Is Under 22 (Juniors) on the Path of Extinction?

I have been Snipe sailor and coach for many years, especially for Juniors. I have always promoted the Snipe Class among the younger sailors as a class that meets their needs perfectly, so I am not suspicious of any attach or scorn to the Junior Category. But times are changing and the question in the back of my head is: Is the Junior Category, Under22, on the path to extinction?

by Cesar Travado

Before giving an answer, it is best to analyze the obstacles that we have faced when promoting or organizing a Junior Event.

The first obstacle is financial dependency. It is rare to find a 18-20 years old sailor financially independent, so they have to borrow boats every time they want to sail or, as best, to buy a second, third or fifth hand boat. To this dependency we should add equipment and travel expenses.

The second obstacle is the School Year. Most of them, if not all, are in High School, College or, in the best scenario, about to finish. The School Calendar rarely matches the regatta calendar and it makes very difficult for the Juniors to attend an Event.

The third obstacle is the support to attend events. Usually, a coach, van and trailer go to Optimist, ILCA, 420, etc regattas making the travel much easier for the sailors. When a sailor ages out in the Optimist and wants to sail Snipes he/she will find out that all the resources are gone, and we can find sailors that they do not have a driver license, trailer, or a car and not even the financial capacity to get one. Add to this the feeling of abandonment and the loss of his/her reference, the coach.

The fourth obstacle is continuity. Most of the clubs, if not all, promote and support pre-Olimpic classes like 420, 29er, ILCA6, etc leaving other classes with very little to none attention at all because they consider them as Adult Sailing.

In the last few years, I have seen how clubs/fleets/Organizers are having great difficulties to bring enough sailors, not for the success of the regatta but only to meet the requirements of WS for the validity of the event.

At the same time, we can see countries that already gave up to promote the Junior Category and they are now focused in Under30 with great success and is in this moment when another question pops up: Is the Under30 the path to follow? It looks like to me that most, if not all, of the obstacles listed before fade away from 25-27 years old, so maybe it is possible to think that this is the way to go.

It is the decision of the SCIRA Board to analyze, with numbers, the impact in the last 15-20 years and to decide if it is worth to keep a category that it is going through countless hardships or change the categories structure to adapt the new times: Under30 (no more Juniors), Senior and, raise the age for Masters to 50 to make “room” for the Senior category.

Coming back to the initial question, in my opinion, yes, Under22 category is on the path to extinction and a lot of sailors will quit if we do not act properly and quick.

However, the question is open, and I really believe that it would be very healthy for the class to have this discussion/conversation/opinions from everyone leaving aside any personal interest.

Note: The “Exchange of Views and Reading” section of this website hosts the views of the Snipe Sailors.

This article represents a personal opinion, which may not coincide with the official opinion or view of the Class or other sailors. We deem it useful to discuss (naturally avoiding offensive content) various topics relating to our Class, to allow for an open and democratic discussion, as has always been the case on SnipeToday for more than a decade.

Dear readers, if you want to reply to this article, agreeing, or disagreeing, or proposing different solutions, I will be happy to host you in this section of the site (email to: [email protected])

Pietro Fantoni (SnipeToday Editor).