Need to restore sailing as a lifetime sport

In the USA, youth sailing has lived in a separate silo since the 1980s with age-based boats and events. This system has fostered participation, but when kids age out, they have little connection to the sport, and too many quit sailing.

The topic of attrition is particularly vexing as the decision makers may not have the necessary experience to see the problem. Coaches are now products of this system, with programs guided by parents eager for short-term gain. More on this subject from Geoffrey Emanuel (Falmouth, ME):

Participation for sailing in the USA is entering its fourth decade of decline after peaking in the mid-1980s. Why? I submit it’s due to the way we instruct kids.

The vast majority of U.S. junior training evolved from a balanced effort to teach a love for sailing, seamanship, and racing skills in the 1960s-1980s, to today’s disproportionate emphasis not only on racing but on winning.

Junior sailing now mimics the ‘winning-is-everything’ mantra of almost all youth/school sports.

The unintended consequence of our current state is a rapidly declining interest in sailing by former junior sailing participants that have moved into adulthood. Most of the explanations for this phenomenon come across to me as excuses or defense of the Status Quo rather than an objective attempt to question everything with the sole interest to identify and solve the problem.

Kids who are programmed by parents to play competitive sports the entire school year are looking for a summer break just like they are from classes, tests, and homework.

Certainly not all junior programs fall into these traps, but too many do, and nobody should be surprised that this training approach results in many dropping out from the sport. Why? Burn out from incessant racing, traveling, competitive pressure and ultimately boredom of doing the same thing over and over again. It hasn’t done much for the development of Olympic-caliber sailors either.

Little of what modern junior programs teach is for the love of just sailing. That love inspires many of us to do just that. How many junior sailors do you know that can’t wait to just go for a random sail with no particular destination or agenda in mind? And with no coach alongside?

From that large class of children learned to sail, too few become older adult sailors that crave every moment on the water, regardless of whether they race, cruise or day sail.