I would like to create a new weekend / 2-day event. One day would be a distance event, the next would be the traditional couse racing.
I am wondering -- when you have a two-day event with one day a distance race and the other day course racing, do you think it is best to state in advance which day will be which or wait until the weekend arrives to make that decision based upon weather conditions?
Also, if people know in advance which day is which, you might get some people coming one day and some people the other, and it would take away from the two-day event aspect of it. If they don't know in advance, maybe more will plan to come for the whole weekend.
I feel like a lot of the newer sailors are turned off by course races. I would also like to get the event as inclusive as possible.
I wonder why they are turned off by buoys racing -- probably because it seems so much more complicated, and the need to understand the rules, etc. That's why the Hobie system of starting the newbies in C class and providing pre-regatta clinics for novice sailors worked so well. How many fleets still do that?
Most sailors that are not Hobie brand loyal often get overlooked in this part of the country.
How many non-Hobie boats do you think there are in your area? And, do the Hobie fleets in your area NOT include at least an open class for non-Hobies?
Seems like if Hobies are predominant in your area, the ideal solution would be to get the Hobie fleets to include the non-Hobies, rather than swimming upstream by starting a new regatta for the non-Hobies and also including the Hobie classes.
UNLESS you call it something completely undiscriminatory and generic like the Great Corny Cat Open. Don't you grow a lot of corn in Nebraska? Have it when there's lots of fresh corn on the cob available and have a corn theme for the food for a big Saturday night cookout dinner -- everybody brings some kind of corn side dish -- corn relish, corn bread, cornmeal muffins, corn fritters, corn souffle, corn pone (whatever that is), corn salad, tamales......wow, I'm salivating (and gaining weight) just thinking about it. You could even have prizes for the best corn dish.
There would be other food besides all the corny stuff, of course.
