Don't forget that Spring Fever once upon a time scored the fleet in a couple of divisions on handicap. Jamie Diamond from OCRA helped the regatta team pull that off.. The regatta was holding steady with turnout at the time with about 90 to 100 boats on average ...
The next year, Nigel and Mr Ernie decided that the future would be one design fleets of whatever size... and they would combine starts. The idea was that a one design regatta coupled with a party would be sustainable and what racers wanted.
There was a public debate on cat sailor and private discussions as well.
Mark,
2006 and 2007 were scored both by fleet and by high/low portsmouth. The decline in attendance had already started well before then. And, while, yes you can see fluctuations in attendance (actually, pre-registrations) around that time, I'm not sure anyone can point to that one fact and say "there's the problem". The fleets were scored both as individual classes and under Portsmouth with two score sheets. If memory serves me, there was considerable waiting between races because of the start sizes.
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