Dave, don't take this wrong, but all I read in your post is Me, Me, Me, and Me...... You being pretty myopic and I can understand this being what you have probably spent to have some serious skin in the game... Me...my goal is a little more altruistic, I am looking at this as a way to get more people introduced to cat sailing and out on the water...
So your saying the there could not be two classes, two starts at a regatta and segregate the F-18 class and the "other class" or run them at the same time and do separate scoring...
Dude, you don't know me you don't know what I've done and the time I've donated so save me the lecture. When you donate the same amount of personal time to grow the sport and spend the scratch to go to regattas outside your zip code then you can look down on me and preach all you like, until then save it.
Oh and let me know when you park your boat for a year to pull strings for a new skipper knowing you're going to be replaced when she has outgrown you.
And your last point about seperate starts WE DO THAT ALREADY!!! We just don't do it all the time... why you ask, because it's it's freaking better to have your own start!
I tell you what you travel to 4 regatta's 2 hours or more out of your zip code and I'll attend 4 Mark S. like regattas... I'm already way ahead on this so chop chop.
Likewise you don't know me...
I have been in this game since 1978 when I crewed for some guy on his Hobie 16 at Sandy Point Park in Maryland... while I was there sailing my Force 5. From that point on, I parked my Force 5 and never looked back. I still remember this August day like yesterday.
I too have countless hours volunteering at many an event just to deal with the complaints that the race course was not to my liking, running a shoddy mismanaged race, trophies weren’t big enough, the t-shirts were too skimpy (never got paid for those..), or because we served chicken in place of steak, and broke up a few fights between some drunken sailors just to catch a left hook for my efforts. I have even fielded the 4:00 AM phone call from an entrant asking for help because they are broken down on the freeway...
Also, I have managed to put over 200K miles on two different Volkswagen vans with in twelve years with a good chunk of these miles traveling to many a regatta up and down the west coast… Even attended a few on the east coast held by the Sandy Hook Catamaran Club, the St. Mary’s Regatta, and helping out at the Cape May Hobie regatta. Oh! Forgot…. did one in the Great Lakes just west of Grand Rapids… but I prefer to forget that one…
I could go on Dave proving that mine is bigger than yours….. But that is not the intent.
The point I was making is our sport is getting smaller and smaller every year… We, yes WE need to start fostering in new sailors. In reading your post what I saw was one of the mindsets that is killing it…”we don’t want them on our course.” If this was not your intent I apologize.
Oh! I don't need my own start... I'll go toe to toe with you anyday!!!
John Schwartz
Ventura, CA
