Hi Mark,

You bring up a good point with the Alter Cup, those events need to be as fair as possible.

The problem is getting to the "as possible." In the US, I don't see the support from the sailors for going to a certification program to handle a handful of events.

What might be more beneficial would be a better understanding of PN, and some better documented guidelines on how to manage races using PN (at least for the Alter Cup Qualifiers). That, coupled with better PR for the program, would probably help a lot.

Of course, there are other reasons (outside of ratings) that people don't attend Alter Cup Qualifiers in droves. The trend towards larger OD events is nothing to sneeze at when people have limited vacation time (leaving the economy out of the discussion).

Mike