RS Sailing International Blog – June 2018
By Dan Jaspers – RS Sailing International Business Development
As the World’s largest small sailboat manufacturer, we are responsible for distributing over 3,000 boats per year to customers on every continent. This level of engagement with sailors has helped us to recognise that the sport and physical activity in general play an important role in the growth and development of people of all ages. With this in mind, we consider ourselves to be the ‘Brand of Participation’
We believe that if future generations of participants in the sport of sailing are to enjoy life-long physical activity, as well as being provided with the opportunities to achieve personal excellence at the highest levels of the competitive side of our sport, we need to focus on providing sailors with boats that are designed to perfectly suit their needs, at all stages of their personal skill development and no matter what their age or physical ability.
To help both our current as well as future customers make the most informed purchase decisions as far as what boats in the RS range would be most suitable for their specific sailing programs, we have developed what we are calling the RS Equipment Pathway.
This important resource is designed to show how RS sailing dinghies, multihulls and Keelboats can be used in ‘learn to sail’ and also ‘train to race’ related sailing activity and provides a visual illustration of examples of how to set up one-person, crewed (dinghies / Catamarans and Keelboats) and Para Sailing related ‘pathways’. The guide also shows how RS boats can be used as ‘feeder classes’ to help develop skills required to sail in classes of equipment used in international level competitions such as the Youth Worlds and Olympic Games.
A downloadable copy of the RS Equipment Pathway is available here
The fundamental principle of the Equipment Pathway is based on the needs of the sailor and is therefore ‘participant centred’. To make best use of the Equipment Pathway resource it is important to understand why both young people and adults want to sail. Developing Physical Literacy (i.e. competence in fundamental movement skills for sport and physical activity) is a key part of ensuring sailors enjoy their experiences afloat.
All boats in our range have been designed to fulfil specific needs of sailors.
Boats such as the RS Tera, RS Zest, RS Quest, RS Venture and the Cat 14 / Cat16 are supporting our international efforts to grow in grass roots sailing, whereas the likes of the RS Feva, RS Aero, RS200 and RS500 have been developed with the more performance sailor in mind.
For more information on which boat/s in our range would be suitable for your specific sailing program, contact us via the dedicated International Business Development page of the RS Website.
