To add on to the other part in your club try to achieve some basic principles. Like all boats are to sail the course. No boats to have little practice runs on there own( for it achieves nothing). Three basic rules for sailing P&S rule, overtaking boat, and bring your own beer.
Have fixed times to sail during the month. We sail every saturday and every monday , so everybody knows where we are.
Its not really a secret Mav. More a thought that the masses are not going to drag you under in what you want to achieve in your chosen sport! If you leave it for all the others to decide whats what , you will never achieve anything. So my advice to you is go and find a venue that is the best as well have the facillities. There will be some basics like a toilet, some trees to get shade and a tap to get a drink etc. Having the perfect water venue is secondary.
You will be spending hours there so it must be pleasant, if it is not pleasant , nobody else will want to sail there either.
The next thing is a bit hard to achieve. There is only one person in charge when starting off. This is a hard one. More that one chief confuses the indians. This person says when to go and when to stop. He is very necessary, for he is the linch pin to the whole set up.
Your other club (I think) was based on mutual agreement and mutual agreements just plainly don't work.
Give yourselve a good name,,,short and sweet, like "Southern Sailors". Try to sail a type of boat. This does not mean class but more like say Victor boats or something like that where you can have a range of boats and have other boats about the same. The second thing is to have somewhere you can meet away from the water , like a pub , coffee lounge etc etc. Somewhere where you can socialize a bit. And the last one, try to build TEAM Spirit.
You are absolutely right. Make a committment and stick to it. But alas, a lack of feedback leads me to the conclusion that this once pretty healthy group is done. No-one is prepared to make that committment.
Seems to me that my options are now pretty clear. Give Cherry Lake a miss, and try to get something going down near where I am.
I must say, I envy you the success your group has achieved. From what I understand, you have even increased your sailing days from one to two, both of which you get a good turnout. And in general reading I understand that this is an exception. And good on you guys!
You stand as a good example to others. If only I knew the secret of how you have been able to achieve this.
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Maverick Model Yachting - The Only Way To Go! Secret Alias - Don Leitis
Hooley Dooley Maverick. This sounds like the big O word to me. ORGANISATION!!!
I thought you guys would run a million miles(EH Klms) before the big O word would happen? I could say if you having troubles with getting boats IE sailors then you should stay where you are and agree to meet at that location once a month. And sail R, H OR shine. That lets all your friends know where you'll be at some stage in the calender.
It seems that the once pretty healthy group of folks that sailed with the Southern Model Radio Yacht Sailors group have gone into self destruct mode, apart from a few stoic individuals who still keep up contacts and sail together.
What if the suggestion was made that anybody interested in sailing meet say, on the first Saturday of every month for a sail at a minimum. If a strong North wind is a blowin' we simply change the venue from Cherry Lake to Jack Roper, or some other convenient venue. Actually I hear Edgewater in Maribyrnong is a pretty good place. If anybody over that way can check it out for Saturday sailing, I would be most interested to hear your comments.
But most important of all, I would simply like some feedback on what needs to be done to get everybody's interest and motivation rekindled again. Or failing that, even an agreement to meet say once a month even, but on a regular basis. Let's get this sport/hobby to be again enjoyable as it was previously.
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Maverick Model Yachting - The Only Way To Go! Secret Alias - Don Leitis
