I must say that I have enjoyed reading in SA Sailing letters of support from different people. Last month the editor also came out in support of our class. SAS has nailed their colours to the mast and its obvious that there will be no support coming from our National body for the class that has proved it can consistently produce the numbers at Nationals. In the latest copy Rob, our chairman, wrote to the editor as follows :
” Sir
Many thanks for giving the Dabchick a really good punt in the last edition, and bravely nailing your colours to the mast, as it were. Your comments were not only greatly appreciated, but most timely.
For a long while we have felt there is an unmentioned undercurrent amongst the sailing fraternity which seeks to discourage young sailors from sailing Dabchicks. At the very least it manifests itself in an indifference which is unfair. We have experienced this indifference in many ways over the years, and most recently when we noticed that the original poster for the 2011 SA Youth Nationals accidentally failed to make any reference whatsoever to the Dabchick class, and only made reference to the event being a selection event for the Laser and Optimist classes.
This shortsighted attitude is also evidenced by the repeated failure by SAS to select and invite any Dabchick sailors to attend their High Performance clinics or training sessions.” Letter shortened see the full version in the magazine.
What do we as a class do about this ? We could get aggro and refuse to pay SAS fees,after all what do we get in return ? We could break away from the SAS Youth Nationals and do our own thing.All of this I think will only aggravate the current situation.
Our class is vibrant, alive and even SAS admits has the best Gees. Lets keep building on this, get more Dabbies on the water. Each sailor should make it their business to sell the positives,the comraderie,the comradeship and the pure performance and excitement of the boat.International competition is great,but is South Africa ready for this, not many can afford it either. SAS should be concentrating on getting more sailors on the water,no matter what boat they choose.
Owen