Last week I spent a couple of days sailing my Wanderer dinghy around Poole Harbour with an old friend. I wrote up a 'Cruising Log' as is the done thing.

The Wanderer Class Owners Association website offers exemplary information plus instant access to experts and experience. It's a major resource for someone new to this class of dinghy.

Reading the report of the 2004 Class Association AGM, I was intrigued to read that some members of the class felt that having such an excellent resource available for free to all on the web might be a threat to the long-term health of the (20 quid a year) Wanderer Class Owners Association.

Hmm... so the fact that lots *more* people than ever before can read loads of great info about the Wanderer dinghy, can organise cruises together, can access shared expertise is a *bad* thing?? Run that past me again?

I suppose that after a while, all public-good organisations conflate their continued existence with the furtherance of their initial aims, blind to the risk that new ways and means of furthering their initial aims might have rendered their long-standing modus operandi redundant.