Originally Posted by mikeborden
I've been thinking about this...

And it's been said before, I think we need to alternate locations, if not from North to South, at least East to West if possible. Well, I mean that within reason, cause we know that there aren't a whole lot of F16's out west. The majority being east of the Mississippi and the greatest concentration being in the Southeast. Roton Point would make the regatta being in the Northeast region two years in a row. In my opinion, I think it either needs to be in the southern area at least, and the best option would be the Western part, east of the Mississippi. Basically, a CRAW/Racine venue. Of course, they would have to submit the bid.

Those are just thoughts, and I also think that it wouldn't be a bad idea to map out the next couple/few years of Nationals.

With all of that being said, the majority vote will rule on this one, and I won't be upset with a majority vote! smile




Spreading it around to minimize the travel is good.

No cat class in the US really has the volume to provide for adequate exposure for the sport as a whole. Putting on a regatta is a lot of work and expensive. Having the mass to be able to justify REAL media coverage so we can reach out beyond the cult following we have is an even more daunting task. Racine was a catamaran championship regatta long before it was going to be also the F18 NA. Unfortunately there were some rather detrimental politics brought up after a proposal was made to combine more than 1 championship and GYC stepped up to the plate for us. I believe that Roton is also already a multi event and combing a championship to it can only be a good thing for both the event and the class. This from my view would be a reason to look toward a club like Roton supporting cat sailing in general.

There are enough issues with promoting the sport we obviously love and fragmenting our already small group does not seem to be the answer. Look at Hobie. They were to do a big combined National but eventually split off into a bunch of separate groups. Now you have 20’s, 18’s 17’s etc all with barely enough participation to call it much more than a friendly gathering, and these events will and have been happening around the country with absolutely no coverage. How is that helping the sport? Yes you may lose a couple of boats from the few who wish to race several classes, but there are a lot less total volunteers required, and the possibilities for combined efforts to showcase the sport far outweigh that as far as I can tell.