A couple of points about Fun events versus racing regattas from the point of view of a racing sailor.
Every year at CRAC's organizational meetings the question is posed... Why don't we have more fun events?.... Some background, CRAC is a paper club of mostly racing sailors which organizes or runs several regattas around the Chesapeake Bay. We trailer our boats to every event.
History has shown us that we (crac) simply cannot run a beach party with catamarans.... For just about everyone these days, ... time is limited. ... The racing sailor would rather use our sailing time for racing events. The regional regatta schedule of New Jersy, Deleware, MD and Virgina has two day racing events about every other weekend or so. So... even finding a date for a fun event will impact on someones regatta and most importantly, the racers want to go racing.... not to a beach party. The casual or recreational sailors are not organized enough to create these fun type events.
Secondly... None of the racers really want to organize and run a beach party. .. And if we do schedule an event... its like pulling teeth to get the racers to bring their boats to the party. Remember, that we must trailer and rig the boats for every event on the schedule.
There is only one paper catamaran club (Dog Town in Richmond) in the region who's mission it is to run fun events... very few folks are members of both kinds of clubs.
I agree with all of the comments that growing cat sailing is dependent on building fun events for families and non racers and creating a critical mass for a fun energetic social atmosphere around cat sailing/racing. Unfortuanetly, the racing crowd is unlikely to take the lead here. I believe the solution is for cat racers and sailors to join or build yacht clubs with adequate facilities. This kind of enviorment can foster a racing, social and kids program that offers something for eveyone and encourages the racers to relax on the beach and the cruisers' to try a little racing and so forth. The down side of my perscription is that it costs each sailor a significant piece of change in order to join and keep these clubs viable and active.
Take Care
Mark
