I suppose that I'm not the best reference. Even if gas prices were to see a significant decrease, I still wouldn't travel more than 150 miles for a regatta.

I've been a rower for a long time and have grown to dread the out of town regattas. In my teens I had no problem driving 8 - 10 hours to row.....this year I probably won't even attend any out of state regattas, rowing or sailing. I work all week and the last thing I want to do is drive all night for an early morning race.

The gas prices just help to back up my reluctance to travel long distances. I'd be perfectly happy if I never left Ohio again.

Now if I were to crew for someone, and not have to haul my boat and gear, and split the driving and gas...I might be persuaded to travel further.

I predict that regatta attendance will remain steady, for the following reasons
1) More power boaters will switch to sailboats, because they will still want an affordable way to get the family on the water.
2)More people will team up and split the costs (double stacking or taking turns crewing)
3) The smaller local regattas will see higher numbers when sailors who would normally pass the lack of competition up begin to look for things closer to home.

So, will gas prices affect regatta attendance? I think the number of entries will see a negligible change while the demographics change.