I live in England and I am the father of a 15 year old ILCA6 son. In July, he shall do the ILCA6 Youth European Champs in Ireland - along with 30 other boys from England.
These kind of top events are crucial for kids in the 'pipeline/pathway'.
And yet, just like in the US, it is the parents who will pay for everything - with no support of any description from the RYA. We shall just all turn up individually, with no central organisation or support.
Possibly, as parents, we all wonder just how many years we can sustain this level of expenditure?
Olympics? What are the Olympics? They sail what classes again? Foiling mixed double handed kite boards or something?
There is no path from youth sailing to the Olympics because the Olympics have lost their way. There is a direct path from youth sailing to college sailing through the other dominant high school boat - the C420. Affordable, accessible, and a clear path to success no matter where you live.
Gone are the days when clubs and boat parks took on the responsibility of training our Olympic hopefuls. Now it all driven by high tech classes that are doing it with a for a profit motive. The boats are both expensive and disposable. ILKA’s are the exception but they are also being driven out by a foiling type boat. The number of participants in actual Olympic sailing are shrinking and I believe the whole event is becoming less relevant as only a very few countries are capable of medaling and the sailors are all Pro’s. This is carrying over to all sports individual as well as team.
An excellent article, Jennifer.
I live in England and I am the father of a 15 year old ILCA6 son. In July, he shall do the ILCA6 Youth European Champs in Ireland - along with 30 other boys from England.
These kind of top events are crucial for kids in the 'pipeline/pathway'.
And yet, just like in the US, it is the parents who will pay for everything - with no support of any description from the RYA. We shall just all turn up individually, with no central organisation or support.
Possibly, as parents, we all wonder just how many years we can sustain this level of expenditure?
Olympics? What are the Olympics? They sail what classes again? Foiling mixed double handed kite boards or something?
There is no path from youth sailing to the Olympics because the Olympics have lost their way. There is a direct path from youth sailing to college sailing through the other dominant high school boat - the C420. Affordable, accessible, and a clear path to success no matter where you live.
Gone are the days when clubs and boat parks took on the responsibility of training our Olympic hopefuls. Now it all driven by high tech classes that are doing it with a for a profit motive. The boats are both expensive and disposable. ILKA’s are the exception but they are also being driven out by a foiling type boat. The number of participants in actual Olympic sailing are shrinking and I believe the whole event is becoming less relevant as only a very few countries are capable of medaling and the sailors are all Pro’s. This is carrying over to all sports individual as well as team.