It's a bit of a catch-22.

To Zander...
A regatta can't afford to pay two memberships per boat. That would be $100 per boat extra because both skipper and crew have to be registered.

The thing is it's a bit of a catch-22. The event by itself can't support getting enough participants to handle the cost in general. You need at least 15 boats to really put on a regatta and make it feasible to run.

To get 15 boats you need to have a reasonable price regatta.

Personally I think they just need to drop the requirement for the crew to be a US Sailing member. That would make it a lot easier to require all to be members. As we know many skippers pick up last minute crews for regatta's. These are the same skippers who might not be to serious about winning the event but want to just come and have some fun. They don't want to fork over an extra 50 bucks to make their crew join US Sailing. Plus they probably would have a hard time finding a crew that would be willing to pay the money as they might be just starting into the regatta seen.