The Future of Sailing

A Report from 2009 Orange Bowl Regatta by Chris Snow, North Sails One Design

As anyone who has been in the sailing business for more than a few years knows our business is a fairly "mature" one. Year in and year out the market stays generally the same size. In fact it is one of the hardest parts of our business. It is a challenge to grow your business in a market that is essentially the same size from year to year. The economic events of the last few months have made our standard operating scenario even more difficult as all signs have been pointing to a shrinking market. Time will tell but in fact we here at North Sails are cautiously optimistic. Our feeling is that sailing, especially small boat racing, the part of sailing that we specializes in is such a big part of our customers lifestyles that while participation might be down a little over the next year sailing activity will still be strong across North America. The fact that the price of gas has come down significantly can only help.

Our One Design Group has spent hours and hours, brainstorming how to increase participation in small boat racing. For 2009 we are starting new initiative to broaden and formalize our clinic program to help newer one design racers learn how to get their boats and crews up to speed and help local fleets get more people out sailing. Look for more on that on our website here shortly.

What does the future of sailing in North America look like? Are we always going to have a sport that is essentially stable? Given the current economic climate it would be safe to assume that sailing will not be growing anytime soon. And given my experience in the business I could not argue with that. Imagine my surprise when back in the middle of December, Bill Scheuermann, co-chair of the 2008 Orange Bowl Regatta called me and asked me something like this: "Chris, Bill Scheuermann here from the Orange Bowl in Miami, I realize I am a little late calling you but we are having the Orange Bowl Regatta here in Miami right after Christmas and I have 700 kids coming to sail for 4 days on Biscayne Bay. I think we might get a record turnout. Would North Sails be interested in helping us out with some raffle prizes?"

I practically dropped the phone. I had just come out of a North Sails One Design meeting where we weren't predicting the end of the world but certainly we weren't predicating record turnouts at any events in the near future. Of course we agreed to help support the raffle night at the event and that night it went home a logged on to see if Bill was just pulling my leg or doing a good sales job. 120 Laser Radials, 110 Club 420's, 275+ Optimists, 30 Laser Full Rigs, 35 Laser 4.7's all preregistered and ready to head to Miami.

The Laser crowd

As luck would have it I was headed there with my own kids (a Laser Radial and 4.7 sailor) and got see the show first hand. I have been lucky to go to many National and World Championships over the years and I have say that the level of organization that went into this event was over the top. The event takes up three venues the luckily all a join each other, Lasers are a the US Sailing Center, Optimists at Coral Reel YC, 420's at Biscayne Bay Y.C.. Every boat has it's own assigned spot, all the venues open to each other so the whole thing becomes one massive sailing center. Scads of volunteers contribute to this event doing everything from hosing down boats (saves time and gets the boats moved to their spots faster) to helping people launch and retrieve to staffing information tables on where the best places to have dinner are. To my eye all the volunteers had either worked the event before or actually had some training in the tasks assigned to them.

Sailing on Biscayne Bay is a treat for anyone who has had the chance to do it warm, clear tropical water, dolphins cruising, many times sunny skies (the weather was fantastic this week). What was also a treat was to see the future of sailing laid out there 700 strong. 700 kids all having fun doing a great activity, getting to know each other and having a ball doing it.

The future of sailing looks very bright indeed!

The map with the location of the boats

The parking lot at sailing time