I'm a little late to this discussion, but I figure I'll put in my 2 cents.
I'll side with Todd about the unwelcome part... Everyone I know is willing to pitch in or offer advice to help a newbie. Even the rock stars are willing to jump in....I've seen Nigel step a mast for a neophyte and Smyth party hardy around the campfire. I'm sure all of us has tried to make newbies welcome.
Part of the problem has been that most of us old farts that have been around the sport for years have moved on to more performance boats.. Hence more expensive boats and it's decimated the entry-level fleets. With only performance type boats, it appears to a newbie that we are more elitist.
I sail a F18 and a H16... Being from Raleigh NC I'm also in the middle of 2 different groups of sailors. The SC/GA group is mostly made up of performance class boats and there are very few H16s at most events. The Virginia group still has a strong H16 fleet and the performance class is mostly limited to A Cats.
If I were a newbie showing up at a regatta on my beat up H16, I would not be as intimidated if there were several other H16s there.
We just need to do a better job of finding those persons with those boats and getting them to events. Most of these folks don't realize that these events... aka parties, aka learning opportunities exist.
The next time you see someone out on an old beater boat, take the time to tell them about the events coming up in your area and tell them about this website and your regional site with schedule.
