Good points Kevin! Mark, as far as the weekend structure goes, these days lots of things compete for a family's time on the weekend. I don't even have kids, and getting to a weekend regatta is a tough sell. As such I try to make the ones that are local, and plot to make some that involve a little travel - sometimes with success, most times not. There's no way I could make all of them. I suspect there are others like me. I can't imagine the pressures added with kids and soccer games, scouting, etc. As for mast-up sailors not going to these events, we do. Our whole Fleet doesn't show up, but we do have members that go. Some of them have to completely disassemble their boats to go. And if we didn't have our Fleet, some of these people might not be racing at all, and wouldn't be attending any weekend races, either. Some of the weekend races are ones that some sailors don't feel capable for - like the Chesapeake 100 or Down The Bay. They're not even sure how to get the experience to feel qualified for these. A lot of new sailors are scared by the whole racing thing to start with - ways to reduce those fears and get them sailing are needed - which brings us back to low-key fun events that may have nothing to do with racing. Intro days for sailors new the scene, and things like that.
Cost is definitely an issue. You mention that our advantage is we're cheap. True. Once again, lots of things compete for a family's resources. Keeping a race boat in an expensive storage facility is going to lose out for most people. Keeping a boat mast up increases its chance of getting sailed, but too much cost will increase its chance of getting sold. If the cost of buying/keeping a race boat on a beach approaches a cruising boat in a slip, it seems to silly to keep a beach cat. Keeping a boat on a trailer and trying to find beach access in our area (Chesapeake Bay) is tough - Sandy Point is about the only viable option - very sad.
But there are lots of communities with water access, it's just not public. So, maybe community-based clubs as a grass-roots effort. People sailing their boats for a variety of reasons, and a new bunch of sailors to populate the weekend races. In my mind I've started to toy with the idea with respect to my community. This won't provide sailors for next week's regatta, but it will a year or two down the road. And there might be a better chance of them sticking with it.
Publicity is another thing that will help the weekend scene. Our local papers and sailing magazines make no mention of our existance, unless we tell them we're there. So we need to tell them. And tell them again. And after that, tell them once more. We need to send write-ups and club listings and schedules. There are a lot of people out there who are interested but don't even know to come this site yet, as absurd as that may seem to us. Local print media is a great way to catch their eye. In our area Spinsheet is a free mag that caters to the Chesapeake area sailing scene. None of the major catamaran races in our area is in their schedule. None. I've never seen a follow up article on Down The Bay or C-100. This is a free magazine that is found in all of the bars, sailing stores, and delivered to people's homes. If we want people to come to our events, and be interested in what we do, we cannot wait for them to find us and then lament that they do not. We need to get out and shout from the mountain tops to everybody - not just to the ones that already know about us. We've put a little effort in to try to do this, and we've actually pulled some interest from it. This year, Spinsheet sent us a note to remind us to update our listing - wow, they're actually starting to look for us now! The Chesapeake area is ripe with sailors. We have to tell them that we're here, and would love for them to try things out.
