I see this as, US Sailing owns the event (we are US Sailing), and it is up to us to make it happen. I've said it before, sponsor conflict issues are nothing new, and not unique to our event. We just have to work with it.
As for the rest, I don't claim to be an expert on the full history of the event, but here's how I see it:
The event came about when the trophy was created in the 80s. The deed just calls for a multihull championship, with no discussion (at all) on how it is to be run (although it was apparently intended to be run like other championships were run at the time: various Areas qualified, etc.).
Through the years, at different phases of the event, it was run as a BYOB event, and at some point, it became possible to get manufacturers to provide boats for a low enough cost to run it under the most recent (NOT original) format.
We are now in a new phase. We stretched the prior phase out as long as we could, and arguably too long. It got to the point that we drew negative attention by drawing too much money year-after-year; and worse, ended last year with no event planned for 2012.
Regardless of your opinion, personal history, etc. on what made that happen, that's where we are today. This is absolutely not a negative statement about the efforts of others, quite the contrary: we were lucky to have the efforts of so many dedicated people to get us to this point. It's just a harsh reality that we must face as we move forward. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto...
So, now we plan the next phase. 2012 will most likely be a transition year until we come up with a solid plan so that we can get back to scheduling events 2-3 years out.
Future events may look like 2012 event, or may be completely different. That is the purpose of the survey and the follow-up questions Mark is asking.
Anyway, that's just my perspective, and it helps me stay optimistic. YMMV...
