Increasingly, many articles in the sailing media worldwide are about the dilemmas, the developments and how to attract youth and create a more gender-equal sport; in short, how to stay relevant as a sport. Accommodating new disciplines, embracing developments in technology and
attracting youth should be a catalyst for change. Sailing has always been a diverse sport, so let’s use it to develop sailing around the world, attract more young people to our sport and work on gender balance.
We cannot do this by having a one-size-fits-all approach. Some principles can be applied in common which is also reflected in these articles - for example, youth want to learn more than just Sailing, they expect to learn and gain a deeper understanding, more than being “just” instructed. They are together more with friends in mixed groups, so rethinking the approach and strengthening mixed sailing at entry level is one of the principles to look at. We have fantastic classes, like the Opti, giving youth the experience of racing. Let’s strengthen the recruitment for our strong classes by focusing
efforts at entry level.
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