Pat, I am not slaming the mad catter. I point out the one disconnect in your great event. A 9 boat regatta and the 90 boat madcatter are not comparable. But... you have to admit... when a club trophies two boats in a class... the only thing that can trump it is a club that trophied a one boat class and you guys came to mind.

I think you miss an opportunity to get the dead hobie boats scattered throughout the north east to your event. If you gave people a racing reason to come by putting those odd hobie dead boats into a HOBIE portsmouth class... I bet you would get more of them to make the Madcatter the one event they would do in a year... (who knows... the spark might reignite and the next thing you know... they want a tiger.)

My point is... year after year of giving away a Hobie 20 trophy or an FX1 trophy or an 18SX trophy has not generated a class... (not to mention the questions of what is the rationale for why you would buy these trophies based on the past turnout in these classes in the first place)

Perhaps the possiblity of a race in a portsmouth fleet of dead boat society hobies and the great party would give you a better outcome.

We all agree
The goal is to grow the fleet through racing!

If you think that running OD races with one or two boats is a growth strategy... OK... show me some evidence.

I propose the alternative above.

Somebody asked... What's the harm with lot of trophies... Well, the YC's that I work with get really bent out of shape in giving trophies out with out a reason. The old school guys value the competition... not the participation. So... they sniff a bit... if I ask for trophies that go too deep.
Do they notice what we do in our own events... I don't know... Since we are trying to build our standing the in larger sailing community... I don't see any merrit in bucking this culture.


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