BUT - I know many (including me) have lost faith and trust. It will be a crucial show-me period for the rest of the year, I think. Nobody can be expected to write a check for dues unless the value is expanded and made self-evident.


Hi John,

While I agree that perks are nice.... it's hard to come up with 60 bucks of value in perks... (nor would I be interested in paying for these perks)

Perks are not the issue for me. USSA delivers the infrastructure for good sailboat racing... I believe it's worthy of our support.

The best people to deliver this message to racers are the host YC and organizing authorities.

I suggest that USSA create THIS very focused message to the organizing authorities and ASK them to make the case to the racers in their own words. If nobody tells you what you are getting... how are you supposed to know about this stuff?

This is the bottom line about why you need to be a member. These are the services that we value and simply don't recognize or take for granted.

Protest committes are almost non existant at cat races... The mere thought of being hauled into one drives people crazy with fear of the unknown.... so they may not play by the rules and the game suffers.

What if a USSA judge showed up and did a public Protest Committe hearing with some volunteer complaints on Saturday evening... Think we might learn something and get value out of HIS training and expertise at heading up the protest committe? The judge benefits (bet he never thought about catamaran speeds and the rules... the participants benefit and us bystanders get to learn and ask questions. We get to play the game hard and safely the next time we race.

Even the Clayton's of the world... the non racers out to give it whirl would get some education out of a program like this.

How about if the the Regatta PRO was asked to state his credentials and USSA training at the skippers meeting... It would certainly make the point that he takes this seriously and wants to make sure us racers have a great regatta...

I can't think of an event where this kind of promotion occurred... On the other hand... I listen to plugs for all the sponsors who gave money or stuff which defrayed my expense... (and I don't care about that crap)

There are legit questions about USSA's focus, overhead and leadership, relationship to Olympics etc but one must deal with these seperatly and not just mush everything into the waste barrel.

Kudo's for all of the shots you deflect on SA... If myself and wouter are PIA on this board... it's NOTHING like the SA set of pissants.