The EC is a different kind of race on a different kind of course. They've been opening up the restrictions to be more inclusive of multihulls in the last several years and now the only restriction is that you need to be able to launch it from the high water line to the water with no outside assistance and carry whatever launching device you used (if any). However, unlike the east coast of Florida, there's not much population and the places you sail are very remote. You need to have enough gear to be comfortable if something should go wrong.

I've had to buy a ton of gear...I wasn't well stocked in the camping category. Honestly, though - the areas you traverse in this race are so remote that you need to be prepared to take care of yourself for at least 24 hours if you had to. In years past, they had a long list of "required" items that included mosquito nets for your head, x number changes of clothes, sleeping system that met certain requirements, etc. etc. Those have since also been loosened up and changed into recommendations. Read the current rules - they've changed a lot.

With regards to reefing, they're not going to understand our boats in this regard but it's not THAT hard to comply. A couple of extra grommets in the sail to be able to tie the foot and a couple of ring-cable-shackle halyard extensions and you're set. There might actually be a day where you are happy to be able to reduce sail a little.

The organizers of the EC appear to do a nice job of making small tweaks to open the event without changing the flavor of it. If they had gone hog wild and changed everything with emphasis on the nut jobs that try to be first to finish , they would probably alienate the crowd that put them on the map to begin with and that wouldn't be cool. This race was founded on being 75% adventure and 25% race. You can run it at your own pace and get no pressure to do otherwise. It's an admirable quality to the race that has pushed them to over 100 entries...kinda hard to argue with the formula.

It really is a different type of race than the Tybee or this 300 miler we're talking about. I think it would be harder for a less skilled sailor to decide to race in the Everglades Challenge as it would to sign up for a 300 or 500 mile run up the east coast of Florida. For a race limited to the small, by comparison, fleet of catamaran sailors in north america, it might be tough to get enough entries for a tougher race like the EC.