Can I get to an ISAF or Olympic event without being a USS member? Can I compete once I'm there?

No .... its a club

Does USS do or offer anything for non-racing sailors?
Safety at Sea
Standards for sailing instruction and other stuff that I don't care about.


Are USS coaches only for Olympic development teams/prospects/classes?
Yes... but you could hire them privately I suppose.


I like the USS sanctioned event concept (with judges, official results for DPN/Portsmouth calculations, etc) if for no other reason than it would help me settle an insurance claim if one popped up at one of those events

That is the the point of having certification process in place AND protest committes deciding on the rule of sailing... Your insurance company will do what it does with that info.... Bad for you not to have the findings.


But all this hubris is good: we do need a healthy debate on where our money is going.

True .... but remember it's a CLUB... not a purchase from a vendor.
I don't care about disabled sailing... but i get it with my dues.

I care about Special Olympic sailing but it's a seperate thing from US Sailing... so be it.

But we all have different ideas on the best purpose for the money.
True... it's a club... you support the club if you agree with the overall goal or find one thing you value...



So we voted on it, and maybe we weren't a large enough coalition to bully the big dogs, classes, manufacturers, whateve

so we bail and wish "doom and unmitigated failure" upon the organization. To our own peril, I suspect.

Of course, this is an oversimplification, and doesn't give credit to those who I know personally that have put a lot of effort into USS (Ding, Dub, Mike, you know who you are)