of wind surfers. They are not club members almost by definition and should we just ignore them because of it ?

In effect, while the clubs may well provide very good support, they are not a factor in deciding whether a certain kind if sailing is "sufficiently large" to be counted.

Wouter

What, are you FN high? I see you're from NW Europe, must be close to Amsterdam. Where did you pull that out of?

The St Francis YC, one of the most well known yacht clubs in the world has a good number of wind surfers and kite surfers as members. They hold races right off of the YC porch once a week. Attached is a video of their kite surfing scene. In the video, one of the competitors states, "...there's a chance it will be in the Olympics someday..." He even mentions how US sailing gets behind them and sponsors them. They realize that it's all about getting out there and exposing kitesurfing to the sailing community at large.

Name one yacht club here in the U.S. that puts on a catamaran specific regatta once a week (like the kitesurfing races at SFYC).

The kite surfers are utilizing the SFYC to gain exposure for their sport in hopes that it will one day be an Olympic sport. That's exactly what we need to do for cats.

Video:
http://www.ktvu.com/video/13915307/index.html

Yes, I'm sure US-sailing will kick one of those keel boat classes or the 470 to let the kite boarder have their own slot in the Olympics. I'm told it is just a matter of formality now and an another round of voting by some buried ISAF committee. Hell, my source tells me that US sailing will even support no less then 2 kite boards events for the olympics !

Which brings me to the main point, have your kiters payed your membership fees yet ?

Wouter

Absolutely, some of them have paid and some not. That's beside the point. They are active within the yacht club racing scene, therefore exposing their class to the rest of the sailing world. It doesn't get much higher profile than sailing infront of the SFYF in the middle of summer, near the GG bridge. No wonder they got on TV.



Someone mentioned the Tiger/ 17 Nationals that the Tigers blew off (mostly because someone from norcal sent an email to the class saying it was going to be too windy because he broke a mast a few weeks prior to the event). This is a perfect example of what not to do. What a giant blunder. Right after, the Tiger class got all emotional about how to grow their class.

Here's rule #1 and 2 in the grow your class handbook:

1) Don't blow off the SFYC! Or any yacht club that is willing to support your class.

2) Support your Nationals/ Worlds

I use this an example of bad YC exposure. We need good YC exposure.

And instead of bickering about different classes doing this or that. We should see this exposure problem as our united front. No matter what cat you sail.


I just wanted to get my posts above 5. Now I'm done with this topic.

It is interesting to note that kite surfing in France is not part of the sailing federation nor the surfing one. They are actually part of the parasailing federation. Nothing to do with sailing at all <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Ok that may be true in your locality..

Members from sailboards in clubs here is generally due to their involvement in another class.. I cant name a club in Australia that puts on a weekly sailboard race.. I can name a club that puts on a weekly Tornado race.. So different localities different classes..

bump

For the Tornados, we might not only see them 2008 the last time participating in an Olympic event, sadly we might not even see them flying a hull due to the conditions to be expected in Qingdao... seems their deathstroke is an even longer lasting painful one...

With no wind it should make those mono's look really exciting on TV.

I bet the NZ sailing representative will get up and make speaches at the end of the Tornado Worlds. I wish I could get there with my rotten tomatoes