Hi Jake,

Here's an idea, before my first regatta I was not all that into racing around marks. My reason for showing up the fist time was so that I could meet people with similar interest. And to a degree I felt intimidated by the "racer" thinking that he/she were on a different level and no longer discussed the things that I was thrilled about or I was wondering about. I now know thats not true, but those were my thoughts. Back to the racing around marks..... I was more looking for a distance race, and I'm not talking about Tybee 500 here. What I use to do, was race together with another cat to an island or similar a few miles away and once there reward ourself with some food/drinks. Thats what I was looking for on a bigger scale, 20 boats would be fun I thought. Sailing alone was never that much fun so another boat made all the difference, but sometimes if was hard to find someone that was able to sail when I was. So I looked for regattas, the more the merrier I thought.

One of my favorite things to do, was to race with a friend or two down the Indian River (inter costal in FL around Cocoa) to a restaurant 8 miles away, then race back with happy belly's.

Now after attending a few regattas I know thats basically what you do. But to a new attendee it's not that obvious.

So I guess what I'm saying is, a friendly 1h distance race with a purpose at the turn around point, maybe as simple as a your favorite brew. Then another hour back, and hey lets repeat it the following day. When all that's done you can throw in scoring based on Portsmouth number or similar to get you hooked on more advanced forms of racing, and they'll be on race course in no time wanting more.

Just a though, see you out there Jake.

Bjorn