Keelboats keep kids engaged in sailing

Hall of Famer Dave Perry is a master match racing educator, and has a secret motivation when working with youth sailors. Since match racing is in keelboats, his clinics aren’t just teaching one-on-one tactics, but also exposing kids to a type of boat that exists beyond their youth years.

The proliferation in the USA of age-based dinghies and school sailing has contributed to kids being split off from the sport, which can lead to attrition when they age out. Sailing commentator and broadcast host Tucker Thompson agrees and offers this report:

Exposing kids to keelboat sailing much earlier and providing options to keep kids engaged in sailing after college is needed. The key is education (so they’re more confident on these boats) and access (so they have more opportunities to sail them). I suggest…

1. Community sailing programs and yacht clubs that maintain a fleet of keelboats is a huge piece of the puzzle. These fleets will teach kids how to sail bigger, more complex boats, get more kids into keelboat sailing, increase the social experience (important to kids and adults), don’t require an immense investment in time or money, and provide a massive bridge over the post college gap. These fleets also allow access to many other sailing options (team racing, match racing, women’s sailing, adult lessons, community sailing, etc,)

2. Keelboats should be mandatory for youth and school programs. The manufacturers should support this because more competent keelboat sailors coming out of college means they’re more likely to get into and ultimately purchase bigger boats. I suspect there’s a direct gap in keelboat sales because kids don’t have the knowledge and competence on them at a younger age. Yacht club junior programs with keelboats would then lead to more new members down the road too, and owners would have a larger pool of new crew. The whole industry benefits.

3. For those already “lost” (from recent college grads to middle aged sailors), club-owned fleets of keelboats will keep them engaged – thereby retaining sailors in the sport and engaging and increasing club membership.

4. Big regattas should offer a junior sub-division in some classes. What a great way to expose kids to “real” regattas rather than just their junior sailing events and give kids exposure to sailing beyond the managed walls of their club programs.