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It's not easy to find sponsorship for any small cat racing so the money would probably have to come from registrations


Indeed!

You can burn up your fleet volunteers just LOOKING for sponsorship money.

Take a look at the monohulls as well... They don't have sponsored events with cash prizes... Hell they don't even allow advertising on the sails in their races!

They put what sponsorship money they get into a bigger and better party or trophy.

As Pat noted... it's not the cash or seven dollar trophy that you want... its the priceless memory!

Your local club dues probably just cover the cost of keeping the fleet organized, insured and awarding some trophies at the end of the year.. The regatta fee is high enough so that you hope to make a few bucks that cover the use and replacement of the equipment and offers a free beer to the fleet member who put up the tent.... fetched the beer, put together the trophies, designed the art work, staffed the mark boat, scored the regatta, posted the results, wrote the PR, NOR, Sailing Instuctions, ogranized the food, took the trash out of the park... etc etc etc etc.

ITS A CLUB.... NOT A BUISNESS.... if you don't pitch in and do it...odds are ... it won't get done.

I often feel that people act like they are buying a service from Walmart. OR.. that they are some how entitled to a nice regatta...

If you had to pay the staff of an event just minimum wage for all of the services you get.... You would be broke.

It's a CLUB....run by volunteers for IT's MEMBERS!

Hint... it's time to join US Sailing, Your Club and your Regional Sailing Association which makes things happen in your area. It's ONE HELL OF A DEAL!

Rant off
Mark





OK...let's focus here. This is not about how or what it would take, but is it a good idea if the cash was readily available for a purse at the end of the regatta with no additional output from the sailors? We have such a regatta in Myrtle Beach - the Sun Fun Dash which is a distance race running up and down North Myrtle Beach (multiple times) during their Sun Fun Festival. The North Myrtle Chamber of Commerce puts up somewhere around $2000 for prizes that are divided for the top three positions in two classifications. ($500 for first, $300 for second, $150-200 for third). You have to fill out a tax form if you win prize money.

I can say that even with the purse, the turnout to this regatta has been a bit small...although I don't think the sailors talk much about it because they want a better shot at the purse! Seriously though, it has not affected our actions on or off the water one bit and we still have a great time. It's only a trophy of a different sort.

Personally, I've seen a lot more tit-for-tat and what I might consider "unsportsman-like" behavior on and off the water lately. It's more about the personalities than the prize at the end of the regatta.

Jake Kohl