Seems to me... that proper balance would have as a first step. No advertising on the sails at all events below a North American championship. (put the stickers on and off as needed. If you want to keep them on for your sponsor you .... you can race in the pro class for your boat.
(The Low Rent Regatta did this for years with a manufacturer class racing seperately from the Amateur class
This no advert rule is almost a universal principal of yacht clubs and most classes around the country. Maybe we should follow the lead!
Mark,
You've gone off the deep end. Stickers "on and off"? It takes me anywhere from 25 to 40 hours to design, manufacture, and apply the graphics on one of our Team Seacats sails and if I were charging full price for it, the job would be about $1500. Pulling them off takes about 30 to 40% longer than applying them.
I think part of the distinction being grossly missed here is that none of these guys that sail in our catamaran regattas could be considered pros - I'm CERTAINLY not a pro yet I carry sponsors.
I was at a monohull regatta a couple of years ago where one of the winning boats was protested at the end of the regatta because "he was a pro". He IS a sailmaker and he wins a lot of regattas (and has been known to shave a rule or two) but he is not a professional sailor though his profession is in sailing. The protest was eventually tossed but it did make us sit around waiting hours for the awards presentation.
Examples like this are simply bad sportsmanship - sore loser if you like. If I race a catamaran PRO on the water and I get beat, I got beat by a better team.
I do agree, however, that in cases of big money that the direction of a class could get frustrating for some owner/sailors but I think you only see these dramatic affects on teams that require much more than two people on the boat - I think the drastic difference in financial investment and performance can be cause for a lot of frustration but I also believe that this should be regulated by the individual class - not the regatta.
There is probably 4 or 5 catsailors in the US that could be considered "pro" anyway so why are we even having this conversation?
