I just looked in the Classified section of Catsailor and noticed that there were not too many Formula 18s for sale. One was John W’s Capricorn and the other was an Inter-18. I was wondering if there are not too many available or if the ads that were there expired and did not get renewed? I think I have a handle on maybe ½ of the owners in the US who have a Formula 18. I am hoping that our numbers are getting bigger as used boats get sold and new boats acquired? On the West Coast we have about 7 new owners this year of Formula 18s.

To keep the sailors informed I send out regatta reminders and am still trying to gather all of the email addresses for those new to the class. I encourage you to take upon yourself or find someone that will send out reminders in your area. In Florida area they are using the 1design.net forum to keep people apprised. The A-Cats in this area use an Evite to remind each other of the upcoming events.

I always ask the participants I am sending out too many emails with details. To remind them of regatta then try to keep the update of who plans to attend usually about two before each event (total of three). Not one person has asked me to remove them from the emails. The favorable comments coming to me are that “It is a way to keep up with the happenings and who is active in the local fleet.

It would be nice to use a moderated Evite system from the NAF18 Class website for this. Does anyone have any other ideas to keep participation up? We get about 8 to 16 boats per scheduled regatta and have 14 regattas this year. It may seem like a lot of regattas but we are still getting the sailors out. We are closing in on 40 F18s in this area, that’s a pretty good number. Some of them only come to a couple of regattas a year though.

Later,
Dan
NAF18-Chairman