The board of the PTSA, like sailing organization boards all over, is trying to figure out how to attract more folks to come out on the water and join us. This spring we’ll be putting up a number of voices that address this issue. This first post is from a saving sailing post by “Glenn McCarthy” on Sailing Anarchy.

The first thing everyone needs to understand are the numbers.  In 1970, 25.5M people in the U.S. said they went sailing one day or more.  In 2010 the number was 2.5M.  When accounting for population growth, this means that 6% of people are sailing today that did 40 years ago.  The curve is steady and the economy has not had much influence on the curve.  When you plot this out on paper, you can put a fork in the sport of sailing in 10-15 years at the current rate.

The second thing to understand is that if we keep doing what we’re doing today, we should expect less participation this year and each year following as long as we don’t start making major changes.

So is there one magic bullet to fix this?  What were we doing 40 years ago that we aren’t doing today?  Every aspect of this sport needs to be questioned and compared to 40 years ago.  In my Regional Sailing Association, I have written for over a year on what needs to be done (and I have a lot more to write about).  It is easier to break it down into parts:

continue reading » Saving Sailing, What’s Changed?

Myron Gauger, photo by Wendy Feltham

Much of the success of the PTSA in the last couple of years is due to the hard work of our Race Committee. We are grateful for everyone’s efforts but special mention has to go to the RC Chairman, Myron Gauger, who has set a standard that [...]