First of all, it is not often that we have a World Championship in the United States, and when we do have one, I think everyone who has one of those boats (or can charter one) should be there. Nobody should have to think twice about whether they want to go to Spring Fever or to a Worlds. To me it is a no-brainer. Whether you sail a Tiger as a one-design or as an F18, you will get a major education by going to a World Championship. If we had a Tiger (and if we were a little younger), we would have already reserved a spot on that truck to take it to California. A Worlds is worth spending your whole regatta budget for the year. A regatta like Spring Fever is a lot of fun, but it is probably not going to do much to improve your racing skills, because you are sailing against the same people you ALWAYS sail against.

I'll bet even Nigel would like to be at that Tiger Worlds.

Another reason is that when we hold a World Championship here, we should show our support and enthusiasm by getting every live Tiger there. If people are coming from Europe and all over the world, certainly the U.S. boats and sailors can get there.

Second of all: Maybe some agency within US Sailing (the Multihull Council in the case of the beach cats) could have a rule like what ISAF has. ISAF requires that World Championships or other ISAF events submit their dates to ISAF by August 1st of the year preceding the event. (Unfortunately, they do not appear on the ISAF calendar until the actual year of the event.)

In the case of the United States, if major one-design championships (Nationals, North Americans, Midwinters, etc.) and also major multiple-class regattas like Madcatter and Spring Fever and Tradewinds, plus World and International events, could all be on a calendar by, for instance, August 1 of 2004, (and if those dates could be published during August), then all the other regattas could take that into consideration when planning their more local events for 2005. Most of the local and regional schedules are planned during the fall of the preceding year, so this would give them ample advance notice.

By announcing the major-event schedule in August, this gives the major-event organizers time to see whether there are any conflicts in scheduling of the big events so that adjustments can be made if necessary, before all the other schedules are established.

But I think scheduling conflicts are something that should be worked out by the affected event organizers and not mediated by some third party.

There are a small number of "major" beach-cat events, and most of those are already locked in on traditional dates, so it should be fairly easy to have a calendar of the following year's major events published in August of the preceding year.

When a specific class is planning to hold a World Championship in the United States, the organizers should try to plan their event dates so there is not a conflict with another of the "usual," prescheduled big events in the United States.

If the Tiger World Championship has been in the planning stages for three years, they should have been aware that there might be a scheduling conflict with Spring Fever, which attracts a lot of Tigers. HOWEVER, it is too late now to change the date for the Worlds, so it is up to Spring Fever, if they think it would be in their best interests to change their date.