Yes its a very tough business... (not really a game anymore)
My back of the envelope calculation has the US getting 4 boats into the OCR with Canada outranking the USA for the last slot. 4 boats will be the max for any MNA country in N17s.. I hope I missed something here... and we indeed get 5 spots.
So....the MLK regatta will decide the 4th and final USA slot.
The US could send 4 essentially new teams to the OCR unless the Mendelblatts pull it off at the MLK pre event.