All you guys are volunteers, right? So, where's the money going? Opti's?

I travel for a living. I have always bid to layover near water. San Diego, LA, Seattle, Boston, Providence, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Sarasota, Ft. Myers, Chicago. I have yet to find a US Sailing location that will rent me a boat on a walk up basis. They are usually very snotty, busy babysitting the Opti kids, and they will laugh at you if you ask to rent a boat.

But in England, I can walk up to any Royal Yachting Academy club, show my RYA card and rent a boat for an afternoon, for about $30, with a wet suit thrown in free. I can even enter a race if they are on for that day. And when I get back, there will be beer, on location, on draft. I wish US Sailing was funded and run like the RYA! Is it any wonder the Brits kick our butt in most sailing events? They are half the size of Texas and I think California has a larger GDP!

But here in the states, I can only rent from a motel, if I can find one with boats, and it's only crappy, run down, overpriced equipment. How many hundreds of thousands of miles of coastline, ocean and lake, do we have here in the US? Why are there no US Sailing programs that are nation wide, open to walk up adults, get a card, show it and rent at all US Sailing locations? I can walk into any Harley Davidson shop and rent a $20,000 bike with only my driver's license, but I've been to many US Sailing sites, looked at their boats, tried to weasel my way onto one, and even with my membership card, they won't let me touch one until I get a week of instruction by Their Instructor, (who is away this week), take a test, (again)etc. Why is that? They are much better at turning people away than welcoming them to sailing.