The View from JC's Coach Boat

There have been many individuals, multihull fleets, and organizations, who have worked over the years to get youth on the water aboard multihulls. Perhaps the most successful effort to get youth on catamarans has been put forth by the Hobie Class Assosiation. The Hobie Class Association’s decades-long youth sailing program has put hundreds of youth on the water; mostly aboard the long-lived Hobie 16, and there have been Hobie Youth events held for years. The simple family nature of early recreational beachcat sailing dictated that younger sailors get involved, not to mention that youth are drawn to the speed and excitement. There have been hundreds of others over the years.

To add reality to getting youth on the water, we thought that it’d be a good idea to check in with our friend John Casey. JC, a multiple time Alter Cup Champion, F18 National Champ, and race winner aboard various multi and mono hulls, has spent a good deal of time and effort getting youth on the water aboard fast multis. JC, who will sail pretty much anything that floats, was crew aboard the boat that recently won the Melges Gold Cup, has worked tirelessly with the Sarasota Sailing Squadron teaching youth sailing. Here is JC’s take on youth sailing, and the recent AC/ Red Bull Youth Boat announcement.

SailRev: What’s happening in the world of multi sailing, JC?

JC:

We’ve got a lot of events coming up. We’ve got the Olympics, F18 events, the F16 class is taking off. We’ve got all kinds of things happening.

SailRev:

Yeah, it’s a pretty busy year for beach cat events here in the U.S. especially.

JC:

It really is.

SailRev:

Let’s talk about your past, as far as what you’ve done to promote youth sailing, and especially aboard multihulls?

JC:

I’ve worked a lot with the Sarasota Youth Sailing Program, who are pretty much the only club here in the US that has a youth sailing program aboard multihulls. The club has actually bought quite a few F18s, and they’re getting two Falcons coming in this week. The club itself is going to have about 8 multihulls, not including member boats. I was working on trying to promote the F16 to a lot of clubs, to try and get boats in the clubs for youth sailing. We had this idea to try and get beach cats into clubs, and it didn’t really go that well. Most clubs said that they didn’t have enough room, and the parents thought that the boats were too expensive, and too dangerous. There are ways around them taking up too much space, you get what you pay for, and they really aren’t dangerous when you’re taught how to sail one. I felt like I was going against the yacht club grain. So this America’s Cup on multihulls has really changed the parent’s idea of what sailing is now. I think it’s really interesting. This weekend I’m headed off to coach Ravi and Erick, really good and motivated juniors here in Florida, and there are quite a few teams asking for coaching. It’s great to finally see people wanting quality coaching in multis.

SailRev:

Do you attribute that mostly to the America’s Cup being run on catamarans?

JC:

Well, even before the AC45s, with the Olympics coming back, even before the Olympics were going to be run aboard a really cool, light, powerful, curved foil Nacra 17, the kids were getting excited about multis in the Olympics. The way it all happened together is what did it. The AC45s, the Olympics, and forget about the 72s, the kids think that the AC45s are the coolest things ever. They don’t even need the 72s. Early on, they were talking about the AC45 being the junior America’s Cup, and then you didn’t hear anything for a long time, and then you thought, maybe they think that the 45s are too powerful and the kids can’t sail them. Then they come back with this, and it kicked it up another notch. The kids are really excited.

SailRev:

So you’ve gotten feedback directly from the youth that they’re really excited about the Red Bull AC45?

JC:

I really have. The parents are checking this stuff out, and it’s becoming more accepted. You know, the America’s Cup being the big boys club, and beach cats, in general, even the Tornado, isn’t a boat the yachties appreciated. It’s always been fringed, it’s always not really had the money from the parents and families that wanted to do it. The bottom line is the parents with money buy the boats they want to buy. And now, they look around at the AC45s, and the Olympics, and think, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’ For the junior sailors, it’s just like when I was growing up, the Stars and Stripes racing against the big J Boat the Kiwis came up with KZ-1 in ’86. That’s what got me into sailing. That’s what got me into catamaran racing. The same thing is happening now. So here it is, for me, what 30 years later (Laughs)?

SailRev:

How do you feel about Red Bull getting involved?

JC:

Think about the exposure that Red Bull brings! I mean, I watch all of the Red Bull videos, you know, BASE Jumping, jumping cars over rivers, snowboarding, double back flips. I watch all that stuff too. Just the exposure, you’re going to see the car jumping over the river, then you’re going to see an AC45. That’s putting sailing into the spotlight. And finally, I think that the Red Bull helmets look cool. The other helmets look so cheesy (Laughs). They’re going to bring that wow factor to the sport that has not been there. You and I worked with Red Bull in Boston for the Extreme Sailing Series, and Red Bull was the company that did it up. They had the skydivers coming in, and the Red Bull girls walking around.

They were marketing it, and they’re going to make the whole sailing world step up one level. So now they’re going to bring in the Youth Teams with 6 crew on board, which will be pretty good, and it’s going to be crazy. You saw Russell huffing and puffing, they need some youth (Laughs)!

SailRev:

Russel is 50 years old and sailing on that beast!

JC:

I’m impressed with that guy. Not just winning all of those Americas Cups and being one of the best sailors on the planet, he said, ‘Look, I’m not going to just drive, I’m going to get in there and work my ass off.’ On top of it he’s the CEO too! That’s crazy! I saw him wearing the Red Bull Helmet, that’s pretty funny (Laughs).

SailRev:

If you were in charge of the Red Bull/AC Youth Sailing Team, how would you like to see it develop?

JC:

Well, the talent base is there. I’d make a show out of it. I’d have all the kids submit resumes by the end of the year, and New Year, I’d be, ‘Happy New Year, kid, you’re on the team! I think that there are going to be resumes coming in from kids like crazy from all over the place. So you’ll have to be able to distinguish the talent side of it. The crossover is there, I mean look at the 49er guys killing it. You can’t say that that cat sailors come first or visa versa. So I would have some type of tryout process. But they want teams to submit with six juniors, well not true juniors because they can sign a contract, but younger talent, and pay an entry fee. That takes a lot of the structure out of the organizers hands and brings down costs. I understand that.

The teams will really have to train; they’re going to need sailing and fitness coaches and infrastructure. The organizers need to have a program for coaching and training as well. We’re talking about a really short period of time here, so they’ll have to get on it. I would do it a little different, and make it resume based and pick 18 to 20 kids, you know, the cream of the crop, and go from there. The kids that get selected would be able to make a reality show out of it. The AC website has used YouTube to the max, and there’s no reason they can’t do it with the Youth AC as well. Kids are going to see these youth teams with the Red Bull helmets on sending it, and it’s going to blow up pretty big. It’s about time that cat sailing is recognized a little bit! Every kid that I’ve ever taken out has gone crazy for it. When I went to the Youth Nationals with the F16, kids were actually getting mad at me when I had to quit for the day! I wish I had 10 boats, so that all the kids could get a ride. Once we get over that parent hurdle that I was talking about, it’s all good.

SailRev:

Do you think developing the program on smaller cats would be the right way to go?

JC:

Absolutely. Look at most of the AC guys, many of them have A Cats and other small multis. I mean, for the Nacra 17, the Olympic boat, the F16 is viewed as a stepping stone. I think that they should definitely have that sort of program and teams that want to get a jump should get more than one smaller cat now, like a couple Cirrus R F18s!

SailRev:

Great, JC. So to change topics a little, I heard through the grapevine that you’re Olympic campaign aboard the Nacra 17 has gotten the green light.

(Laughs) All I can say is that it’s happening. I’ve got to get the structure of it all into place. You know, the boat hasn’t been made, and we probably won’t get one until August or September, so right now I’m mostly focusing on the F18 Worlds. A definite Olympic Campaign is coming.

SailRev:

Good Luck with that, JC. Great to chat.

JC:

Nice, man. See you soon.