Nice try Jake!
The principle is the same as allowing non class members to race in your OD NA's.... You could say you are introducing the new guys to your class.
Every qualifier that I ran... which could be 20 or so had no integrity because I did exactly what you did...
You are between a rock and a hard place on this... You have a Yacht Club that is hosting your event and you must have enough sailors to make the event viable financially. You also don't have any rank and file support for the championship as designed. The happy talk about the good ol days were actually a racket.
US Sailing would just strike all of the non members and cope with the lack of integrity by the catamaran world. It took a nasty protest in another championship for US sailing to change their practice and follow the rules we all agreed on. We were O for 10 in the last round of Area championships that followed the rules.
There was no glory in the good ol days.
I bet that NO area rep has gotten a phone call about ... gee where is the area qualifier... I really miss that regatta..... I certainly don't miss having to flim flam them.
First point to make, Mark, is that the Area J event continues - we have it every year and the names on the perpetual are meaningful. You say the qualifiers had no integrity, but you miss (intentionally?) Jake's point that they worked for our community. We had events that were well attended and sent good teams to the finals. Your assertion that the championship didn't have support is simply false, as evidenced by the financial success, the administrative continuity, and full berths at every championship. I get that you have to cling to the premise that there wasn't support in the sailing community, because without it you're kinda nowhere. US Sailing had to force out nearly all the volunteers in order to revise the history and start from scratch. This wasn't limited to the Alter Cup, of course. It was part of the larger reorganization. Water under the bridge.
Since you were willfully not a participant, I again submit that you don't know what you're talking about when you say there were no good ol' days. Must be present to win. Or conversely, ask those who were. And if someone like Jake "Runs with Screw Gun" Kohl pipes up, your first inclination should not be to shout, "Liar!"
