Ed,
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<br>I've been thinking a good bit about how to market cat sailing to any particular target group. It's not going to work to staple a flyer to a tree on a mountain bike trail. Maybe some coverage in these genre focused magazines? (unlikely). I do think we can be smarter about marketing the regattas. I can't believe that a news company (television or newspaper) wouldn't want to run a story on the 180 high performance catamarans racing on Lake Hartwell in April! Give these guys footage, let them take footage, get an onboard camera (Heck, I'd do a nose-over just for the footage on that one!).
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<br>This doesn't finish the job however. There MUST be an organization, a number, a website, etc. that the news program / newspaper can refer to .... i.e. "If you are interested in learning more about this kind of sailing, call (864) 123-4567 or visit www.showmecatsailing.com". This new organization should be strictly and simply motivated to bring new people into the sport - hook them up with volunteers across the country that will take people for free demo rides, online technical information, classes, etc. I’ll definitely sign up to give rides or work within such an organization – I bet there are quite a few more. All of Rick's efforts with catsailor.com are tremendous and it is a vast and irreplaceable community - but we need something simpler, focused, and unbiased for this kind of task. There's not much advertising dollar there to fund a site like that, so it would probably have to get funding from a larger organization or start it's own (again - unlikely). Just a thought.
<br><br><br>[color:blue][b]Jake
<br>[color:blue][b]Nacra 5.2 (2112)
<br>[color:blue][b]Hobie 18 (???)