Falling Attendance at CVRDA Rallys

and what is happening with the CVRDA today?
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Spiderman
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Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:25 pm

Falling Attendance at CVRDA Rallys

Post by Spiderman »

It seems to me that particularly over the last couple of seasons that attendances at many of the CVRDA rally’s has been declining. I suspect that there are probably a number of reasons for this, but maybe we need to think about a strategy to reverse the trend before we lose some of our favourite venues. Some clubs may be reluctant to host CVRDA events if they think that the number of entries will be too low to make it worth their effort.

The proposed changes to the eligibility criteria may well attract a wider audience provided we can get the word out there. There may also be other things that we can consider doing in an effort to boost the numbers back up so if anyone has some good ideas or viable suggestions as to how we can tackle this then please let's hear them.

Maybe we can have an informal discussion on this topic at the Roadford event to help us to identify a few options?

I realise that house moves, injuries, pressure of work and changes in personal circumstances have kept a few people away this year, but I don’t think that’s the whole story?

Any thoughts?

Best Regards

Ian
sam mason
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Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:18 pm

Re: Falling Attendance at CVRDA Rallys

Post by sam mason »

From my point of view the last couple of years have just staggered from one personal disaster straight into the next so I am barely sailing at all much less travelling but things must improve. Surely?
The number for the Hykeham meeting has fallen progressively for the past 3 years 12- 10-6 and the committee wont accept another poor year and still run a meeting. I can see no reason for the fall off but it seems general across a lot of classes so perhaps things are not just confined to us.


Maybe we need to spread the net a bit wider. Built before 1985 means every thing is now 20 years older than it was at the start maybe we need to move the goal posts a little. The quantum jump came in the early 90s with the advent of mass produced FRP so. maybe we should consider wood built before 1990 and any construction pre 1985
Travel distance is also a major consideration as the boats get older so do the sailors. Perhaps we should try to limit the number of meetings to one per month (I seem to remember that was suggested before) but quite how that will work when clubs have to fit us in.

I will not be at Roadford this year due to circumstances beyond my controll AGAIN but wish you all a good weekend
Sam
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PeterV
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Re: Falling Attendance at CVRDA Rallys

Post by PeterV »

I wonder, like Sam, if there's too many events and if that's having an effect. Despite being retired now I don't just go sailing so this year decided to do just 2 CVRDA events and 2 Finn events. If I'm free on an extra weekend I might do one or 2 more, but I'm not prioritising that.

We're probably back to what we've said many times before, an event should mainly be supported by classic boats in that club, rather than relying on a big influx of visitors, and I think this could also be where some events are failing.
PeterV
Finn K197 & GBR564
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chris
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Re: Falling Attendance at CVRDA Rallys

Post by chris »

yes house move is my our main excuse. So far this year Clywedog has been our only time on the water at all this year, but we will be at Roadford. We now live three hours drive west of the Severn bridge on the M4 so any journey is long. For the last nineteen years we have done as many events as we have been able but probably will be doing fewer now.
As mentioned above more than one event in a month is one too many. What is the best number for the year?
Tricky as it is good to go to new venues but counter productive if too few turn up. And ,as said, the priority is to get local boats out. Expecting a club to dedicate a day in their calendar for the cvrda may expect too much. Perhaps we should ask to join in their open day or even a days club racing if that works for them.
It is a problem throughout many clubs. We are now on the Cleddau estuary in Pembrokeshire ; good clubs with great water are cancelling races as they don't have the support to run them. Not a unique situation.
Michael Brigg
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Re: Falling Attendance at CVRDA Rallys

Post by Michael Brigg »

Perhaps I am not the best to comment as I have not attended a CVRDA meeting for a long time but my feeling is that like Oscar Wilde, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

When I was Captain of Boats at a minor college boat club, I would deliberately enter Regattas where there were several schools also competing. This meant competing away from our small university pond. And then I would ensure we split into smaller boats also. And also entered 2nd crews. We lost most of our races that year, but, the next year we had record numbers of experienced oarsmen popping up in the Societies fair.

We need more "word of mouth" publicity and the meetings we have must come out of the closet more by racing in places where there is a larger captive audience.

With no offence to Clwyedog, who have always given massive support, meeting at a rather inaccesible reservoir in Wales for most members is twice is expensive than a week-end, and it can't be good for classic boats to trail so far always on bumpy b-roads.The coastal road links are also usually easier (if week-end traffic can be avoided.) So what does Clweydog do to continue to attract this assosiation?

It has a decent classic fleet of its own, a spectacular position and delivers a warm welcome every year. Sadly however it is almost invisible and deserves so much more return.

The CVRDA is likely to be welcomed at clubs that are small as we can partially improve fleet numbers and Bar takings over a week end.

But, to improve our visibility, and with that recruitment we need to be selecting a smaller number of meetings, with a bigger visible footfall at relevant open meetings.

We also need to make our forum more active again and avoid being seduced across onto the facebok forums.

Big meetings to target include:
Chichester Harbour week. (10 entrants will win a separate place in the start order!)
Bosham Classic Revival Week
Etc Etc. Please add on any other meeting you know.

The point is the if we want people to cone to our rallies, we have to go to theirs.
Michael Brigg
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