In the self proclaimed sailing capitol of the world. Annapolis, Maryland AND the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed. 200 miles top to bottom with over 1000 miles of coastline... We have TWO sailing club with mast up storage. West River is a dinghy's, leaners and ONLY A class catamaran club (two seasons old for the A's). PRSA is way up the Potomac River just outside DC by RR National Airport and suitable for sailing 16's or very very dedictated 20 sailors (lots of tacks to avoid the hydrilla death zones)

We have two Catamaran only clubs, WRCRA and SMSA which offer mast up storage and a port a potty! (the property is leased yearly to us)

CRAC, Fleet 54, Fleet 32 are all paper clubs which own storage trailers for the marks, grill and beer coolers.

We have shifted an increasing number of our regattas to existing yacht clubs which offer us starts while dropping some of the events we ran as a club. We now race several events with all of the monohulls on the bay (up to 170 boat events) and several events with the Annual Dinghy Regattas at clubs on the Eastern shore of the bay (Not near the major east coast cities)

To their credit Fleet 54 and Fleet 32 (AKA Hobie Fleet 54 and Hobie Fleet 32) have chosen to run open regattas on a beach in their area (as they have have for the past dozen or so years of their 35 years of existence).

When events generated 100 plus boats.. the yacht clubs could not handle the turnout space wise... so seperate events were sustainable and necessary. Now, when the events are much smaller,.... seperate events will wear you out and never generate the large critical mass of people.

I personaly hope that Pat B's suggestion that perhaps things change at the IHCA will allow a return to the policy of the recent past and allow 54 and 32 to use their proper names.

I think that it is terrific if Hobie Cat supports their racing owners. If they created a great championship event in a region that were exclusively for a Hobie Class, that would certainly work to the greater good of cat racing.

However, it's a huge difference between ONE sponsored regatta in a region for Hobie class championships and 100 percent of the regattas in a region being restricted to Hobie Only classes. (Moreover, if you were serious about the one design notion... you would not have starts for any hobie class that did not generate 5 boats on the line and force those sailors to sail in an active Hobie class boat)

Some areas of the country have been negatively impacted by the split while others changed their names and continued on as they have in the past ... just reprinted the paperwork.

I am curious... Back in the day... How many cat's were particpating at these Aussie clubs... (I imagine you had lots of space so that you did not need to create regattas on large public beaches.) The law of unintended consequences... the failure to join yacht clubs back in the day.... leaves us a bit high and dry in the 21st century.

Take Care
Mark
www.sailcrac.com