What is a "virtual" regatta? Sounds interesting for a winter regatta up north. But I think somebody else will have to do that, because it would be beyond our limited computer abilities.

The reason Rick is not able to get to more regattas is because he is a little busy. He puts on at least three regattas every winter and helps out with a couple others, and he runs at least five of his seminars every year, plus he covers the entire Atlantic 1000 (as he did with the Worrell 1000 before) for my magazine and for his website.

And still, he/we manage to get to about six regattas a year to actually sail. And that is despite the fact that any regattas we go to range from a drive of 5 to 24 hours away from us. And we always lug two boats behind us, and sometimes three or four.

The reason he said he wishes he could get to more regattas is because we think it is important to go not just for our own fun, but to support the fleets and clubs that put those regattas on.

We are hoping that this year we can go, for the first time, to Spring Fever, because for once it is not happening during one of our seminars.

Our situation is not unique. A number of people have stories very similar to this.

This thread has been full of serendipity -- how much fun regattas are and how much we need them to hold the sport together.

But what we have not heard is the stories of all the fleets that no longer put on regattas because the same people (usually one or two people) always did all the work and finally got burned out and quit. And nobody stepped up to the plate to replace them.