Pete...

If no one cares.... kind of hard to get someone to step up and be the Area Rep. It requires time and energy that could be spent elsewhere.

If the Alter cup is no longer of interest to the sailors...

Kill it and move on.

Consider the situation where the Area Rep gets his yacht club to host the regatta, gets a RC together and mark boats, a judge for the protest committe... and three boats show up.

When you have more RC then sailors.... its a disaster.

Turn it around and look at from the competitors point of view, if some regions have a half assed qualifier, where the top sailors simply don't come to compete. Does the championship have any credibility.... would it be worth your time to compete against these folks.

Now... if you want the Alter cup to be a perk of joining US Sailing. then you can go back to the days of 10 area winners and borrowed boats. relax the standards and have at it.