Great Texas has had (and probably will) had F18 turnout...Steeplechase had F18 turnout (I was on one of four)...Round the Island will have F18 turnout (I'm planning on it) and while RTI is not necessarily a two-day race, it has been everytime I've done it! ...etc.



Sure I do! I don't mean to critisize - I'm bringing this up only as it pertains to attendance. I don't fault the organizers but if you plan for people far away to attend your event, you need to have up-to-date information available as early as possible.

Plans did fall through for Chuck and gang which unfortunately left them not getting host hotels on the website until 3 or 4 weeks before the event. The actual start and finish line information didn't show up until two days before the race. All I saw for 11 months was a website with last year's information on it (including "Participating Teams") and then hear that half of what was originally planned was cancelled due to lack of attendance. The whole thing felt secretive and made me feel certain that we were going to get to Florida and have 5 boats to race against - or worse, that they were going to pull the plug at the last minute. Fortunately we were committed regardless as was everyone else that did compete (and we were very glad we did - it was a ball!).

All I'm saying is to take this year's lack of open class with the understanding that new people, people not fully in "the loop", and people from overseas would not have been enticed the amount information that was available prior to this year's event.