49ner

Obviously you live in the Chesapeake region. Perhaps you would like to take a leadership role in building ANYTHING having to do with cat racing. Contact any local fleet... they could easily provide a list of work that you could do. We are always looking for people to contribute to the organization of the sport. However, your counting ability is useless!

Since you persistently miss the point, let me help you. People purchase boats for reasons OTHER then regatta turnouts...Maybe they just like the way the boat sails, looks and handles on the beach. Taipan sailors may not want to race every other weekend... Obviously, they have the option of reconfiguring their boat as circumstances warrant. HT sailors may not want to go distance racing. I20 sailors may not want to spend their time and money on a buoys race circuit. And the point is... So What.... Who Cares… they are sailing.

Only a one design nazi like your self would trash the sailors and dealers who are sailing in our events for low turnouts. The reality is that 2/3 of Hobie sailors compete in fewer then 3 regattas a year…. And most Hobie sailors are not interested in traveling any significant distance for a race. Open sailors are no different… the majority of the sailors will compete in 3 or less regattas a year. Attendance at regattas is a function of the number of sailors out there. If your goal is to find a class with big numbers… surprise surprise a good bet is the Hobie 16… please don’t bother us any longer… buy one and go sail it…. It’s a fine boat and it’s quite popular in the area. Others pick boats for their class… looks… price… whatever..

Three clubs in the area actually host regattas… From our point of view… we need boats to attend… We could give a damn if they all look alike or we get one of everything on the water. Our concern is that we run events that people want to attend… we do them well and that people have a good time and choose to participate the next time and eventually run something. We need everyone to step up and contribute to the organization. We try to organize the racing to maximize the fun factor. If we got 20 of one type of boat… go for one design starts… if we get 4 classes of 5 spin type boats each… we go for portsmouth racing with one design split outs.

We do not need your BS hyping some ersatz competition between boat classes fought every weekend at the regattas and measured by boats on the line or results between sailors. Nobody is playing this stupid game…. I would appreciate it if you would stop… you contribute nothing to supporting the sport in the region.

BTW
The dealers that you are trashing do contribute to the sport in this region and are critical to growing cat racing in the future. Roger Holmes Supercat, WF Oliver, F18HT and Chip Zenke Performance and Taipan provide enormous help in supporting cat sailing. (The Hobie dealer is beyond awful). They are instrumental in recruiting and assisting new sailors… Racers are not in the business of teaching sailing, holding a new sailors hand, or providing the support needed to get new people into cat racing or cat sailing.