5 May 08 Weekly Whiffle

Dear Al et al,

I had a pithy response in mind but the more I thought about this issue the more serious I realize it is. It seems like the Europeans have made their peace with Hartley and are poised to grow. As an organization they may be stronger now than ever due to this kerfuffle. It'll be interesting to see how the Class responds to the new reality. From all I hear and read in their magazine, there is great enthusiasm and potential for serious rejuvenation. Of course, there is no place in the world - except perhaps Australia and New Zealand? - like Great Britain for vast numbers of keen dinghy sailors in dozens of strong classes, so they have a large pool of racing talent from which they can attract sailors. I'll watch their progress with interest!!

At the moment we are a small band of dedicated sailors, almost cultish, certainly clannish, which do well to pull 20 boats to a regatta. We don’t have a manufacturer or a new swish design. The primary supply of boats is the used market.   There have been other classes which have revitalized themselves by reviving old boats so it can be done. Most important I feel we have some of the most capable and talented sailors in North America and we are the only dinghy class which actively cruise their boats.   Most important is the boat: a solid, fast, ageless design. There appears to be reasonable hope that the Hartley W will be built in NA as well in the next year or two. All of what you say is true, Richard. However, although we are a long way from making Sailing Anarchy's list of the top 25 classes, I think that bigger is not necessarily decisively better. I get the feeling that all of their top 25 classes have a few or several really strong fleets, something that these days is very difficult to create from scratch - unless you have a new niche boat like the MC Scow that is heavily promoted and supported by the builder. Having sailed with the lovable Rebel people for the past several years, I have seen how things work in other classes (or in at least one other class!) They, too, are not growing - even though they have a fine builder in Nickels, not a single new boat has been sold in at least two years. Nonetheless, like us, they have a great time with a core group of Rebel sailors that have a keen sense of their tradition and history, and I no longer even dream of trying to woo any of them into Wayfarers. The Rebels, too, underscore for me the fact that strong local fleets have to be at the core of a strong class, and it in fact astounds me that we are doing as well as we are, considering that we have only one strong fleet (Lake Eustis) in the US and perhaps 3 or 4 of medium strength in Canada. Further taking into account the scattered nature of our enthusiasts, our geezerish age, and the increasing costs of travel, I think we are doing amazingly well to get the attendance we are getting. And there can be no doubt that we are having a great time!!!

Before we can consider hosting the worlds we need to take stock of where we are as a class and see if we can somehow begin to increase the numbers of boats on the road going to events. I will be the first to admit I have not done my part. As my daughters move off to college, (one gone this summer, the other in three years) I would like to spend more time working with the class. We can most certainly use the younger blood and the fresh outlook. Regarding hosting a Worlds, you need at least a strong, relatively local fleet, not to mention a few really hard-working people on your Exec to even begin to make it work. Too bad your heroic attempts at creating a Catawba Fleet never bore fruit. Imagine a Worlds in the Carolinas!!! I could definitely go for that - or in the winter in Florida, which would let the UK guys ship their boats during their off season and thus not have to miss 6 to 8 weeks of their racing season.

At the moment my biggest concern is what we will look like as a class in 5 years. I would like to see us expand our efforts to begin to increase the number of boats attending events. Amen to that!

If I had to tick off a list of things to consider to try and reverse the present membership trend they would be….

1)      Merge Canadian and US web sites and form one North American Wayfarer organization. Most important combine experience , talent, and financial assets.   Personally, I like having the two NCA's and the two web sites. If we can't find enough capable, enthusiastic people to run two NCA's, then I don't see any hope of significant growth anyway. And financial assets are not a problem at this time, as I see it.

2)      I would like to see us assess or strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats versus present market and sailing climate, as well as economic climate. Why do we sail this boat? Why would others want to sail this boat versus all the options on the market? Then come up with what we want to try and achieve. The worst we can be is wrong, but if we get it right we may be able to rebuild. I am all in favour of that. Perhaps we should aim for a weekend in the fall, after the sailing season, at some nice resort (seriously!!) in the Carolinas, at which we could brainstorm - let it be open to anyone who wants to make the effort to attend. Get various people to speak to the issues you have listed here??

3)      Promotion: I would like to see us try to promote the boat via articles in some of the sailing journals. I think we greatly undervalue the marketability of the cruising side of the class. I think we undervalue our racing capabilities as well.   We need to try and think this through. Regardless we have a story to tell which is compelling, we just need to find the right people or have them find us. The trick is to find someone to do it! I know that Dick has put the W into magazines from time to time. I think it can't hurt to try but we are already doing a lot of stuff via the web: we promptly welcome anyone who expresses an interest in Wayfarers and try to help them as best we can. Dick and Tom especially do a great job promoting the cruising, and I don't really see what more can be done.

4)      How to Rehab old boats: The Canadian site has a lot of good information. I would like to see if we can boil that down to specific steps. Purchasing, best set ups for racing, best set ups for cruising, best set ups for trailering, etc etc. We have a huge amount of data which has been collected over the years we need to try to assemble it into “mcnuggets”.   The Wayfarer sailing or tuning bible on the net is excellent, and dinghy cruising with Philips is excellent as well. What other classes have this kind of information. Not many I bet. I have been given to understand that the WIT ranks right up there, and is regularly used and appreciated by the Brits, Danes and Dutch as well as NA sailors from W's and from other classes, too. I have done my best to keep the WIT organized but would be loath to mcnuggetize this set-up. I like people who contribute their expertise to be recognized and have their moments of glory, so to speak. I think it's all useful stuff though I must confess that there is so much of it, that at times I have trouble finding material that someone asks for and that I know I have posted - somewhere.

It would be nice to host the worlds on this continent but at the moment I don’t think we can commit. The Canadian event a few years ago was excellent and I can’t imagine the Herculean effort that it took to get it organized and to accommodate everyone. My concern is where we will be in 5 years and if we will be enough of a class to put it on. I think our first effort should be to shore up our numbers here in North America and then see where we are.   Amen to this as well!!

Kind Regards to all,

Richard Johnson (W10139) USWA rep to the WIC