Hi flounder, Here are some thoughts based on my experience with CRAC

Venue
Great racing venues with a convenient launch, reliable breeze, experienced race committee and beach management are great starting points.

Schedule
Does your sailing region need another regatta? Is there a hole on the calendar where your event would fit and not cut into another regatta. These are two observations from our region.

This year, the Hobie Gunpowder and Va Beach Hobie regatta (4 hours distance) were scheduled on the same weekend and both suffered with low or catastrophic attendance.

WF noted our experience with this year’s Summer Sizzler. IMO, we created an aggressive schedule this season and the early returns point to a partial success. The C100, attracted a large I20 and Hobie 20 and Open fleet however, the overwhelming majority of these sailors did not make it to the Summer Sizzler two weeks later. Similarly, our Rehoboth and Gunpowder events which are also two weeks apart attracted two different groups of racers on top of the usual die hard racing group. I conclude that the pace of regattas was too much for great turnouts at both events.

Take a look at the last few years of race results in your area. How frequently do the "racers" actually go racing. I looked at the mid Atlantic, Div 11 Hobie racers and Open Class racers participation over the last couple of years. I noted that about 2/3 of the 150 racing boats manage to make just 3 regattas or less a year. Consequently, it is pointless to add another event to the schedule for the majority of racing sailors because it simply gives these sailors an additional choice of sailing dates. If the event is successful and doesn’t draw additional new sailors then you will probably dilute the turnout at the traditional events. I believe that your new regatta will indirectly compete with one of the existing regattas because racers won’t commit to keeping their schedule clear for a racing weekend if an alternative and more convenient date is available. They will opt for the expedient and easiest solution of one or the other regatta. My conclusion is that adding events to the CRAC schedule may not be warranted. I would look at the schedule that Bob O just mentioned and see if there is such a hole in your region.

The remaining 1/3 of the fleet who are "campaigning their boat" are the ones that could participate in an additional event and so for them, the calendar becomes critical. Racing every other weekend is still an aggressive schedule and you won’t get a great turnout at both events if you have small fixed numbers of racing sailors. Perhaps every three weekends is a sustainable schedule.

Focus
Is your event targeted to the recreational catsailors who don’t consider themselves racers? Are you targeting the local cat sailors who won't travel and don’t usually consider racing and this regatta is a way to hook them into the sport? A hybrid event such as you proposed is neither fish nor fowl. The 1/3 of the fleet who are serious buoys racers probably aren’t going to choose a distance race to spend their time and money on. These serious campaigners are not motivated by racing against a group of new sailors. Perhaps the remaining group 2/3 of division racers may be looking for a distance race to compete in and your regatta will work well for them. A quick survey of racing participation around the country suggests that you are correct about beginning racers and distance races. The Statue of Liberty race will draw 70+ boats, the Round the Bay , Slip to Ship, Miami to Key Largo, and several others are drawing large fleets of recreational catsailors in addition to the die hard distance racing crowd of sailors. It looks like these turnouts are greater then buoys regattas in those regions. Perhaps a one day event will match people’s needs a bit better. IMO, the beginning racer has had plenty of fun after one day on the water and the commitment of the second day could be too much.

Size
Is bigger always better? Should we worry?
From the point of view of the host club, The amount of effort expended running the regatta does not scale directly with turnout. The differences between running a race for 20 boats and then for 50 boats are not that great . So from the club perspective, bigger is certainly better because you don’t have to do much more work for a huge payoff in terms of entry fees and energy on the beach. The racing sailors may have a different point of view. Big turnouts could equate to lots of time consuming starts and waiting time and your class/ friends are scattered down the beach which inhibits the class camaraderie that is key to building a class. The dinghy classes in the Chesapeake region have waxed and waned for over 50 years. (The Admiral Byrd series for Hamptons is running for the 54th year in a row at Cambridge Yacht club) Several classes appear to remain strong after many years and they are members of Yacht clubs and attend Yacht club regattas which are hosting one or two other classes for the weekend. Mega regattas like Cambridge with lots of classes are giving way to smaller events. IMO, 50 to 75 boat regattas are quite manageable and allow fleets to cover their costs. The Summer Sizzler was a great success… (we just won’t talk about the finances) A 75 boat regatta would be a huge turnout these days. Budgeting your event carefully can taylor your costs to the turnout.

Expectations must be met

One of the lessons that OCRA learned and shared with the US fleets was to acknowledge that class racing turnouts were low and dying in their area and to reinvent the regatta weekend by promising to deliver an event where no matter what your class turnout that weekend… you would be racing a comparable boat on Portsmouth. Over time they have shifted peoples expectations by delivering quality fun events where everyone is racing somebody and one design trophies are also awarded. OCRA has revitalized cat racing in Ohio by creating a realistic expectation and delivering on this promise. I did not sail in the day when Hobie actually had points and non points sanctioned regattas. But the concept of a hobie points regatta created an expectation on which the fleets could deliver high turnouts for one design class racing. How well this notion fits with reality in a given sailing region today is another argument. The point is that the expectation delivered by the term “points regatta” matches (or does not match ) the racing sailors objectives. IMO, the open class turnout at the Sizzler suffered (kind words for zero turnout) because we gambled that several classes would be able to muster a turnout of boats (two weeks after the C100) and when that expectation was clearly not being met… the turnout of boats spiraled down the crapper… My late phone calls to the fence sitters often went this way…

MS are you going? Not sure if I am going or not. .. well talk me into it.. who else is going?… will we be racing anyone if I do go? … MS… Yes we will have an open class … but who will be in it?…. Will we race against the HT’s?… .. MS not sure its up to the Race committee … Nah… not worth the time and money. I am sure it will be a great event… but just not for me this year.”

So, I conclude that we did not do a good job of creating the expectation that no matter what your class turnout… you will be racing in a high quality competitive race and so it is worth your time to attend this event. We were unable to assure the racers of a competitive racing weekend which would encourage them to arrange life so that they simply had go racing every other weekend in this case.

Well… something to work on for next season…. A great example of clearly explaining what kind of event you are running is the CRAM CatFight. Sailors know that if you show up on any kind of boat you will be able to go racing against a decent number of similar boats for three days. There is no chance that you will be partitioned off into a left over bin of mismatched boats or a small one design fleet. The regatta is now attracting a decent group of Hobie 16’s for the first time and other small groups of sailors throughout the region.

Bottom line, I am not a big fan of the “build it… they will come “philosophy. I would carefully look at your local calendar, who the target sailor is, will they participate and do you have a venue which makes it worth the effort for a fence sitter. One other possibility is that you may join forces with an established regatta and reinvent it in a way that meets everyone’s goals. With twice the manpower and energy for such an old but new regatta you could transform your region’s racing and move forward in new directions.

Good Luck
Mark