As Ding mentioned, balancing time and expense for reward of fleet size and competition is key here.
I would find it hard to expect events attracting 20-30 U.S. F18s, much of our fleet struggles just to take the time off for North Americans.
The only appeal to me would be if we got some Euros here, a full container of at least 10. It's a lot of time and expense to come down to race against 5-10 F18s even just once a year. If we could convince some Euros to come then it would be more enticing and much easier to convince other northerners to come down for more competition as well.
There are some great organizational minds here, this sounds like it could be a great event.
This has me thinking for the F18 class in general, a proper investigation at other current events that we compete with, how our sailors rank and prioritize them, what prevents them from attending, and etc.
I see most sailors as having one and the more dedicated teams two full weeks of sailing per year, how do you get them to spend one of those at your event? What is the draw over the others?
Just as a starter, a "Conchacup" and the FL 300 compete with F18 NAs, Catacup, F18 Worlds (some years more than others), GT 300, other life commitments, family vacations, etc.