SAILING:AROUND THE country, amateur yacht series are cranking up towards top gear as the peak summer months beckon. But the perennial problem for boat-owning skippers of finding, and keeping, competent crew for boats in the mid-to-large "cruiser-racers" grows ever more acute.

Last year's Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) conference heard the legendary sailmaker Des McWilliam (recently associated with One Sails) warn of "sailing's budgies in the mineshaft" when he spoke of a mass exodus of racing stalwarts to the growing phenomenon of the White Sails division.

Such fleets feature a more relaxed approach to competition in which the established Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) almost take a back seat to "nod and wink" handicapping and scoring. Yet the better-organised of these fleets, also known as "non-spinnaker" and "gentleman's" classes, are developing common rules and objectives to ensure consistency.

Classes in Dublin and Howth have unified and ultimately hope to gain favour throughout the country, all in the name of preserving the "tea and muffins" ethos of White Sails.

A recent report cited "boats that previously raced in Class II but whose owners are downsizing crews, getting furling jibs and thinking more about cruising" flocking to the new division, and clearly outnumbering owners who have found a taste for racing and switched to the "hot" fleets.

McWilliams's forecast is proving all too accurate. The abandonment by some owners of the traditional racing classes is indicative of unrest.

McWilliams's views come from decades as a trusted sailmaker and designer/constructor of racing yachts, a role that brings him afloat with dozens of crews each year as he optimises new wardrobes and assists with technique. But the mere presence of a professional near a traditionally amateur sport has in the past seriously ruffled the feathers of old-school types.

Carefully evolved systems for categorising sailors' eligibility to compete in certain types of regattas now maintain segregation between the "rock stars" and true Corinthian amateurs not to mention an in-between grade for the unsure.

The influence of professional sailors has, however, had a trickle-down effect in raising the game of the very best crews at amateur level, in turn creating a gulf between the prize-winners and the bulk of the racing crews, from which latter grouping the bulk of the White Sails boats emerge.

That factor has helped fuel the crewing crisis at cruiser-racer and other sectors of the sport.

Yet solutions exist that offer hope of offsetting both issues.

Professional sailors offer useful skills garnered from their full-time occupations of making boats win regattas - and without risk of tarnish to Corinthian values.

North Sails Ireland's own Maurice O'Connell is another such coach putting years of experience on the professional as well as the Olympic circuits to good use by taking club-level crews afloat, on their own boats and working out specific deckwork and team routines.

The modern approach to crew management extends beyond good communication and practised drills in racing scenarios.

For a small investment of time, a vastly improved commitment from a crew results.

The alternative is further haemorrhaging to the White Sails fleets.