Mark,
I think you are making this sound much too complicated. North American Multihull Sailing Association was first formed 45 years ago to provide a communication link (newsletter) for all the different types of multihulls around the country and also to provide a handicapping system and some structure so those different classes would be able to race against each other. It has been dormant since 1985, when the handicapping was taken over by the Multihull Council and the NAMSA Newsletter had died.

In many parts of the country the only racing structure available to all the boats was the Hobie Class structure, which for years allowed non-Hobies to participate in an Open Class at their regattas. When the Hobie Class decided to close the door to non-Hobies, it was feared that many catamaran sailors would be left with no way to race and no way to put on regattas. It appeared that perhaps NAMSA was needed again to provide a structure similar to the Hobie Class structure, but for all the non-Hobies (and Hobies, too, of course) because NAMSA is an organization open to ALL multihulls.

Even when the “Open Class” was an option at Hobie regattas, it was not an ideal situation because there are a number of non-Hobie classes that would like to be able to race one-design when they have enough boats. This was not allowed at the Hobie regattas – only the Hobies were allowed to race one-design. (Mark, I know you have never been a fan of one-design racing, but a lot of people are, even if the classes are relatively small.)

In addition, for non-Hobies there has never been a structure to provide for large, regional championships. The Hobies have events like Midwinters East, Midwinters West, the Midamerica Championships, Eastern, Western, Midwest, etc., most of which did not even allow an open class for non-Hobies.

NAMSA will be able to organize and coordinate similar major events around the country, as well as a NAMSA North American Championship, that are open to ALL catamarans, and provide both Open Portsmouth Classes and one-design classes for those classes that can bring enough boats.

All of the classes are relatively small in numbers, so it just makes sense to have consolidated regattas that make it financially feasible for organizers and also provide events accessible to boats that might otherwise never see another of its kind. As a far-out hypothetical, let’s say there are a couple of G-Cats racing in Florida and a couple in New England and a couple in the Midwest and a couple on the West Coast. If they all show up at the NAMSA North Americans, voila, you have a G-Cat fleet. Then maybe the G-Cat people start getting excited about building their class again. Maybe Hans starts building boats again.

It’s great that your area has no problem with putting on regattas. Same with CRAM in Michigan and CRAW in Wisconsin and numerous other multiple-class organizations around the country. But there are big segments of the multihull population that do not have a multiple-class organization to turn to. Those areas need to form such fleets, and they could sure use the help and expertise of established groups like CRAM and CRAC and CRAW. And there has been no overall entity to unite all these separate multihull communities.

NAMSA, ultimately, should be the mother ship that bonds together all the multiple-class fleets (or multiple-fleet organizations) and makes possible the large, regional and North American Championships that would not be possible for most of the classes to do on their own. I don’t think NAMSA will add any bureaucratic levels to existing, successful organizations like yours. But I do think it can help areas that are not as fortunate. And its big contribution, as I see it, is in creating the larger, regional regattas and the North Americans. In order to do that, NAMSA needs all of its member organizations to work together to make those bigger events happen.

Having said all that to show how “simple” it is, I must add that I am not personally involved in the NAMSA organization (except for it having been my idea to revive it), so I do not really know the purpose of the North American NAMSA divisions we are discussing in this thread. Are they planning on having a system of “points” regattas as the Hobie Class used to have? I don’t know. Rick White or Mike Hill needs to explain it better.

If NAMSA establishes large-scale “regional” championships, it’s not like participants would be limited to the people in specific “regions.” They all would be open to anybody from anywhere in the United States, just as is the case with the Hobie regional and Continental events, which are all open to Hobie sailors from anywhere in the North American Region (and foreign sailors, as well).

Anyway, this is all pretty silly, because if you want to subscribe to Catamaran Sailor Magazine, a membership in NAMSA is, in effect, free. For a subscriber, $5 of your $20 subscription fee goes to NAMSA to get you a membership card and a vote in the organization. If you don’t want to belong to NAMSA but do want to get Catamaran Sailor, you just tell me you don’t want to be a member, and I keep that $5 for myself instead of sending it to NAMSA for your membership. If you do want to belong to NAMSA but don’t want Catamaran Sailor Magazine, tough, it’s still $20 and you still get the magazine along with your membership, like it or not.

When I started the magazine 10 years ago, I did it because I thought there was again a need again for a NAMSA Newsletter as a communication link for all the multihull sailors. I just called it “Catamaran Sailor” instead of “NAMSA Newsletter.” So, in spirit, NAMSA has been alive through my magazine for 10 years

Now that NAMSA has been incorporated and activated as an organization, having a membership and a vote makes it possible for you to vote on any policies that NAMSA proposes, or you can vote to have NAMSA not do anything at all. So what do you have to lose?