Make me smile
by John Curnow, Sail-World.com AUS Editor 16 Dec 10:00 NZDT
Oh yes. This was cool. Our Managing Editor penned Manly's pathway to progress which looked at a way to attract and keep youth in sailing. Nice. Really nice. Smiles and cash can always do amazing things. No cash, no splash, after all... Round of applause for the club, all its sailors, and supporters, patrons and diners too. Well done.
So then, what to do when you cannot replicate such a successful model? Well, while Mark and I pondered, Ross Venner from the Concord and Ryde SC was kind enough to write in and enlighten us. What a smile his correspondence brought.
The dwindling support for youth sailing highlighted in the earlier article has left many clubs facing the existential crisis of aging membership and the potential loss of critical mass. "At Concord and Ryde SC, we are constrained by a lease that bans facilities such as restaurants. Clearly, we have to go in a different direction." Compounding these challenges, Venner pointed out another problem, "We are located in an area with rapid population growth and some economic stress, we have to be relevant to the whole of our community."
To say he had clearly elucidated his thoughts is an understatement, and the clarity of vision driving the mission is so wonderfully compelling and engaging. Venner added, "80% of the pupils in some local primary schools are from first generation immigrant families. Of course they place a high emphasis on academic achievement. That is the right thing for them to do. Our challenge is to be relevant in this educational paradigm without adding to economic pressures. We identified key skills which are hard for schools to impart, but were familiar to the senior generation of dinghy sailors through building boats from wood."
"What skills? Manual dexterity of course, enhanced through the proper use of, and importantly, care for, good quality tools. The reading of plans and building instructions to convert the designer's ideas into fully functional sailing craft. Then carrying out these real-world tasks in a team of disparate young people."
In ye olde days these may have been dismissed as 'life skills' or 'holding a degree from the University of Hard Knocks.' Today, the lack of such skills can be an impediment to the progress of a significant number of school leavers.
So, to overcome a starting point as the backmarker from -8m in the 100m handicap event, Concord and Ryde SC demonstrated that sailing is a profoundly educational activity by running free winter boat building programmes. Participants then receive a package of free membership for the following year and Start Sailing 1 and 2 courses. Donations, sponsorships and Government grants have exceeded $50,000 to date, which has enabled the programme to be offered free of charge.
Just as with Manly, one of the key elements for success was the appropriate selection of craft. CRSC races primarily of the restricted waters between the Ryde Bridge and Putney Point on the Parramatta River in Western Sydney. Its principal fleets in recent years have been Spirals and Herons. Neither class were suitable for wooden construction during the 16 Saturdays available each winter.
The building programme started small, adding more Firebugs to the fleet. These 8-footers are favoured by juniors and smaller adults. For adult single handers they settled on new build Imperium (scow) Moths. It was for these Moths that team leader Shane Greaves received the NSW Wooden Boat Association's Hal Harpur Award for 2023. (As it turns out, the 2024 prize went to Shane's daughter, Francesca, for another Imperium built as an HSC project.)
In winter 2024, the club built three Rainbow Scows. Venner summed up the reasons for this choice, "They're high-performance boats that faded from the scene in the 1980s, with the advent of fibreglass. We assessed them as most suitable design for our needs, as they have a great power to weight ratio, high initial stability, yet are narrow enough to store easily. All this, and they are also extremely easy to build."
Enthusiasm reigns supreme, "The results have been enhanced retention compared with the 'Optimist/Spiral stream'. The programme has connected the club with government high schools in the area, and we have enjoyed generous and committed support from all levels of Government. A number of our young people have progressed to maritime related roles, including one as a trainee ferry skipper. Our community also recognises the importance of acquiring and demonstrating good manual dexterity for success in trades and many professions," said Venner, and we will certainly be coming back to this particular point.
The origins of Concord and Ryde Sailing Club are worth noting at this point. It was established by returning Servicemen in 1945, with VJs, Moths and similar craft. Some might say it started as an 'Artisan Club', but the reality is that a 'can-do' spirit has been passed down to the current membership from those founders.
In times gone by, predominantly Fathers and their children built boats in the shed or garage at home over the Winter and then went sailing in Summer. Those very garages and shed are rare, to say the least, in what is now a very crowded Sydney.
If you can remember jar lids screwed to the underside of shelves, with the glass jars containing all manner of screws, tacks, and bolts all neatly arranged so you get the right item for them job, then you'll get that point. Probably about as swiftly as saying goop, shellacking, and varnish. Craft is the word. Saw, spokeshave and plane, along with a heap of sandpaper were the tools of the day. And my how the wheel turns...
If not, you may have to look around old photos on club walls, check the archives, or dig out some old magazines at the local library.
"So, we normally have about eight or nine young people, often with their parents, participating in the programme. Of course, they're supported by professional boat builders together with a number of outstanding sailor/boat builders, particularly championship level sailors from our growing Moth fleet. In 2023 we built the two Moths, and in 2024, three Rainbows."
That real world relevance we talked about earlier is very much to the fore. In conversation with Venner, it was incredible to learn about how past students have gone on to become boatbuilders, professional mariners and engineers. Whilst building the students get to see how the structure they build into their craft resembles the very bridge that the club looks over. Thus, physics becomes tangible, as does chemistry with the management of epoxies and other products, maths and even history through some of the terminology of sailing derived directly from the Nordic invasion of Britain.
Inadequate manual dexterity can blunt even significant academic achievement. Venner described the programme to a Professor of Surgery, who noted, "I get students who come to me for training. I fail a number of them because they lack the essential hand-eye coordination. For them, it is too late to learn. Your boat building programme teaches those skills."
"This is tragic. You can imagine young people excited to get into a prestigious professional course, one where they typically have a previous degree, and yet their hopes are shattered. CRSC aims to provide a substitute for those times gone by, when Fathers and Grandfathers taught young people how to build with their hands, and thus far it is working well. Additionally, some of the team become role models for the participants; quiet competent people who get on and make things happen."
It is little wonder then that schools, parents and Governments are seeing the benefits of the programme. Often extended family come down to watch it all happen. Personally, I love the story about the heavily pregnant Mother who joined the building at the side of her child who was facing some distinct challenges elsewhere. Not only enjoying the process, but the greater outcome, as well. This pairing helped to build one of the Rainbows.
Is it the sense of achievement that not only gets the young people into the club, but keeps them there, or is it those life skills they can add to their CV to stand out from the rest and land a precious early career job? One tale from our conversation was how Venner talked to a boy who seemed a bit distracted and just asked him, "Is that joint good enough? Remember, you'll be sailing this boat. This always gets their attention."
At this point we need to highlight that the Concord and Ryde SC is also the sailing base for the Making Waves Foundation's Wright of Passage programme. 'WOP' has embraced the Rainbow Scow as the class built by their participants. These are young people who are having challenges, often in their school lives. It is felt they can benefit from a more tactile programme.
Venner cited one young person, a refugee, who hadn't even seen the sea before arriving in Australia 18 months ago. He had his first boat trip on one of the Rainbows he had helped build. "He is going to be a wonderful addition to our community. Talented and thoughtful. I even think he's a better woodworker than I am." This programme is building bridges between our population and the water. These young people are taking their lessons into their broader lives, and they get to do it all with a very diverse group of people.
So, in regards to the notion of building community appreciation and community space, Venner adds, "I think we could say that young people are the ultimate community-seeking missile. One of the things our sport needs to provide is an offering that young people will chose to embrace. Part of this is providing them skills, community and identification, along with the older role models, so that they can see a pathway into the future. So many young people today don't feel there's much of a pathway into the future..."
If you take it all in, the wider boating community benefits from the CRSC and 'WOP' programmes. It is not just OTB clubs and classes, or the ocean racer gaining keen and well-trained crew. This is about pathways to other forms of sailing, indeed boating, and to the industry itself. You doubt it? Two of the participants are doing work experience in boatyards this week. In other words, it's good news all round.
When the Sydney 'WOP' participants completed their first Rainbow, Sean Langman attended the launch and encouraged all participants to approach him if they sought an apprenticeship. By the beginning of 2025, the Wright of Passage programme has already expanded from Sydney to Geelong (Geelong's first boat launched on 12/12/2024). Newcastle will open in January and Brisbane by the middle of 2025. The Wright of Passage programme will be represented at the Hobart Wooden Boat Festival, where a complete boat will be constructed. In addition, a completed Rainbow will be raffled at the conclusion of the show. Hopefully, the funds raised will launch the programme in a city which was once the home of the largest Rainbow fleet in the nation. Their website is here.
CRSC's programme is not all about their patch, as it were. Every year the club holds a Marathon Race that goes down to Cockatoo Island, and the faster boats even go around Snapper Island. If that is not enough to get young minds pondering what else might be out there, I am not sure I know what will. Eyes wide open, especially if all you have known to date is the school, your house, your desk, your screen, and the backseat of the car. As if to emphasise it, Venner said, "On the Ryde Bridge we watch the traffic go by, and even in light winds, we're often travelling faster than the cars travelling between netball, school sport and back to football."
Thanks to the Winter Build programme, the club offers activities on Saturday for the entire year and for the extended clan, not just the participants of the programme. Notable, if nothing else, for the fewer times the family gets in and out of the car. Whilst an all-day activity might seem a decades old concept, it is garnering favour with enough people to make it standout.
As we begin to wind up, let's look at the timeline. The club's season starts on the first Saturday in September, and the building programme must be all wrapped up by then. Remember, they only started in the first week of May. "It's planned to the extent that the building jig walks in on the first day and is assembled. We have the first boat's frames installed by the end of the first day. From there the discipline of constrained time comes into play. Different teams assemble key components, strongbacks and centreboard boxes. Others attach stringers and hull components. The work has to be done according to a clear programme. This is excellent discipline for all participants."
Naturally a project like CRSC's does not exist in a vacuum. "The generous donors like BoatCraft NSW, Rakau Design, and Ronstan Australia, along with the generosity of NSW Wooden Boat Association. In particular, the recent and generous contribution by Community Bank Epping (Bendigo Bank) which has secured funding for 2025. Federal MP for Blaxland, Jerome Laxale supported a Building Stronger Communities grant vital to the 2023 programme. Finally, the generous donors who supported CRSC through the Australian Sports Foundation. To all of them, thank you. We couldn't do it without you."
Clubs also need insurance, cover the lease, to say nothing of petrol for the rescue boat, and the people who all make it happen. At CRSC all are volunteers. Importantly, by getting funding externally, the boatbuilding programme has not detracted from the clubs operating revenues at all. Rather, me thinkey they may have helped to secure it.
I know the club is grateful to all those who have made it possible for them to do this. We all should be as well. So how do you measure success? One answer could well be at the Concord and Ryde SC, and there's another at Manly. Are there more out there? Let us know...
OK. There it is. There is so much more on the group's websites for you. Simply use the search field, or 'edition' pull-down menu up the top on the right of the masthead to find it all. Please enjoy your yachting, stay safe, and thanks for tuning into Sail-World.com
John Curnow
Sail-World.com AUS Editor