#1 is easy too... it's all based on underwriting. how much cheaper can you get. If $250 a year for your F16 is expensive, you're in the wrong boat.

Regatta liability would be cheaper for PRO/RC as well if each and every entrant carried appropriate insurance. And if we'd stop trying to sue everyone else for our own mistakes/bad decisions, insurance would be much cheaper than it is.

(yeah, I've got an axe to grind. Just saw a claimant shake down a club for $80,000 because she tripped in the sand NEARBY an event and claimed she needed knee surgery. Her position was that "were it not for the presence of the event, I would not have been walking there... Her BAL of 0.15 apparently wasn't relevant, nor was her surgeon's knee surgery recommendation TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT)

Still, $1,000 per year for an organizer to obtain $1 MILLION (USD) protection isn't that horrible in the grand scheme of things. If competitors weren't so cheap as to complain about a $100 entry fee for a 4-5 day regatta...

and with #2, it's just like any other boating club. You could certainly start one yourself and then offer USS members a discount rental fee? Heck, I'd pay $30 per hour to take a boat out somewhere... I'd even do the coursework to get the certification card you mentioned. Most charter operations have similar requirements...