The 505 Fleet 9 exhibited at the NY/NJ SAIL EXPO at Liberty Landing Marina at New York Harbor, Jersey City, NJ, USA ,September 25 - 28.

The stand was organized by Fleet 9 Captain, John Wyles, assisted by Fred Leisegang, Doug De Cout, Shea Thorvaldsen and Mike Breton.

Liberty Landings was a great venue. The backdrop to the show was the New York Downtown skyline. Picture above was taken from the ferry from Battery Park City. The famous Colgate Clock is still there on the right despite the extensive developments in Jersey City.

The 505 Class was the only One Design Class Association at the event. Our outdoor space, 10’ x 30’ was squeezed between Precision Sail Boats and Kids Aboard. At least we were eventually connected to a power point and able to run a TV/video showing the Aussie Worlds 2002.

We had some camping chairs and a few visitors took up our offer to relax and watch the videos. At times the breeze was quite strong so we were not able to hoist any sails. The Hobbie Tiger nearby flying a spinnaker jumped off its trailer a couple of times!

The attendance at the show was lower than Atlantic City. Thursday was relatively good, it was sunny. Friday we met Horst Petersen, an ex-470 crew, who bounced with enthusiasm at the sight of the 505 (he subsequently crewed at the NEC’s for John & Shea). Another interesting visitor was Alberto MacKenzie, apparently an Italian FD Olympic sailor, of the same vintage as John. His wife a Laser sailor and was very keen. They came back later to watch the video and took away the info leaflet. Trying to persuade him that he was not too old was the challenge!

Sunday was very wet! (but dry for the breakdown)

The dates of the show clashed with major keelboat regattas on Long Island Sound keeping many active sailors away over the weekend. (on John’s day off he ended up crewing on a keelboat at American Yacht Club and met two crew who sailed at the NEC’s). The most appreciative visitors to the stand were industry reps glad to the 505 Class still active and wishing they had the opportunity to sail them.

There was plenty of activity on the Kids Aboard stand, with a steady flow of kids being taught to wield power drills, hammers and paint brushes. Sometimes we were a little too close to the activity with paint flying everywhere, especially on the kids.

The boats the kids built were launched on Sunday in the Harbor. Maybe they will remember the cool boat on the stand behind them!

Great little program, for more info go to: www.KidsAboard.com.

Was it worth it?

We only made contact with one new member at the show.

We were unable to get any cash sponsorship to cover the entry fee and insurance, about $500. All incidental expenses, travel, etc. were covered by the volunteers. At least we did not have a hotel bill.

"I'm not so sure it was a great use of association funds. Although I enjoyed hanging out all day at the show catching rays with Fred & Mike, and napping, I'm don't think this show was the right sort of crowd -- it was essentially too recreational. I think we might have talked seriously to 2 or 3 people all day, including the guy from Long Island who had come the day before. And truthfully the 505 is a hard sell. You're only going to successfully convince someone who has already convinced themselves.

On the other hand it may be of some benefit to just to expose the 505 as a high-performance boat and remind people that it's still around." - Douglas De Couto

"I think Doug's last point is actually quite important. We do need to let it be known we and the 505 are around. Even if we only get the 2 or 3 seriously interested people actually sailing, that is a seed for growth. We are a small numbers association so we need every one we can get. So I think the money and time and effort of all was indeed well spent." - Mike Breton

"I think doing the show was a good thing, and I see no problem using class funds to help promote the class. Making it happen is a lot of work, and takes several volunteers to do. From my observations, we got no new members from the Atlantic City show, and no real commitments from anyone at this one, although several did sound promising. I think we need a more surgical approach, John and Shea discussed taking a few boats out to various venues, like colleges, and doing a show there to an audience more likely to be interested in high performance dinghies.

Ali Meller told me at the show last winter that he thought it was good to show the class to the public to keep our presence out there, but every year isn't necessary, and I would tend to agree. I enjoyed being involved with both shows, but so far I don't see a good enough return to go forth with another." - Fred Leisegang

"I have been involved in four Sail Expo’s with the 505 class association. It’s a lot of work for the organizer. While it is good to have the boat “out there” the shows are not where we pick up new members. In the four days of the show we met one definite new member. I found two in one day sailing a keel boat on my day off from the show.

Atlantic City is possibly a better show, it’s undercover , there are more One Design Associations and more visitors.

Maybe we should do AC or NY/NJ if it is at a better time, every two years to keep in touch. I was not very successful in getting sponsorship.

The rest of the time our recruiting efforts have to be where the sailing is, at our Clubs and at mixed fleet regattas." - John Wyles