US Junior Women's Singlehanded (Leiter in Radials) US Junior Women's Doublehanded (Ida Lewis in 420a) US Disabled Championships Rolex International Womens Keelboat Championship (J22s) US Junior Championships (ladder event: Laser, 420, triple-handed) US Womens Match Race US Offfshore Championship (Navy 44) US Team Racing Championship (Hinman, V15) US Youth Championship (Resume Invitational: Laser, Radial, 420, 29er) US Youth Multihull Championship of Champions US Singlehanded (Ladder event: Laser) US Match Racing (ladder event) US Multihull (Alter) US Mens and Womens Championships (Ladder event: small keelboat)
Do they use "Borrowed Boats" in all of those? I think they do. I've got no problem with using borrowed boats, as long as they are insured, but then you get into the "tuning and condition" debate, ie. are all the boats equal in speed? And would you still rotate the boats, or just get twice as many and let each team tweak their boat to their weight? Maybe spring for a new mainsail for each team, to be given to the boat donator, or sold cheap?
And I was not at all being sarcastic in my earlier post about getting a big name sponsor to back it. I just didn't realize there were already 'rules' about who can and cannot sponsor US Sailing events.
I have zero interest in racing for the Alter Cup, I'm not 'qualified' in any case and never will be, but I WOULD show up to a massive Beach Party type regatta, all classes, then take the winners and let them slug it out on a 'chosen' class boat after the big beach party regatta.
Before I send an email to Jimmy Buffet, (or any other big name sponsor) I've got to have something to offer them for their money, ie. fill up his beach front hotel with -paying- Catamaran sailors for a weekend.
Look at Key West Race Week, see who and how they do it (and I know they had a lot of trouble last year getting a big name sponsor) and do it that way...or like the Heineken regatta, or the Mount Gay regatta.
How come only the Monohulls seem to be able to do it?
Not all are borrowed boats. The Hinman is sailed in V15s that are rotated between teams. The Offshore Championship is usually sailed on Navy 44s- not sure what level of tuning is allowed. I believe the Mens and Womens championships are on borrowed boats, usually a big dinghy (lightning, Flying Sidewalk, etc.) or small keelboat (J22, J24, U20). Racers rotate boats to try and eliminate any discrepancies in performance/layout.
The match race events are usually run in club fleets, like the Sonars at NYYC or SPYC. I know this year's match race championships is at Boston Yacht Club in a mixture of club and privately owned Sonars. The boats are matched before the event as closely as possible, and boats are rotated.
The youth and singlehanded events are usually in provided boats, and I believe charter is part of the entry fee. Laser Performance usually provides that lasers and 420s and have been a partner with US Sailing for many years. Those events usually don't rotate boats because it is assumed a bunch of new boats are essentially the same.
Basically, the provided vs. borrowed boats situation depends greatly on the type of event. Match races and team races are almost always in provided boats, but the type of racing makes the specific boat type less critical to the event (team racing in slow boats is a ton of fun- fireflies are a great example). The singlehanded and youth events are usually in charter boats, but I think that has to do with the volume of lasers and 420s available for charter vs. performance cats. I know several dealers (LP, Sturgis, etc.) have large numbers of lasers/420s/29ers that they take to events for charter. That situation is not the case with cats and makes it harder (not impossible) to do a provided boat event.
