Nowadays if you want to put a mark in the water you need a permit. If you need a permit, you need insurance and a chase boat, and you need to be getting organized at least four months in advance.

Maybe a Yacht Club can get a single permit that covers all of their regattas. But a nomadic club has to get a permit for each event and deal with a different bureaucrat (often from a different agency with different requirements) each time. And to put all this effort in for a declining number of racers burns people out pretty quick. And with declining numbers it's hard to replace them.

Unless a miracle happens and people switch from jetskis to cats in droves, I think we're going to grow ever more dependent on Yacht Clubs. So we need to make common cause with them, not separate further from them.