* Featured in Scuttlebutt this past week was a wonderful article by J/22 owner Matthew Princing called, "Putting the Family Back In Sailing".
As Matt begins describing his experiences in sailing, "There are many
articles and books floating around about the state of sailing today.
They discuss the decline in our sport by various demographics and point
towards influences like the economy, access to sailing and perception.The economy is certainly and issue, especially in the Midwest where my family lives and sails. We are somewhat challenged by the fact that we are a blue collar area and we have lost a record number of well paying jobs which limit our spendable income. Boats unfortunately are quiet easy to put on the back burner and become deemed not a priority (this is blasphemy to a true sailor but it happens). Our sailing clubs in turn suffer due to lack of members and income coming in that drives our sailing programs so access to sailing suffers. There is a whole generation of kids out there that haven't had the chance to try sailing; to me that is a shame.
Perception of sailing has never really been stellar. Many uneducated journalists have mistakenly reported that sailing is a sport of the rich, the elite. This of course couldn't be farther from the truth. Are there wealthy sailors, yes there are but on the same side of things there are many more middle class sailors and quite a few that would be considered poor by many standards. You certainly don't have to be wealthy to afford a very nice sailboat.
My belief is that we need to put the fun and the family back into sailing. It starts with me. I will do what I can. These two go hand in hand and we can raise the next generation of sailing families.
I grew up the son of a power boater, floating condo kind of situation. We were a very small minority at a predominantly sailing club. It wasn't long before my brother and I were sailing and soon the whole family.
I bought my first boat about a month before I graduated college. I was bitten by the Lightning (www.lightningclass.org) bug by a family friend that let me sail an old woodie off his beach. I bought the first of four Lightning's (so far) that spring and joined the local fleet in Bay City, MI. That was 1991, I am still there. Why? Friends and family. We have fun. The Lightning class is very family oriented as are other classes we participate in like the J/22 Class (www.j22usa.com). We have made lifelong friends in both classes and plan our schedules to meet up with our friends somewhere on the regatta scene or at fleet races.
I wasn't the "family" sailor though; I was probably part of the problem. I drove my family away from sailing early on due to a competitive streak that was relentless and perhaps a short fuse. Age has mellowed me but also increased my desire to sail and be surrounded by my family." Read more about Matthew's experiences here. Learn more about the J/22 sailboat.