This is one of the most important posts I have seen it quite a while. In 1971 I showed up for a local race, a 12 year old kid with a sunfish. I figured out when the start was because I saw the boats heading for a hippity hop up wind. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to figure out how to get there and then proceeded to hit it and get tangled in the anchor line. When I got back to the beach the next 10 minutes were the deciding moments between becoming a sailor or finding another interest. The old guys on shore did not heckel me, they came over and complimented what a nice new boat I had. They then began to teach me. The bottom line is we need to get new people to races and not scare them off. What ideas are out there and how can we begin to build?