berny Posted May 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 gone [This message has been edited by berny (edited 09 June 2004).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantom Posted November 15, 2004 Report Share Posted November 15, 2004 i am fairly new to sailing ... very new infact and what i have found is there seems to be very limited advice to newbies who have not the faintest idea of where to start (thats me) when i bought my first hobie 14 i recieved great help from mal gray he is on the nth coast and i am in brissie ... too far for a days sailing ... in my search for a local club i contacted a further 3 clubs from brisbane and the northern gold coast ... i found them to be downright rude and unencourageing ... i finally found the club that i am with now and they are great, but that was by luck not good management. my thoughts on how to promote the sport better include better promotion in public areas ... cater for the older cats and crews ..these people will upgrade once they get the bug ... and emphasise the fun side of the sport. hope that these comments are useful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REV YUKKA II Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 yes i agree with what you have said. we found the same thing when we started. we had a couple of boats though and sort of just raced amungst ourselfs. we started racing with the lake keepit club and although their where a few friendly people there we found that we where not welcome and it was a closed shop. if i had been just one person trying sailing i would have given it away there and then. as it was i had been involved in water sking clubs alot and we just set up our own club at windamere (mudgee). most of our sailers where newby and we great fun racing. made up most of our own rules (one was you had to skull a beer at the start and run 100m up hill and skull a beer to finsh). i moved to bathurst about 5 years ago and we now sail with all the clubs up here and they are all great. and the sailing that i have done around the place i think that most of the clubs welcome new people. i also think that if any one feels that a club has been unfriendly or rude to them then let them get on the chat and name the club. that way the club can try an address the problem. i hope that some one from keepit reads this. rev yukka II Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cat scratch fever Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 My oh My - hasn't this sparked a conversation, so my thoughts Well, there is a general perception that sailing/boating of ANY kind is expensive, just look how much a tinnie is and your perception goes that anything more complex/advanced is going to cost a bomb !! I've never seen Catamarans sailing I've never seen Catamaraning promoted I've never seen a Catamaran sailing in Sydney harbour I've never really seen any of the boat yards that sell cats promote themselves or catamaraning; and 2nd cats from those guys can be pricey ! All of the above comments i say from these stand points : I am a surfer/swimmer/outdoor person so do spend time around the beaches/harbours and thus should have good chance of seeing a catamaran sailing. I thought boats in general were really expensive and only realised how affordable a cat was when on Ebay and saw a last minute deal - have to admit i was very excited to think i could have boat on the water for such a small price (other peoples looks when you say you own a boat and are sailing at the weekend - ha ha !!) I went to RoseHill Gardens boatshow, when i was looking to buy, not a single catamaran dealer or any promotion - doesn't help the public image. Are there cats at the Sydney Sailing Show in Darling Harbour ?? It is a grass roots sport and public visibility is low People think they need a 4WD to tow a cat - i have a Barina and its fine. I think we need to organise a BIG sailing trip up Sydney Harbour, sail in to any beaches we can get in to and be open to people, talk about the boat, costs, give them a sail etc. How about sailing on the Lakes around canberra - wave to Johnny Boy and tourists Overall its underpromoted,misunderstood and maybe misrepresented - its pretty easy and fun. Have to say i've only been doing it for 3 months, unsure about racing, though be good for my technique and ITS FUN (and cheap !) We need to identify highly visited beaches, jetties, points etc to sail by and get people seeing these cats !! Cat Scratch Fever ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anothertoy Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Totally agree with cat scratch, as it is the same here on the gold coast. We sail on the broad water where there are other boats so the only people we see and see us are boat people. The thing that has to be promoted is how inexpensive it really is. Yes i know a lot of people will laugh at that notion but it cost me around 200$ for a six week course to learn to sail. Sure i ended up with a nacra 16sq which cost me more than i originally thought but find i have enough of a learning curve without having to combat nose diving as well. With council approval, i am sure we can sail into a public beach,have lunch, and leave, all the time raising the profile of sailing. To Fantom :as a member of Hollywell sailing club and one of only two on the northern Gold Coast i do hope that our club was not the offending club. Sure, the other sailors might not tell me why i went from 1st to last until after the race but at least they told me and that is the joy of the newbie B-) Enjoy and by christ i intend to kick some ass this weekend ( sorry to all christians) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantom Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 anothertoy ... your safe Hollywell was not one of the clubs that i was talking about ... matter of fact i didn't know that they had one .. try a little further down.. but what i did find was a junior club at paradise point where John gave me some basic lessons ,, they do not have a cat division otherwise i would be there. but the point that we seem to agree on is that we all need to promote cats in a far more aggressive way and i believe that it could be done so easily ... the son in law races his jet ski and they have great turnouts .. on the beach, highly visible and supported by various dealers why carn't we do the same Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyj Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Cat scratch Fever will be tickled when he gets a load of this. http://www.geocities.com/brokenbayregatta This web site was created by of a 16 year old friend of mine . Take the time to look at her web site by following the link and read her story. Jessica Irwin is an inspiration to me, and I have had the pleasure of being on many go fast toys with Jess, both on land and water. And while I’m crying and begging to slow down, Jess just laughs and thumbs up for more. Thanks turbo. More about the Broken Bay Regatta and the web site later. Regards Tony Jenkins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anothertoy Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Fantom we are going to be sailing this saturday. You are more than welcome to come along. Fun race at 11, Main Race at 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cat scratch fever Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 You know, this promotion thing, well possibly too late for this year though i've heard on the radio "Get Active Australia" - campaign to encourage kids with 'overdeveloped thumbs and square gogglebox eyes' to move away from the TV, put down the playstation and discover the fresh smell of the outdoors. Getting cat clubs involved in that (already) organised campaign would be a good in-road. Probably the PYC ? clubs would be good as well - any way Cat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmessee Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 If you want to sail on the Harbour, you should come and join me in a twilight out of balmoral occasionally. A few other blokes and I are looking at making it a weekly thing on a wednesday afternoon/evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cat scratch fever Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 Mmm, have to work out the logistics, as i work in Gladesville, live in Coogee etc etc, though it would be good to have a go sometime, moreover just to sail somewhere different in scenery - Thanks - i'll keep it in mind - any helpful tips regards the logistics against time factor ? Cat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmessee Posted November 18, 2004 Report Share Posted November 18, 2004 Easy mate. Hook the boat on the trailer when you are leaving home and leave about half an hour earlier. Drop the boat on the way to work out the front of my place (or somewhere near Balmoral). Then all you have to do is head off from work, pick your boat up on the way and you get a good couple of hours out on the water if you want. I used to do this. I left my boat one street from Balmoral in the mornings and it worked a treat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoom Posted January 5, 2005 Report Share Posted January 5, 2005 the thing that is apparent to me is, that cat sailing just does not attain the same status with the 'general' sailing community as monohulls do. we are sort of looked upon as unconventional, so by their way of thinking not comparable to similiar monoslug accolades. I think it was 2003 when WA local gavin colby won the hobie 16 world championships, yet our local yachting yearbook has a couple of girls who won the 420 worlds on the cover (and more power to them) but not a mention for gavin or the H16 class. maybe a way of looking at it pragmatically is that we don't catch the kids coming out of trainer classes such as manly juniors or mirrors etc .. theyre not going by themselves on a 14ftr and sure as hell not on a hobie 16. and there really isnt a sub 14 ft cat trainer on the market. With regards to the skiffs, wouldnt it be great to see the Tornados sailing on sydney harbour with the same sort of coverage!? now I reckon seeing fast, challenging and exciting cat sailing could really do something for public interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QB2 Posted January 6, 2005 Report Share Posted January 6, 2005 My 2 cents worth- in 20 years as a radio journalist from Colac to Cairns I recieved maybe 20-30 media releases total from sailing clubs. The only consistent annual media contact was peter campbell from the sydney hobart race- who always linked the event to local or state yachts competing. Sailing clubs are slack when dealing with all media- if they are dedicated they have good contacts with local TV and paper but they get hit and miss coverage with pre-publicity unles they are prepared to get journos/photographers close to spectacular action. Mostly they get little coverage during/after the event, because they don't follow-thru daily with results or interesting happenings. There are some excellent clubs which actively chase media coverage but they are rare, generally PR gets left out when racing events start. When daily events are over everyone has a beer, the info sits there, no media releases are compiled and distributed to media. Most clubs have internet websites but you'd be hard pressed to get immediate results when searching online. Media want the info/photos/vision now, while its hot and not days later. Journo's get huge quantities of faxes/emails daily. You have to get their attention from the opening line in any media release to hope to get coverage. They don't have the time to chase you. If I thought a one-design could be developed which we could publicise nationally as the 'cat for the masses' with competitive fleets, at a reasonable price to buy, sail and campaign, I would be first in line to do a PR strategy and campaign to build it up to a state and national series. I would give my eye teeth to get cat racing to the stage where it was consistently on TV/newspapers/electronic media and sailing magazines, - Pity we aren't like france where multis are pretty much a national sport with a huge public and media following. sorry for the rant, Mark Qb2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Brett Posted January 7, 2005 Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 QB2, Seems to me we have a national class that meets your specs in the Paper Tiger. Do they have a low cost class that gets press attention in France? Cheers, J. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jk Posted January 7, 2005 Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 No offence John but the general public dont want to sit and watch a fleet of white sails group together and then fly off in different directions and not understand what the hells going on. This is how my non sailing friends view sailing in general, they want color and excitment. What they want is the v8 super cars on water.With up close coverage and all the bells and whistels. What class provides all this?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HooD Posted January 7, 2005 Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 Most clubs have internet websites but you'd be hard pressed to get immediate results when searching online. Media want the info/photos/vision now well we must be part of the rare comunity of sailors down here in sunny hobart. Our results go online within hours of finishing sailing, along with photos. results are published in the local rag every week. Racing reviews are also published online after sailing. http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=lauderdale++yacht+club+tasmania&meta= http://www.lyc.catsailor.org/results.htm http://www.lyc.catsailor.org/photos.htm http://www.catsailor.org/phpBB2/index.php?c=5&sid= From my patch of dirt, i would have to strongly disagree with you QB2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_taipan117 Posted January 7, 2005 Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 I tend to agree with QB2. The only decent widespread coverage of any type of 'off the beach" sailing was that provided by Channel 9 of the 18 footers during cricket lunch, back in the early '90s. Great footage was provided, but I suspect it had a fairly low rating because the general pleb didn't understand the nuances of what they were looking at. The only race that I sail where there is a good number of spectators is the Milang to Goolwa race, SA, on Australia Day weekend. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people watch from the river edge and from launches and housboats just off the course, as the 300 plus fleet head up the Murray. This event is probably unique in Australia and does receive good media coverage, including radio. It is run by a big wealthy club with lots of resources. So you sailed a QB2, QB2? Pity about the demise of the QB2/QB3. A great Cunningham design in its day. Seems like the Stingray is going the same way. They had only a handful of boats at their nationals this year. And what has happended to Berny? Conspicuous by his absence on this forum. P> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QB2 Posted January 7, 2005 Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 As I said there are a few exceptional clubs which supply results to local media- But I just did a quick check with sailing websites as at 7.00pm friday 7 jan 05. SailMelbourne doesn't have final results up on the hobie nationals - the last race results were thursdays. The image library won't load- scratch a big story in melbourne papers. Lake cootharaba sailing club Qld which is good with local papers/TV doesn't have final results from the stingray/cobra and taipan nationals there this week-the last info on their website is race 4 on Tuesday. The taipan homepage link has only pre nationals road trip advice despite saying go there for the latest race info. Just a bit too late fellas. Hervey bay sailing club got good/bad media this week in the Fraser Coast Chronicle which consistently covers local sailing. The Tornado/A class nationals got page 1 coverage because ferals badly vandalised some cats. The paper then quoted some competitors who put the death knell on possibly holding some future national cat events there again because of the incident. Good overall coverage though with colour pics but the chronicle is one of the exceptions. Few other Qld papers would give that amount of coverage unless you stood on their door and browbeat them into it. Any sailing media coverage left to next monday will have to contend with weekend sport- I would refuse to use a story if it happened today and missed saturdays paper unless I could get a vital, new angle to revitalise the story. Finally yes I hope to get back onto a cat sometime this year. My Qb lies delaminating in the backyard minus sails/trailer. I would love to build Qb glass hulls if the moulds were available and i could get sails/ trailer but that still leaves me without any Qbs to sail against. Sadly A class/Taipans/hobies/stingrays/nacras remain way out of my price range. (my wife laughs when I suggest she go back to work to help buy me a cat-most unsympathetic but I don't think its grounds for divorce) I'd like another maricat but know of none racing here on the sunshine coast. Its the same for paper tigers/nacra 14sq/hobie 14 or windrush. That only leaves monos- Oops sorry bout that, must go and wash my mouth out,-with a bundy. Mark Qb2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Antony Edwards Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Hi all, QB2 in regard to the updating of the websites from Lake Cootharaba. As the webmaster of the Taipan website I know the site was updated continuosly throughout the regatta, I missed getting out the results on three nights only. Because, a) I had to repair my boat - the results were put up the following morning, the next day was a lay day(5th) - no results needed, the following day(6th) was abandoned due to light winds. As to the results from the 7th - we did not get off the water until 6.00 pm. Whats more the final results were on the web within two hours of the last race. I'm sorry if I soud uppity, but I know how much hard work went into getting the results up on the web quickly - on both sites. maybe you need to use the refresh key. Antony Edwards ps - the limited pics from the nats are on the web now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HooD Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 I agree with Antony it is a lot of work keeping a website up to date and the vast majority of it is unpaid work. That said saying there are "limited photos" on the taipan website is like saying "the titanic has a scratch on the bow" four photos to cover 50 boats and how many races? that just seems wrong. At least you put up a picture of coolj in action, everyone else doesnt count i guess [This message has been edited by HooD (edited 11 January 2005).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QB2 Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 My hearty congratulations on both racing AND getting up results. I'm amazed you could do both (I was usually too stuffed after coming off the water to do anything else but sit there) The fact is there should be a designated PR officer, not a race participant, doing PR work to ensure it gets to media asap. I know how hard it is for individuals (and its usually just 1 or 2 people) in clubs/classes working to get results out. I was trying to present the case from a journalists view- they don't want to know whether your system works, they just want the story/images/photos etc. And if you can't supply it to them in a reasonable period, they go to elsewhere to get it. You have to ask yourself who are you supplying stories and images for, the sailors, or the bigger picture/general public to get them into the sport. Considering the lack of resources I am amazed at some of the media results sailing does get, but it could be much more. Professionally I would absolutely love to be like a sydney hobart PR person to go to major/state/national cat events and do fulltime pre/during and post promotion, provided I could make a reasonable living and cover my travel/accomodation etc. Who has the financial backing to do that but the major players so until multihullers get dollars to pay for optimum marketing/PR media coverage will remain hit and miss. Qb2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Antony Edwards Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Hood Try the photos that now up on the photographers site - www.marinephotography.com.au Follow the images link, then cats at lake cooth'a I think we were pretty lucky last year, in that the photograher just gave us a CD full of shots for $20. This year, at the end of the day, the photos are on the web, and the bloke should still be able to make his money/ cover his costs. QB2, as far as getting the wider media involved, its definitely a must. But as you said its hard work for the one or two holding the can. Unless we have full time people looking after the class, the beer at the end of the day will always look more attractive. Perhaps the Cat classes, ie Taipan, F18, Nacra, Tornado, Aclass etc. Should pay altogether a single PR firm to look after such things across the board. Just an idea. I'm sure there would be simpathetic ear with a reduced contract price. Ant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HooD Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Thanks for the link Anthony! That dood knows how to charge! $20 for a jpeg image, i worked out to get the whole lot droped onto a $2 DVD would cost about $12,000 OUCH!! for that kind of money a man could have a nice holiday and take his own pictures! compare that to the double DVD with Mitch Booth, Herbert Dercksen, Darren Bundock, Glenn Ashby, Emmanuel & Vincent Boulogne, and Gavin Colby. im having sent from europe for $80 AUD. http://www.multihulls-world.com/us/news.php?id=26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted January 14, 2005 Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Hood we got a photo of our Tiger from this dude A4 size best photo I have worth every dollar to get that sort of photo for your wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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