A Class and Fleet Development Activity 1

What is “The Great Snipe Hunt” The Great Snipe Hunt is a fleet building activity aimed at locating missing snipe hulls and inactive members across the country which will benefit and help grow the class overall. Missing snipe boats are boats that have not been registered in the past few years which could be re- found and made available for sale, charter, or loan Inactive members are past members who have not registered in the past few years which could be available to borrow, charter, or repurchase a boat, crew for others in a pinch, or volunteer time to helping the fleet grow 2

How the idea started – Annapolis fleet building activity What we did in Annapolis This year we began to mine data collected over the past few years to call inactive members and identify boats not sailing for loan, charter, or sale. We were able to grow local fleet participation from an average of 5-7 boats to boats on the line for weekend regattas by having available boats to loan and people interested in sailing them. We had approximately 30 new people sail with us this year leading to the purchase of 2 boats and an active interest for 3-4 additional purchases We are working on a strategy to identify all the available snipes in the Annapolis area to catalogue available boats for loan, charter, or purchase How can this idea expand As we began to develop this concept, we realized this could benefit all fleets and the class in general We propose that the Snipe US BOD sponsor a country-wide effort to locate unused or little used snipes and inactive members to be provided to local fleet captains as a part of a larger program to grow the class from the fleet level 3

Why do we need it Overall class membership and boat registrations have been in a state of decline over the past several years. Analysis of memberships reports obtained from the US class office for annual numbers going back to 2005 shows a 32% decline in numbers for a loss of 201 boats registered. Analysis of SCIRA on-line database shows loss of 365 boats in the US registered since 2005 Total Lost Boats = 201(US Office Numbers) 365 (SCIRA Numbers) Total Lost Revenue (at minimum)= $12,060/year (US Office Numbers) $21,900/year (SCIRA Numbers) Boat registration$7,035$12,775 Membership Fee*$5,025$9,125 Regatta Fees?????? * Lost membership fees could be higher as a % of lost members might be premium members 4 Chart data analysis details for district and fleets which are below class requirements or at risk are included in an appendix

What do we need to do to make it work BOD Sponsorship Promotion of the concept – tone from the top Publication – web site and Snipe Sailor magazine Time – coordination of District Governors to ensure results are obtained Possible budget for promotional prizes to encourage participation Minimize through collection of donations/sponsorship Fleet Development Working Group Identify data, generate reports, develop survey questions for fleet captain use and collection of additional data Distribute reports and track results Develop recommendations for enhancements to data stores and on-going use models Involvement of District Governors Coordinate fleet captains use of reports, collection of result data Contact or delegate contact for boats and members not attached to a fleet Involvement of Fleet Captains Contact missing boat owners and inactive members to collect data Drive fleet and class membership increases 5

Questions ??? 6

Workgroup Activities Status Data source analysis - Started Identify datasets that can be used to generate missing boat reports. International and US datasets may need to be reconciled to generate a more complete report Define dataset that needs to be maintained to track boat hull and activity/use to prevent future loss of boats Snipe Hunt Initial Data Reports - Started Generate a report of boats registered in the past but not recently Assign lists of missing boats to fleet captains where they had been attached or for unattached boats to District Governors Define data collection and reporting from fleet to district to committee to US/International class office Set schedules for communications and data collection 1 month (by mid Feb) to identify and generate missing boat reports. Includes breakout of follow up responsibilities. 1 months (by mid March) to track down missing boats and report findings 1 month (by mid April) to consolidate report data and populate data sources Fleets to begin using data on missing boats to generate active use of previously missing boats (on-going) Consolidate received data and populate data sources Develop on-going data maintenance and access strategies Define processes for on-going follow up reporting on lack of boat activity (registration and/or actual regatta participations Implement procedures to generate periodic missing boat reports and follow up enquires (pushed down to local fleet) 7

Boat Loss – District 1 8 Green = Fleets Meeting Class Rule Standard of 5 boats per fleet Yellow = Fleets with marginal number of 3 to 5 boats Red = Fleets below minimum numbers for fleet qualification Legend:

Boat Loss – District 2 9 Green = Fleets Meeting Class Rule Standard of 5 boats per fleet Yellow = Fleets with marginal number of 3 to 5 boats Red = Fleets below minimum numbers for fleet qualification Legend:

Boat Loss – District 3 10 Green = Fleets Meeting Class Rule Standard of 5 boats per fleet Yellow = Fleets with marginal number of 3 to 5 boats Red = Fleets below minimum numbers for fleet qualification Legend:

Boat Loss – District 4 11 Green = Fleets Meeting Class Rule Standard of 5 boats per fleet Yellow = Fleets with marginal number of 3 to 5 boats Red = Fleets below minimum numbers for fleet qualification Legend:

Boat Loss – District 6 12 Green = Fleets Meeting Class Rule Standard of 5 boats per fleet Yellow = Fleets with marginal number of 3 to 5 boats Red = Fleets below minimum numbers for fleet qualification Legend:

Boat Loss – District 7 13 Green = Fleets Meeting Class Rule Standard of 5 boats per fleet Yellow = Fleets with marginal number of 3 to 5 boats Red = Fleets below minimum numbers for fleet qualification Legend: