Youth Sailing Championships in New South Wales, Ontario and Québec - a Quick Comparison

Number of Sailors in Attendance at 2018 Youth Championships
in 3 Juridictions - on various types of equipments - chart
With the youth championships in New South Wales, Australia, starting today, with a remarkable number of 326 entries, totalling some 399 sailors, a comparison can be done with the numbers achieved at the recently completed youth provincial championships in Ontario and Québec.

Interestingly, NSW, ON and QC are  juridictions with populations numbers that are not that far apart: approx 7.5 million in NSW, 13.6 million in ON and 8.2 million in QC. The three jurisdictions offer plenty of opportunities for sailing.

It's also important to note that, in Canada, Ontario and Québec are traditionnally among the most dynamic jurisdictions for youth sailing, along with British Columbia and Nova Scotia.

To proceed with the comparison, one has grouped some boats. The single handed Open Bic and Sabot, both absent at the QC and ON championships, are lumped together. The Techno 293, absent at the ON and QC championships, and the RSX, only present at the QC championships, are put together (eventhough the sailors were not really youth sailors at those championships). The club and international 420s are put together, eventhough they are technically different boats: actually, no i420 was sailed in ON and QC, while only i420s were sailed in NSW. The numbers for the light weight double handed dinghies Flying 11 and NS 14, which are equivalent to the RS Feva XL, are put together. In Quebec, there are just a few Laser 4.7s, but those were sailed jointly with the Radial, so  numbers are merged together and put into the Radial category.

The graph below compares NSW to QC, in terms of the distribution of the sailors among the various classes.

Distribution of sailors among the various classes in 2 jurisdictions: NSW and QC

What are the key findings:

- there were about twice more sailors in NSW than in Ontario, nearly 4 times more than in Québec, yet more important than the absolute numbers of sailors is the distribution of sailors among the various classes
- substantial Open Bic and Sabot fleets in NSW ; no such boat accepted at youth sailing competitions in QC or ON, which exclusively rely on the Optimist - even though there is an number of Open Bics in Ontario (the Sabot is not present in Canada)
- similarly, substantial light weight double handed dinghies - Flying 11 and NS14 in NSW - no such dinghies in Ontario or QC, which don't have, so far, light-weight double-handed dinghies (except a fleet of approx 10 RS Fevas in Ontario)
- significant presence of windsurfs on both the Techno 293 and 293+ in NSW - only a few RSXs, that were not really juniors, in QC
- similar numbers of Laser 4.7 and Laser Radials in NSW, while the 4.7 fleets in ON and QC are either very small, or merged with the Radial
- comparatively more Lasers 4.7 and Radials in QC and Ontario, which can probably be explained by the absence of light weight double handed dinghy alternatives such as the Flying 11 or RS Feva XL in those jurisdictions
- higher popularity of the 29er than the i420 in NSW, while the 29er fleets remain small in ON and QC (these were actually mostly the same sailors attending both events)
- and yes, the numbers are flawed, because there were many QC sailors at the Ontario Championships - but not the other way around ... for example, 11 out of the 43 Optimist sailors at the Ontario Championships were from Québec. For the Radials, it was 16 out of 55 sailors who were from QC. For the 29er, 6 out of the 8 boats, i.e. 12 out of the 16 sailors, at the Ontario championshiop were from QC. So the actual participation by Ontario sailors is actually lower than what transpires from this rapidly compiled table and chart.

Number of Sailors in Attendance at 2018 Youth Championships
in 3 Juridictions - on various types of equipments - Data

For up to date news and analysis, and interactions / discussions with others, about youth sailing, in the Opti, Open Bic, and other boats - join the FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimistopenbicsailing

Sources:

Ontario 
http://www.cork.org/2018-results/


Quebec
https://voile.qc.ca/index.php/fr/competition/regates/circuit-du-quebec

NSW
https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/piano.revolutionise.com.au/cups/sailingyouth/files/oijjgdqvhu8gf0lg.pdf

Popular posts from this blog

Green, White, Blue & Red Fleets: What is it all about?

Image
If you were present at a prize giving ceremony for the Optimist class, you may have been puzzled by the number of categories and prizes that are involved. The reason is simple: the Optimist class is big, and there are kids sailing from age 5 or 6 to age 15, and there are some kids new to the class, and other kids with years of experience  So it's normal to recognize the efforts of everyone according to age and experience. So here is how it is organized. Green Fleet : when your kid starts mastering the boat and do short races at your club, (s)he may be ready for doing a regatta in the Green Fleet. This is a regatta where advice can be provided by the coaches during the race. And it is typically a shorter course than the white/blue/red fleets. The importance in the green fleet is to participate. So there is typically no ranking announced at the prize giving. But when your kid starts performing well in the Green Fleet, it's then ... time to move on and join the White, Blue o
Read more

20 Reasons to Choose the Laser 4.7 (part 1)

Image
A frequently asked question is: « Why the Laser 4.7? » While the 4.7 rig is very well known in Europe, it is less so in some places elsewhere, particularly in the United States and Canada. The reality is that there are many reasons to choose this rig, which entails a sail of 4.7 square meters (1 square meter less than the Radial sail) and a slightly shorter mast. This rig is especially suitable for youth sailing. Let's take a look at the reasons - and there are many of them - why the Laser 4.7 is an excellent choice. Below are 10 first reasons. The second part of the article, presents 10 additional reasons to choose the Laser 4.7, and can be found at this link . Note: this article is available in French . Also, don't miss our upcoming webinar on Nov. 13 " The Laser 4.7 for Youth Sailing: All You Need to Know! " 1. A Considerable International Success The Laser 4.7, launched only twenty years ago, has achieved a considerable international success. For exampl
Read more

Laser or ILCA Dinghy: Which One is Fastest?

Image
A Mix of Lasers and ILCA Dinghies at the Laser 4.7 Worlds in Kingston "There's no such thing as bad publicity." -- Phineas T. Barnum The Laser is usually referred to as a single manufacturer one design boat (SMOD). But in reality, there are 3 builders (assuming LaserPerformance will be reinstated) and possibly more to come. The ILCA Dinghies are actual PSA Lasers, rebranded to circumvent the Laser trademarks. Boats from the third, Japanese, builder are much less common, except in Japan and South Korea. So, are the PSA and LaserPerformance boats the same? As indicated earlier, only one supplier of charter boats - PSA - was promoted by the Laser class at the Youth Worlds, so that many sailors did not sail by choice on the Aussie ILCA Dinghies. The fact that many of the top competitors used ILCA Dinghies for those championships is not necessarily an indicator that these are better boats. Most of the top international competitors were sailing the ILCA Dinghies
Read more