Rick you wrote:

But, when you start getting into selecting other sailors, how do you do it? Popularity? Who made the most posts on the Forum? or just someone off the beach? That destroys, weakens and dirties the water for the Alter Cup.



Rick your rant is not substantiated in any way!

Why is the current process foul? You point to ONE example (The fiirst one with 20 boats) where the organizors were behind the curve. Since then, the organizers have done a terrific job assembling the participants. If you disagree... point to how the current process if flawed.



From my point of view the process is reasonable.

First of all... you have to be willing to take the time and money to atttend.... (This happens to be the serious racers)

To prove that you are willing you must apply. To prove that you are qualified you must send in a sailing resume which documents your qualifications.



So.... now the selection committe has data... IE How you have performed in national competitive regattas. This evaluation is pretty strait forward. Factors such as number of boats in the regatta that you beat will be taken into account as well. If you are saying that the committe has shown bias or excluded eqaually qualified sailors... Make the charge and provide some evidence.



Could you have a dead even tie... Sure... but I don't think that you too many cases where solomon like wisdom is required. But if you believe this to be foul... make the charge and provide some evidence.



The goal of the US Sailing is to provide a high quality championships for its members. The event must be worth attending cause you don't win money.



Prior to the invitation to class champions and petitions… the event was completely without interest to the majority of the cat racing community. Frequently, the Area winners would not even attend, nor would the runner ups! The good racers would not spend a week competing for a title of any stature, when half the racers were not competitive (after winning a 3 or 5 boat regional qualifier held on a Thursday… (true in the Northwest). Participation was restricted by how far away you had to travel. Now at least the serious racers want to compete in the championship Regatta and will attend the qualifiers because the racing is of a very high level and the talent is pretty deep. Interest has dramatically improved.



US Sailings goal is to have lots of participation and interest in the championship... The current format has improved participation and certainly generated more interest.



You also write:

wonder why the Alter Cup is no longer sanctioned as a US Sailing Championship and wonder why multihulls remain as outcasts.



You are factually wrong.

The US Sailing body demoted SEVERAL other championships BECAUSE their sports marketing consultant told them that they had too many championships and it was confusing to market. It was NOT because we had petitions for the championships as you infer. This desciion was made at the Baltimore US Sailing meeting and NO decisions made by the Multihull council or the championship committe affected the outcome in any way.



Cat sailors are NOT second class citizens by US Sailings actions. If we do not have much clout in US Sailing policy, It is because we DO NOT WANT TO PLAY with the yacht club infrastructure that is the heart and soul of US Sailing. If we insist on creating seperate organizations (like NAMSA) and not playing ball with US Sailing they are not upset... They say... SURE do you own thing... but don't expect us to be able to serve your needs either.



Respectfully

Mark