I'm not sitting here saying it needs to be like it was. I realize the change had to happen as the boat prices are freakin' out of control. What I do believe, and is not represented in the poll, is that the event should still maintain a level of exclusivity. Entries should be limited and you should have to qualify. The BYOB aspect of it is fine, but the planning will need to be made carefully schedules to avoid falling within a year of a World Championship in the US of that class, or National Championship of that class by 6 months.

I'm sitting here thinking about having the championship as a combined event and it just dawned on me how completely and utterly backwards this is. For years, we fought a losing battle with Liz/Us Sailing over the qualifying events. We were pushed hard out of having them combined with other events, to combined events but separate starts, to free-standing events, then certified clubs, certified PROs, yada yada. It made the qualifiers difficult and expensive to manage, lowly attended, and more separated from the general catsailing community. In some cases, we ended up with PROs that weren't familiar with catamarans and the stand-alone regatta could have been better. So after living through all of this detailed requirement, I'm a little shocked that the qualifiers are out the window and the championship is looking to be combined with another event. This seems really backwards.

The event needs a degree of exclusivity and status to be anything of merit. I think we still need qualifiers but with considerably relaxed requirements. Before Liz accuses me again of wanting to relax the USS membership requirement to discount my opinion, let me state clearly: I believe all competitors of the qualifiers should be US Sailing members. We have had issues with this in our area in the past (not as much an issues as some others) but in some cases, we needed the head count to make the free standing qualifier survive financially and some of those people wanted to sail, didn't care about the championship, didn't want to be US Sailing members, but we needed their entry fee and enjoy their company.

Here's what I think will work. Re-introduce the qualifiers in conjunction with other major regional regattas. Make the actual championship a freestanding event, BYOB, class and location known well ahead of time and not conflicting with that class' US based worlds within a calendar year and not with that class' national championship within 6 months. Limit the actual championship to a 20, 25, or 30 boat fleet. Don't require certified PROs or certified clubs for the qualifier and allow it to be a mixed start of qualify-ees and non qualify-ees at major regional regattas. However, qualify-ees must be US Sailing members at the time of the qualifier. Let Spring Fever have a qualifier enabled fleet, Catfight, etc. If F18 is the boat of the year, F18 sailors can choose to partake of the qualifier in their normal fleet start and be ranked with other qualifier participants for inclusion in the event. We can finally have a legitimate event on a single handed boat too. Eliminate the portsmouth handicap qualifier and make the qualifier part of the class fleet of the selected boat for that championship. Go deep within these results for attendees. Draw for an open spot or two giving someone a chance that might not otherwise normally qualified to provide incentive for more qualifier involvement. Have a couple of limited special case slots for a youth team or other special cases. Stop with the restrictive requirements and let us enjoy the darn thing.


Jake Kohl