Cum un cost de 200.000 USD a rupt industria de curse cu barca cu pânze din America
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Cum un cost de 200.000 USD a rupt industria de curse cu barca cu pânze din America
9 thoughts on “Cum un cost de 200.000 USD a rupt industria de curse cu barca cu pânze din America”
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I started sailing on a Dolphin Sr., added a Hobie 16 two years later. By the mid 90s, I was crewing on an Impulse 26. The races were crowded all summer. Life changes took me away for 15 years. I returned to do some cruising before getting on a Flying Tiger 10m. Original cost of the FT10 was under $50K. The owner replaced our sails 2 years ago (20K+ and they weren't North Sails). We race in a division that has 3 or 4 boats per race. Except for an occasional young person helping, our entire team and our competition's teams are over 40. Our skipper is almost 80. When you look around the club, you are more likely to look for a walker or wheelchair than a volleyball net. I like the idea of a leasing fleet. But I think we need some more challenges like the FT10. Design a solid, competitive 25' race boat for $30K. It won't have much instrumentation. But it should have great sail controls, jib/genoa tracks, asym spin, and mainsheet controls that offer slow/fast movement and car control. Rigging must include full boom and luff controls. In fact, we need 2 versions. One with a planing hull for quiet water and one with displacement hull for near shore. Both need to be easily trailerable to avoid the $24,000 per year slip costs here. Slip costs and insurance are possibly the most devastating of all. We need people sailing even if they are not racing.
I agree with most of this video, but the costs quoted are for winning. With less ambition, you can have an enjoyable race lower down the fleet, matching against friends. Long live dinghy racing.
I don't know if the exact financial numbers are correct, but costs have hugely increased. Some of it is simple greed. Take the Laser, my first boat almost 50 years ago. A stock Laser was exactly the same as the boat sailed by the top competitors. There was no possible way to spend extra money to improve the boat. The hull was standardized, the sails were standardized, and the rigging was standardized. Any change was a violation of the rules, and I do not recall a single incident of anyone altering the equipment for an advantage. Now, your stock boat is not competitive, because there are blocks and tackle at an additional cost, and carbon fiber parts also at additional cost. In larger boats, there is no rating penalty for upgrading to the most expensive sails. People with modified dacron, longer lived and significantly less initial investment, are effectively penalized. Why is there no rating penalty for insanely expensive sails? Greed, and influence of the top sailmakers is the obvious reason. And with the top spenders at the winner's circle, the moderately priced boats, their owners and crew, have no reason to attend the annual awards ball.
Club racing was great in our tiny yacht club racing lightnings, snipes and comets in the 1950s 60s. A variety of factors killed that and now the club still exists but too expensive for most young people.
The other problem is that the club racing is not accessible to newcomers . The people that do race are old boomers that have been doing it for years and are very good at it. They will thrash any newcomers- not much fun coming last by a long way is it?
Did anyone cringe when you saw that guy standing with both feet on the hatch? Yikes
Sailor with 50 years experience here, all level of competition. Very good article guys, Well done! Unfortunately the sailing we loved has been in history. Technology, electronics, foiling, money, etc contributed in this declined.
Not sure where all those empty marinas are. In Seattle, my 34' slip is going to cost $10K next year. And the (Shilshole) marina management was at least being up front when they said the marina is owned by the (Port of Seattle) taxpayers, and they had a responsibility to maximize revenue from public assets. And since there is a wait list for all slip sizes, they will continue to increase rates faster than inflation. BOHICA. As for the youth pipeline, the University of Washington has effectively killed the UW student sailing club by all but eliminating docks and launching area for the club boats on Lake Washington. Many of today's 70-year olds (like me) learned to sail with the UWYC 50+ years ago – that pipeline is ending which will further shrink the future sailing population.
For decades our sailing club on the Magothy River had a long waiting list…I was on it for years. Now they are 20+ under the maximum and from what I see, will take almost anyone.