Just thinking out loud here... I think we all see the benefit in having our best sailors at these kinds of events, but obviously wouldn't want folks to feel any kind of pressure to go to the expense of traveling just for the sake of promoting the class. Perhaps the Global Challenge or Nations Cup organizers could set aside some modest amount of money to provide a "token of appreciation" to be offered to the top finishers in these events who subsequently attend one of some predetermined set of suitably prominent regattas.

So just as an illustration, say you had two of these "awards" available at the recent GC, they could be offered to Hans (1st) and John/Paul (2nd) to attend Carnac (for example), but if (say) one of those wasn't able to go the offer would be made available to Geert (3rd), etc...