Recognizing the path to extinction

César Travado (ESP), winner of the 2006 Snipe European Championship and Sailing Director at Pensacola Yacht Club (Pensacola, FL), is questioning on the Snipe Class website if the current structure of youth support is hastening a young person’s ability to pursue adult sailing:

I have been Snipe sailor and coach for many years, especially for Juniors. I have always promoted the Snipe Class among the younger sailors as a class that meets their needs perfectly, so I am not suspicious of any attach or scorn to the Junior Category. But times are changing and the question in the back of my head is: Is the Junior Category, Under22, on the path to extinction?

Before giving an answer, it is best to analyze the obstacles that we have faced when promoting or organizing a Junior Event.

The first obstacle is financial dependency. It is rare to find a 18-20 years old sailor financially independent, so they have to borrow boats every time they want to sail or, as best, to buy a second, third, or fifth hand boat. To this dependency we should add equipment and travel expenses.

The second obstacle is the School Year. Most of them, if not all, are in High School, College or, in the best scenario, about to finish. The School Calendar rarely matches the regatta calendar and it makes very difficult for the Juniors to attend an Event.

The third obstacle is the support to attend events. Usually, a coach, van and trailer go to Optimist, ILCA, C420, etc regattas making the travel much easier for the sailors. When a sailor ages out of the Optimist and wants to sail Snipes, he/she will find out that all the resources are gone, and we can find sailors that they do not have a Driver’s License, trailer, or a car and not even the financial capacity to get one. Add to this the feeling of abandonment and the loss of his/her reference, the coach.

The fourth obstacle is continuity. Most of the clubs, if not all, promote and support pre-Olympic classes like I420, 29er, ILCA 6, etc, leaving other classes with very little to none attention at all because they consider them as Adult Sailing.

In the last few years, I have seen how clubs/fleets/organizers are having great difficulties to bring enough sailors, not for the success of the regatta but only to meet the requirements of World Sailing for the validity of the event.

At the same time, we can see countries that already gave up to promote the Junior Category and they are now focused in Under30 with great success and it is in this moment when another question pops up: Is the Under30 the path to follow?

It looks like to me that most, if not all, of the obstacles listed before fade away from 25-27 years old, so maybe it is possible to think that this is the way to go.

It is the decision of the Snipe Class International Racing Association Board to analyze, with numbers, the impact in the last 15-20 years and to decide if it is worth to keep a category that it is going through countless hardships or change the categories structure to adapt the new times: Under30 (no more Juniors), Senior and, raise the age for Masters to 50 to make “room” for the Senior category.

Coming back to the initial question, in my opinion, yes, Under22 category is on the path to extinction and a lot of sailors will quit if we do not act properly and quick.

However, the question is open, and I really believe that it would be very healthy for the class to have this discussion/conversation/opinions from everyone leaving aside any personal interest.

Comment: I have repeatedly said that if the goal is for a youth sailor to continue in the sport, they need to be exposed to the adult sailing options during their youth years. Don’t expect them to figure it out during or after their school years.

In boats like the Snipe Class, there are previous generations that were indoctrinated as teenage crews, and soon gain the trust of their skipper to borrow the boat. And yes, the first boat they owned may have been a beater but it got them going along a path of better boats and deepened commitment. – Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt