Lets go way back to say '82. I sailed with my dad on a 16, was a local fleet member and sailed "B" fleet. The crowds of spectators were huge, beer distributors provided tap trucks, every event had a specially designed t-shirt, awesome door prizes and great meals provided by local sponsors.
Today there is no fleet for me to join, regatta crowds are small, some times beer is provided, sometimes there is a t-shirt, usually a meal but not what it was. Its just not the same atmosphere now. Without the local fleet organization its much harder to get "outsiders" motivated.
Why is there no registration on the EMSA site? If there were it would at least give you a starting point for rallying the troops. Other than Trey Brown encouraging me to attend events I hear from no one in the sailing community. In fact, I will venture to say that Trey Brown has done as much or more for the sailing scene in the SE than anyone. I know of several other sailors that he encourages as well. No one else contacts these guys regularly and none of them sail an I-20. Its about organization and communication, if I don't know about an event how can I attend. Not all SE sailors even know that EMSA exists, much less that there is a website with race info. The masses are simply left out and uninformed, those in the click have all the info.
And lets not even bring up the subject of race management and what happens to a newbie if his boat gets damaged, his fault or not.