Should Children Compete?

With the advent of yet younger and younger sailors setting off to sail the world single handed, creating another record of dubious significance, the world of sailing is mumbling about the sense of it all. I am one of the mumblers.

It reminds me of the long and acrimonious debate held in the International Sailing Federation some 7 or 8 years ago, I’m a little foggy about when bit it was during the reign of Paul Henderson as President. Paul was horrified by what he described as child abuse and cited an incident he claimed he saw during a major youth regatta when a coach gave a cigarette to a young teenage competitor to calm her nerves.

Fired with his usual passion, Paul challenged the Youth and Development Committee of which I was a member, to the task of coming up with a solution. The wise and judicious Chairman at the time, my colleague from Portugal, Carlos Ribeiro Ferreira, quickly passed it on to me.

Surprisingly, it was an interesting project. After considerable research, I could not find any survey that would back an argument showing that high level competition stress situations would harm young children. In passing, there is strong evidence on a daily basis that it is harmful to their parents and any other adult that is involved. But that is another story. Look as I may I could find very little except that a few other sports like gymnastics were investigating the question.

But inclined to ignore the thunder clouds on the horizon, I sailed on and put the proposal that children under the age of twelve should not be allowed to compete in World Championship Sailing events.

When the paper hit the table, all hell broke loose. At the next Youth and Development
meeting, the normally empty galleries were packed with what looked like a pride of hungry lions out on a hunt.

Unperturbed, I embarked on my monologue unaware of the grunts and groans and general
rumbling from the cheap seats. Immediately I had finished, a sea of hands shot up from the observers all wanting to air their strongly held views. From the general tone of their remarks I almost came to the conclusion that I was the thing from the dark side seeking nothing else but the souls of their loved ones. I was shocked but, and here’s a real but, not daunted.

For the next year, the email exchange was fast and furious. The camps were divided by those
who only wanted my blood and those who wanted my head on a plate as well.

The strongest opposition came from the International Optimist Dinghy Class Association,
hotly pursued by the International Cadet Dinghy Class and a myriad of other minor players.

At the Barcelona ISAF AGM, the atmosphere was so tense that Paul decided that there
should be a working party to solve the differences. It was made up of primarily, of the President of the IODA Class, Helen Mary Wilkes, for the opposition and me for the defence. The late Nucci Ceppellini, a Vice President at the time and no faint hearted woman, was to be the umpire.

Very little was accomplished and finally, when my proposal hit the Council table they gave
up in disgust and it was defeated with a sigh of relief.

What I subsequently realised and should have known as a parent, is that both the parents
and their children crave the stress. Yes, that’s right, forget all the nonsense you read about having a calm and peaceful parent and child relationship, both love the adrenalin rush of madcap adventures and anybody, like me, that stands in their way is likely to be drowned in the tidal wave.