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PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:49 am 
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Location: Santa Cruz
So, this question is for the youth (I guess under 30, WIC. Gree etc.).
What would you like to see your local dealers do to get more of your age group involved with sailing and racing Hobies?

Should we do a "Try a Hobie Day"?
How about some beginning racing clinics?
Any ideas?

Worldinchaos: The Turkey regatta is coming upm in Monterey. Want to come and race?
I'll get you dialed in with the start sequence and logistics, whatever you need. If you just want to crew, I'll find a boat for you. Let me know.
Also, we could always use more chase boat crew. Talk about a good way to get the lay of a race course!!

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:28 pm 
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Location: San Antonio, TX
well on a personal response, im back at UCLA for the year, which is why getting into stuff and regattas is hard to do. im taking a ucla hobie class here which im sure im way beyond, but still itll be nice for the cheap price.
but i think that hobie racing classes and hobie intro classes would be a great way.

im making a personal vow to do some regattas next summer though. im totally ready for it.

if it was possible to do rentals of boats that would be good too, like once you have the classes that certify them in the boat, then they can rent. its an amazing deal for UCLA to give because they can afford cheap prices, but i think even more expensive rentals would work too.
their site which has rental info is here: http://www.marinaaquaticcenter.org/

alternatively, i think more publicity to possible crowds could be good too. like for instance getting it back into the surfer shops in santa cruz and windsurfers. that was the original market that grew into hobies anyway, so getting that target group back is plausible.

and actually, a "try a Hobie Day" would probably be great, especially if you just made it a general fleet meeting over teh summer. its too bad we all couldnt just beach in front of the boardwalk on a saturday in teh middle of june. that would get some people.

i think one of the issues is that the group my age who would do it has problems with the idea of buying a boat on a trailer, fixing up both to where theyre happy, dealing with registration, etc. then after all that they realize that theyre going to have to tow it everywhere they go, and they might not want to. also, if theyre the under 20 crowd, the tru youth, they dont always have a place to store it. parking trailers with boats places is expensive for them and on the beach is more affordable, but they still have to park the trailer somewhere when they dump the boat on the beach. the best solution to me is rentals. but thats a huge deal because it involves havin the boats that inevitably get abused, liabilities, all while making sure its still a positive cash flow. then again, maybe a few $500 H16s would do the trick. its really a hard situation.

and in response to the turkey regatta, when is it? Ill do chase boat crew if im home that weekend. i dont htink i would do crew because im alot more agile doing boats solo. its jsut hard to get at the stern with another person there when youre 6'3 and 185#. and i wouldnt have time to bring the boat out since i only come home for like 48 hours.

But yeah, good luck with it all. i think im going to let it sit and think about the ideas in a week again.
Peter

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:34 pm 
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on another note i think the last two posts here
http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=5027
by hobienick and h17cat are both representative of this issue.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 3:50 pm 
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I'll tell you something that's worked for us windsurfing wise... Maybe it could be applied to Hobies. I gotta think it could.

We do a youth windsurfing "summer camp". It's a by-invitation-only kind of thing. We offer it to our customers with kids who might have expressed an interest. The boss runs it. There's no charge, but a parent has to be present. Some parents we put to work. And we get some volunteers from the local windsurfing club. It meets every wednesday evening for a few hours. It runs during the Summer vacation. We buy a bunch of new gear at the beginning of the Summer and sell it off at the end of the summer. Short term, it's probably a money loser. But it's a heck of a lot of fun for the boss.

We've got a couple of kids who will probably start racing in the Spring.

Brian C


Last edited by The Dog on Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: did he say "youts"?
PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 8:13 pm 
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:lol:
Thanks cousin Vinny

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:59 am 
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First off I would like to ask the question, "What the hell is a YOUT?!"

Followed by my thanks for a very good topic!

I think this is a multi-demensional problem, as not only is it something the dealers could get involved with but also the local Hobie Fleets and local Yacht Clubs and high schools.

Lets start from the ground up, Local Yacht Clubs have the largest groups of young sailors, and active youth racers, but have tradtitionaly promoted monohulls. This comes from lack of space to store boats, (IE you can store 6 - 12 sabots, or 6 lasers in the same space you can store one cat) unsuitable launching conditions, and what I feel have been culture conflicts between the cat sailors and yacht clubs. The easy way around this would be to find someone in the local fleet who is a member of a Yacht Club and either set aside a few races out of the season, or anytime you need crew to approach their Jr program to find a crew candidate. Get them hooked and the rest will follow :P Other Jr programs have in the past had a "Sail a big boat day" where the youth can get the experiance of sailing or racing on one of the members bigger boats. Perhaps the local fleets can offer a "Sail A Cat Day." Again, get them hooked, and the rest will follow.

The Hobie Fleets themselves should be active not only in welcomeing new or old Hobie sailors to join them for social or race events, but should be actively trying to get youth involved, and not just the youth of other fleet memebers.

Not sure what the dealers themselves can do that the fleets, and yacht clubs couldn't allready be doing, except perhaps having a few boats, such as a Hobie 16, 14, or Wave set aside for charter at a reasonable price that youth can sail in the local events or regatta's, showing up and giving them coaching, and rigging tips. Here your talking about a storage issue, and missing out on sales opportunity, in exhcnage for a service to youth sailors.

Thats just my 50 cents.


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 Post subject: Youth
PostPosted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 12:50 pm 
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Here is a recent email from US Sailing...

Go Youts!

<<US SAILOR Of The Week
Mike Siau

Mike Siau from Syracuse, NY, bought his first Hobie 16, off the side of the road for $650 of his own money, at age 16. His mom made a call to local Hobie Fleet 204 and dad brought him to that Thursday night’s fleet race. The rest is history. Mike is a part of the growing number of Hobie youths in the northeast. On any given day during the summer you can find Mike and a pack of Fleet 204 kids in the middle of Oneida Lake, blasting around, flying a hull and sometimes flipping over. If there isn’t any wind, they load as many kids as possible onto a Hobie 16 for some fun. Packed with kids and barely above sinking, they head out onto the lake for “hull jumping." The gang flips the boat and take turns jumping from the top hull. In 2005, Mike teamed up with local Optimist star Sam Ingham in 2005 to win the U.S. Youth Multihull Championship. Later that year, the pair also went to South Africa for their first Hobie 16 World Championship. Mike Siau is leading the charge for the next generation of Hobie sailors and making some of the old stalwarts proud in the process. >>

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 5:28 pm 
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bphendri12 wrote:
First off I would like to ask the question, "What the hell is a YOUT?!"
Rent "My Cousin Vinnie." Then you'll understand.

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 2:32 am 
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LOL. I've seen it a LONG time ago.

Which is why I asked "What the hell is a yout"

Which is what the judge asked Vinnie.


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 Post subject: HOBIE YOUT's- long post
PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:59 am 
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Location: Syracuse, NY
Hey Jerry,

I read your post on the Hobie forum about what can the Hobie dealers do you the “Youtsâ€


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 Post subject: Youts
PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:03 am 
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Jeremy, not Jerry, oops :!:


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:26 am 
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Mimi, It is great to hear from you. I love the idea of Youth appeal, Thanks for everything you do to promote sailing especially in the youths!

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:33 am 
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Mimi,

I tried sending Laura email at the addres provided, (The one that I also sent to you), and it bounced.

Thanks,

Brent


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:40 pm 
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Brent, I have the correct Email for Laura Sullivan. Tried to send you a Email, but the address listed in your profile does not work, please correct.
Caleb Tarleton


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:41 pm 
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Give us some more options by importing some of the excellent Hobie boats developed in Europe (Polyethylene boats e.g., Advance, Catsy, Teddy and Twixxy and the fiberglass boats e.g., Dragoon, 15, Pacific & Max). I got my wife a Bravo to learn on, but she will soon out grow it and want to move on to a more challanging boat. I solo a H17Sport, but she is 5 ft nothing at 100 lbs and would like to solo a boat more akin to Europe's Advance. :roll:


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