This thesis explores the process of elite sport policy change in three sports (swimming, athletics and sailing/yachting) in Canada and the United Kingdom (UK). The nature of policy change is a complex and multi-faceted process and a primary aim of the study is to identify and analyse key sources of policy change in four elements of elite sport programming: i) the development of elite level facilities; ii) the emergence of 'full-time' swimmers, athletes and sailors; iii) the adoption of a more professional and scientific approach to coaching, sports science and sports medicine; and iv) competition opportunities and structures at the elite level. The study focuses on the meso-level of analysis, which centres on the structures and patterns of relationships in respect of three Canadian national sporting organisations (NSOs) and three UK national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) - representing the three sports cited above. The macro-level of analysis is also considered, where the primary concern is to analyse relations of power between governmenta nd quasi-governmentasl porting agenciesa nd the respective NSOs/NGBs. A case study approach is adopted, focusing on the six NSOs/NGBs, wherein a qualitative methodology is utilised in order to elicit data in respect of policy change in the four key elements of elite sport programming set out above. Within the case study approach, the advocacy coalition framework has proved useful in drawing attention to the notion of changing values and belief systems as a key source of policy change, as well as highlighting the need to take into account factors external to the policy subsystem under investigation. In Canada, it is evident that the preoccupation with high performance sport over the past 30 years, at federal government level, has perceptibly altered over the past two to three years. In contrast, in the UK, from the mid-1990s onwards, there has been a noticeable shift towards supporting elite sport objectives from both Conservative and Labour administrations. The study concludes that it is only by exploring specific sports through a comparative-analytic framework that a better understanding of policy change, within the complex and multi-layered sport policy process, might be achieved.

Title: Racing of physically disabled sailors on 2,4 mR class Object of the work: Compare control of a ship by two physically disabled individuals who are able to perform circuit racing sailing on 2.4mRclass. Methods: Case study of sailing of physically disabled on ship 2.4mR class. Results: The results show that sailing of physically disabled is much more demanding sport than other sports for the disabled. Further, they show what individual handicaps complications bring and subsequent overcoming of these obstacles. Finally, these results may help to improve conditions in various clubs, to build wheelchair access, technical solutions of boats or in general the expansion of this sport for the disabled. Keywords: handicap, sailing, technique, training, race, analysis

Esta pesquisa lança seu olhar para os fundamentos de um fenômeno que caminha com a humanidade: o Velejar. Mesmo com o desenvolvimento de tantas tecnologias que propiciam tipos de navegação variados, o uso da vela continua atual, seja como transporte, como brincadeira ou como esporte. O fenômeno, entretanto, extrapola sua utilidade: nitidamente velejar, para os velejadores, é mais do que atravessar o meio líquido utilizando a força do vento. Os velejadores - aqui sujeitos da experiência - dão significados à prática e fazem dela algo para a qual vale a pena retornar. Para investigar estes significados e sentidos, esta pesquisa busca colocar em palavras o que há de especial na prática de velejar a partir da perspectiva dos próprios velejadores. É por meio de uma ampla pesquisa de campo - onde se convive, veleja e dialoga com velejadores esportistas, velejadores pescadores artesanais e velejadores expedicionistas que se identificam elementos recorrentes e significativos para os que a praticam. Junto a esses elementos, foram agregadas as próprias experiências da autora, velejadora esportista. Com registro de imagens, entrevistas e descrições do vivido, as análises ancoram-se no arcabouço da fenomenologia da imaginação material de Gaston Bachelard, desvelando os gestos, os fascínios, as provocações e as diferentes sensibilidades presentes nessa modalidade tão antiga quanto atual. Competição e contemplação, aventura e passeio, tradição e modernidade, ritos iniciáticos e formativos, elementos materiais e suas provocações, entre outros, unem-se no propósito de desvendar uma prática que se revela complexa e inteira e que tem alto poder de aderência e manutenção presentes nas ressonâncias simbólicas. O sonho de habitar as águas e dominar o vento, de maneira íntima e próxima a partir de uma vela e um casco, é deste modo, constantemente atualizado no corpo dos velejadores / This research eyes on the foundations of a phenomenon that goes forward together with humanity: the Sailing. Despite the technology development, which provides many navigation forms, the sailing remains actual, whether as transportation, as a hobby or as a sport. The Sailing extrapolates its utility. For the sailor\'s point of view, the sailing is clearly more than just crossing a liquid environment using the wind force. The sailors, who is the experience subject, assign meaning to the practice of sailing and make it something that is worth returning to. To investigate these meanings and senses, this research seeks to put into words what is special in the practice of sailing from the sailors perspective. Through an extensive field research, where I could live, practice and interact with other sailing athletes, artisanal fishermen, and expeditionist sailors, I identified recurring and significant elements for those who practice the Sailing. Along with these elements, my experience as a sailor has also been added to this research. Using pictures, interviews, and descriptions of different experiences, the analysis of this work is anchored in the framework of Gaston Bachelard\'s phenomenology of material imagination, revealing from the reports, the gestures, the fascinations, the provocations, and the different sensibilities present in this modality which is as ancient as it is actual. Competition and contemplation, adventure and tour, tradition and modernity, initiatory and formative rites, material elements and their provocations, among others, unite in the purpose of unveiling a practice that turns out to be complex. The dream of live in the water and dominate the wind using a sail and a hull is constantly updated in the body of the sailors in a closely and intimately way

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering; and, (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING / Includes bibliographical references. / by Graham Taber Skinner. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Cheryl Ward, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology. Title and description from dissertation home page (June 17, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Darbo aktualumas: Buriuotojai ir bėgikai turi gerai išvystytą šlaunies ketugalvio raumenį. Raumenų disbalansas, neadekvati jėga ar netinkama judesių amplitudė yra svarbūs rizikos veiksniai, sąlygojantys kelio traumas. Labiau išsivystęs keturgalvio raumuo padeda sumažinti antagonistų užpakalinių šlaunies raumenų aktyvaciją, tačiau tokiu būdu padidėja rizika priekinio kryžminio raiščio traumoms. Žinios apie sportininkų raumenų disbalansą ir raumenų silpnumą treneriams bei kineziterapeutams padėtų sumažinti kelio sąnario traumas. Tyrimo tikslas: Nustatyti buriuotojų, atliekančių laivo guldymą ant šono, ir bėgikų izokinetinę raumenų jėgą. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Įvertinti buriuotojų ir bėgikų šlaunies raumenų jėgą. 2. Palyginti buriuotojų ir vidutinių nuotolių bėgikų jėgos disbalansą tarp keturgalvio ir užpakalinių šlaunies raumenų. 3. Palyginti vyrų ir moterų šlaunies raumenų disbalansą. Tyrimo metodai ir organizavimas: Tyrimas buvo atliktas Lietuvos kūno kultūros akademijoje „Žmogaus motorikos“ laboratorijoje. Tyrime dalyvavo Olimpinės „Laser“ klasės buriuotojai ir vidutinių nuotolių bėgikai. Tyrime dalyvavo 30 tiriamųjų, pirmąją grupę sudarė buriuotojai (7 moterys ir 8 vyrai), antrąją grupę sudarė vidutinių nuotolių bėgikai (5 moterys ir 10 vyrų). Tyrimo metu buvo tiriama blauzdos lenkiamųjų ir tiesiamųjų raumenų maksimali jėga, esant skirtingiems kampiniams greičiams. Išvados: 1. Buriuotojų, atliekančių laivo guldymą ant šono, keturgalvio ir užpakalinių šlaunies raumenų jėga... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Sailors and runners have a well-developed thigh muscles. Muscle imbalance force and range of motion are important risk factors influencing injury. Highly developed quadriceps muscle contributes to decreased antagonist hamstrings coactivation, thereby increasing susceptibility to anterior cruciate ligament injury. Knowledge of muscle imbalance and muscle weakness helps to reduce knee injuries in athletes for coaches and physical physiotherapists. Purpose: To set sailors who hiking and a midle-distance runners isokinetic muscle strength. Subjects: 1. To evaluate sailors and a long distance runner’s thigh muscle strength. 2. To compare sailors and long distance runner’s muscles between the quadriceps and hamstring muscles strength ratio. 3. To compare male and female thigh muscle imbalance quadriceps and hamstring muscles. Research methods and organization: Study was carried out in Lithuanian Physical Education Human Academy in motility laboratory. Olympic Laser class sailors and long distance runners participated in the survey. The study included 30 subjects, the first group consisted of sailors (7 women and 8 men), the second group consisted of middle distance runners (5 women and 10 men). Study was examined and thigh flexor and extensor muscle peak force at different angular velocity. Conclusion: 1. Quadriceps and hamstring muscles strength was higher sailors who hike than the long-distance runners. 2. Quadriceps and hamstring muscles strength ratio was higher sailors who... [to full text]

The work described in this thesis contributes to the development of a system to evaluate sailing performance. This work was motivated by the lack of tools available to evaluate sailing performance. The goal of the work presented is to detect and classify the turns of a sailing yacht. Data was collected using a BlackBerry PlayBook affixed to a J/24 sailing yacht. This data was manually annotated with three types of turn: tack, gybe, and mark rounding. This manually annotated data was used to train classification methods. Classification methods tested were multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) of two sizes in various committees and nearest- neighbour search. Pre-processing algorithms tested were Kalman filtering, categorization using quantiles, and residual normalization. The best solution was found to be an averaged answer committee of small MLPs, with Kalman filtering and residual normalization performed on the input as pre-processing.

Long term ocean cruisers are self defined as people who have accepted, adopted or chosen a cruising lifestyle, who live aboard their own sailing vessels, have independent means, are self sufficient and have been away from their port of departure for an extended period of time. As a group, cruisers, constitute a subculture (Macbeth, 1985). Why do people choose to adopt a cruising lifestyle? Using the principles of grounded theory analysis, this study found that cruisers were motivated by a variety of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations as well as by their social background and status in society. Cruisers were motivated by a need to escape the pressures and constraints of their home society as well as to pursue a lifestyle which offered freedom and a sense of personal control, a need to add some adventure or challenge to their lives or to fulfil a dream. They were also motivated by relationship commitments and a desire to travel and experience new cultures, people and settings. Their age, gender, family life cycle stage, education, income and former lifestyle pursuits also motivated them. In setting about and maintaining the fulfilment of their motivations, cruisers exhibited personal agency in their choice to move from a life in the centre of mainstream western societies to one in the margins. Overall, cruisers were found to be social actors who exhibit agency and self governance in decision making as to whether or not to maintain a sense of 'connectivity' with and without various social settings. Cruisers' responses to feelings of anomie and alienation in their home societies, to their feelings of under or non-actualisation at the individual level, and to their need for belonging with a partner activated these people to make choices and decisions regarding the negotiation and direction of their own social realities. Based on the cruisers who participated in this study, such agency and self governance can be described as 'empowered connectivity'. Empowered connectivity is the action of exhibiting agency in order to achieve connectivity with the space in which an individual currently finds her or himself. It can be both a holding on to and a letting go of connections. Empowered connectivity is not a 'theory' per se, but rather a generic representation of a process that accounts for 'plurality, multiplicity and difference'(Tong 1989) in the actions of both women and men as they negotiate the spaces they choose to occupy. Moreover, this study informed by the interpretive social sciences paradigm and, a 'feminist methodology’ enabled an indepth understanding of cruising women's experiences to be counterpointed against cruising men's experiences. Subsequently, cruising women became subjects in their own right rather than'other’. Further, the interpretive social sciences paradigm and 'feministmethodology' emphasised the need for tourism research, in particular, to use bothernic and etic perspectives in data collection and analysis. This ethnographic study of cruisers was conducted between 1985 and 1999 on theeastern seaboard of Australia. The study involved participant observation, semi-structured indepth interviews and self-completion questionnaires relating tosociodemographics, vessel inventories, budgets and touristic experiences.

Thesis (M.Mar.Archaeol.) -- Flinders University, Department of Archaeology, 2006. / "A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Maritime Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, Flinders University". "May 2006". Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105). System requirements for remote version: Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF file.

Esta pesquisa lança seu olhar para os fundamentos de um fenômeno que caminha com a humanidade: o Velejar. Mesmo com o desenvolvimento de tantas tecnologias que propiciam tipos de navegação variados, o uso da vela continua atual, seja como transporte, como brincadeira ou como esporte. O fenômeno, entretanto, extrapola sua utilidade: nitidamente velejar, para os velejadores, é mais do que atravessar o meio líquido utilizando a força do vento. Os velejadores - aqui sujeitos da experiência - dão significados à prática e fazem dela algo para a qual vale a pena retornar. Para investigar estes significados e sentidos, esta pesquisa busca colocar em palavras o que há de especial na prática de velejar a partir da perspectiva dos próprios velejadores. É por meio de uma ampla pesquisa de campo - onde se convive, veleja e dialoga com velejadores esportistas, velejadores pescadores artesanais e velejadores expedicionistas que se identificam elementos recorrentes e significativos para os que a praticam. Junto a esses elementos, foram agregadas as próprias experiências da autora, velejadora esportista. Com registro de imagens, entrevistas e descrições do vivido, as análises ancoram-se no arcabouço da fenomenologia da imaginação material de Gaston Bachelard, desvelando os gestos, os fascínios, as provocações e as diferentes sensibilidades presentes nessa modalidade tão antiga quanto atual. Competição e contemplação, aventura e passeio, tradição e modernidade, ritos iniciáticos e formativos, elementos materiais e suas provocações, entre outros, unem-se no propósito de desvendar uma prática que se revela complexa e inteira e que tem alto poder de aderência e manutenção presentes nas ressonâncias simbólicas. O sonho de habitar as águas e dominar o vento, de maneira íntima e próxima a partir de uma vela e um casco, é deste modo, constantemente atualizado no corpo dos velejadores / This research eyes on the foundations of a phenomenon that goes forward together with humanity: the Sailing. Despite the technology development, which provides many navigation forms, the sailing remains actual, whether as transportation, as a hobby or as a sport. The Sailing extrapolates its utility. For the sailor\'s point of view, the sailing is clearly more than just crossing a liquid environment using the wind force. The sailors, who is the experience subject, assign meaning to the practice of sailing and make it something that is worth returning to. To investigate these meanings and senses, this research seeks to put into words what is special in the practice of sailing from the sailors perspective. Through an extensive field research, where I could live, practice and interact with other sailing athletes, artisanal fishermen, and expeditionist sailors, I identified recurring and significant elements for those who practice the Sailing. Along with these elements, my experience as a sailor has also been added to this research. Using pictures, interviews, and descriptions of different experiences, the analysis of this work is anchored in the framework of Gaston Bachelard\'s phenomenology of material imagination, revealing from the reports, the gestures, the fascinations, the provocations, and the different sensibilities present in this modality which is as ancient as it is actual. Competition and contemplation, adventure and tour, tradition and modernity, initiatory and formative rites, material elements and their provocations, among others, unite in the purpose of unveiling a practice that turns out to be complex. The dream of live in the water and dominate the wind using a sail and a hull is constantly updated in the body of the sailors in a closely and intimately way