dabchick.za.net

Ah – back home again, finally (yes I will say it … I don’t really like the Vaal that much ).

But it was a good regatta, besides certain issues such as camping fees (I might just deal with this in a later post…) the sailing was good and we pretty much had a good regatta. I’ll put up the new rankings once someone decides it would be a good idea to post the results on the internet …

‘Youth Nationals’
It was very interesting listening to SAS’s declaration that this was now the ‘South African Sailing Youth Nationals’ (and that there would also be a ‘South African Sailing Nationals’). While I liked their idea of ‘looking after their sailors’ and sending the top 10 Dabchick (and others from other classes) sailors to a selection regatta to represent the country at Youth Worlds (but how come the oppies get to send 30? ) I started wondering about what this means for the Dabchick class.

To start with one has to remember that most classes have their own national event, unlike most classes the Dabchicks (along with Optimists) hold this event along with other classes. Previously it was just the Dabchicks and oppies – but now it is moved on to Lasers and other classes.

Because of this simple fact I am convinced that Dabchick numbers are already falling at nationals (some people sail another classes nationals for experience – you will find me at Sonnet Nationals).

This however is not my primary issue – what is the problem is that normally nationals is circulated between each province: meaning that next year we should be in the Eastern Cape. However the decision seems to have been made to move the nationals to the Western Cape on a SAS level.

Firstly what this shows is a complete disregard for the right of a class to decide on the location of their nationals (DASA was not involved in any discussions – SAS should be fully aware at what regatta Dabchick Nationals take place) and secondly it shows that SAS is shifting the attention away from the Dabchick class and to the Laser class (as the regatta is being used as a Laser 4.7 pre-worlds).

I am not sure what the answer to this particular issue is going to be – a separate nationals will simply be inconvenient – perhaps Dabchick and Optimist nationals should be moved away from the Youth Nationals? I’ll try and cover this further at a later stage.

New Sails
Those who were at the AGM will know that mylar sails and full top battens are being brought up again – this time from the legendary Greg Davis camp.  Hopefully in the following year we will see some nice advancements to our class which will make things even better – watch this space for more developments.
Class promotion
It was one of the things talked about at the AGM but not agreed upon, personally I think that a lot of it is up to us as sailors to convince oppie sailors to move onto Dabchicks. However a big part will also involve convincing the parents that the Dabchick is the way to go, again watch this space for more.