Change occurred. A LONG TIME AGO!!

IMO, the changes were shortsighted and hurt the long term health of the sport but the immediate impact ON THE WATER was ZERO!!

In my area... Area C or Hobie Division 11, the impact was zero.... Mind you... this is a region with a very strong Hobie racing circuit and you would have predicted lots of upset. ... and you would be wrong.

There was NO LOSS of racing opportunities to the OPEN CLASS Sailor OR other Catamaran one design racers (Nacra 20s) at the time. We replaced the Hobie run regattas with other Yacht club regattas eager to have us. The Nacra 20 sailors eventually joined a yacht club with A class sailors and now do their own thing.

When you looked at the national scene for racing opportunities 3 years after Hobie class change, I believe the ONLY region that had issues ON THE WATER was in the Pacific Northwest and the MHA club. The rest of the country saw no practical changes ON THE WATER....(lots of organizations restructured or died off tho)

The diverse sailing scene also died off... In 2013, the number of surviving boats in the dead boat society who could race in OPEN Class is vanishingly small. Now a days.... an open class race draws boats from the big one design classes (who have an adequate racing schedule).

The under appreciated story is (as is usually the case...) about the Benjamins...
The Hobie paper yacht clubs could not afford regatta liability insurance by themselves. Turnouts (even with Open and non hobie sailors) and membership were dropping. The state parks finally got around to requiring a million bucks in coverage or you could not use the park. So... the clubs were forced to unincorporate and then use the Hobie Class Association membership insurance policy to get insurance and keep the events running.

These old facts are the same for a SW Florida Hobie Fleet startup. You will need insurance to use public or private property as a paper club. It's expensive and you don't have enough membership to pay the bill.... SO... you either restrict the opportunity to paid up Hobie class assn members so that you can use their insurance umbrella or you don't have an event.

The bigger question is ... turnout for ANY kind of event... do you have enough interest in the region to make it fly?

The better option would be to partner with an existing yacht club....and run a fun sailing day or a regatta with them. Again.... it will be about the Benjamins.