That said, very few of our sailors go to events outside our territory other than Steeplechase, Tradewinds, or a national championship. Some do attend Slip to Ship but it's usually one or two boats and losing them won't drive a need to adjust our schedule. I can't think of another event in the neighboring areas that would make us need to shift our schedule...our folks just aren't traveling that far away.
I'm not sure how having another national calendar will change the way we schedule our events in our region because we are only concerned with avoiding the major events that we are already concerned with. I'm also not sure that our method needs any repair.
I think having regional calendars that are visible to all are worthwhile based around the "usually suspects" of attendees. These can overlap a bit.
For example:
FL, GA Calendar
N. FL, AL, MS, GA Calendar
SC, NC, GA, TN , VA Calendar
VA, MD, PA, DL Calendar
New England Calendar
Each adjacent region should coordinate with the other adjacent regions to [try] minimize the schedule conflicts (I think this sorta takes place today).
Beyond that, I think each adjacent area should have 1 race per year (outside of the big ones that Jake mentions - Tradewinds, SpringFever, SteepleChase) that we all make a concerted effort to try and attend to make it a "super regional regatta".
For example, Pensacola is has a good sailing venue so us in Central Florida should make a time to get up there to race and bring boats....then maybe the guys on the fringe in GA and SC might find that more boats there are attractive and bring 4-5 more.
Another idea, might be to rearrange schedules of FL races to be more heavily geared towards DEC-MAR. Targeted towards cold weather climate sailors who could bring their boats down for the first race and leave them in FL while flying in to make other races.
Current Races In Florida during that timeframe:
DEC: SteepleChase
Jan: Tradewinds
Feb: Charlotte Harbor, Hagar (low key fun weekend)
Mar: SpaceCoast 45
Maybe consider switching out KPRR on Labor Day weekend with Hagar for full weekend of buoy racing.
