August 2007
Promoting the Nautic 12 - by Steve
Crewes
We hear at times of people
promoting different classes. And to the normal Joes in your club this
might sound like territory where they have been not been before. Promoting
anything whether it is Pigeon racing or Nautic 12s, much of it is about
doing the same things together. For promoting is about selling yourselves
and the ideas you want others to be interested in too.
You hear from time to time
of people promoting things and you wonder what they have actually done.
Sometimes one can’t see anything except what the promoter says are the
…. GAINS.
Good promotions gives
everybody a chance to see the results, especially when it involves a class
of Model Yachts, or in this case; promoting Nautic 12s. Promoting a Class
can take in a time frame too. Some people need time after you have
promoted something to think about it for a while before they act on that
promotion. So that down the track something comes to fruition.
So what is the end result
you want to achieve? Do you perhaps want to achieve a world-wide class for
your chosen class? That’s aiming a bit high! Maybe a good boat to
remember a part of our sailing history like say the J class for instance.
Or even the Star class from the Olympic Games. For these are some of those
things that people do in promoting their favourite class.
I’ve said to you before
that the Nautic 12 is somebody’s attempt to do a good one-design in the
Model Yacht World. We know that this particular class, borne out of
frustration for a good one-design that could manage a good range of
weather conditions.
Maybe you just like this
particular boat too and would like to see others on your local pond
sailing there. You maybe don’t like sailing alone at present, so you
want to promote it to get some like–minded people to increase your fun
in your pond. Fancy a race or two with a boat that is equal to yours. For
there is no greater joy than match racing, as all those years of the
America
’s Cup and 12 metres have shown.
Promotions can take many
forms and I recommend one that will suit you for your pond group. Draw it
well in Shipmate that model yachting, radio yachting, call it what you
like, is about racing one with another. There are of course different
types of racing too. Whether it be the social type like, Twilights, that
the big yachts do or different degrees of all the other social type
racing, for there are varying types of racing to play with. But it is
about racing rather than just sailing in never ending circles. And at the
end of the day, the judgment of it all is, that you must want to do it
again the following week. With your club’s activities there must be
something else that goes with the sailing bit. For a club to be really
successful there must also be a social side to the sailing of the boats,
as well.
In our club we have this
type of semi-formal type racing. Some marks laid out to show the course.
Where this friendly banter is going on, between the skippers. Some new
people may have not experienced this sort of thing before but each club
has its own way of this social racing. Your club will develop their own
ways too. This friendly banter as I put it, helps us sell our concept to
the public. Above all in any promotions is, what we are doing has got to
look like FUN to the passer- by. It is easier to promote FUN than
anything else. People want to join in the FUN times. We have used this
concept before with good results. If your club is not attracting new
members then it might appear to the public that it is not FUN.
You can attack your
promotions as just to attract a few more boats to your pond or you can do
a campaign to attract a whole area. Obviously the bigger campaign costs
more than a localized one. But the results are directly on what you put
into trying to attract…. BODIES.
I heard some who said that
“promoting “is just putting a note in the local paper and this is
quite true providing it gets results. The bottom line is…. Results. So
hand in hand with promoting is what results you get. Who knows, the local
paper bit may be all you need. Maybe you can do the simple written page
handouts; this can be a winner also, especially if the secretary’s phone
number is on it... The bottom line is tough, that you must be able to show
what you have accomplished from your promotions. This at times can be the
HARD YARDS, especially if you have not produced any results. Then you must
try something else. Promoting is an ongoing part of your club’s well
being for the future. It is something the whole club must be a part of,
from novices to seniors.
Ancient Mariner 2007.
