This format exists across the US and is hosted by many weekend regattas already.

If you're asking if I would attend a DPN/SCHRS championship with a $50 a head upcharge instead of my fleets national championship the answer is no. However, if the event was SCHRS and I had access to a Viper (104) and the event was in my backyard I'd consider it.

Dave, you'd miss that two feet like Tom Sizemore misses beating up hookers.

I've been missing the 2 feet since I sold my 20 in 05' and yes being 4 feet short takes some getting used to but I have done it before so it wouldn't be a totally foreign experience.

I think the right question to ask is... how many racers will attend their NA's.
My round number estimate is:

With 70 teams. (50 F18 and 20 F16) teams on spin boats in 2011. 100 boats on sloops (60 H16, 20 TheMightyHobie18 and 20 H20, 10 Sharks) and 100 teams racing single handed (50 A class, 20 H17’s, 20 Waves, 10 Isotopes, 10 NF17’s)

So... that is about 250 teams racing at NA's

(If we could get them all to one event... that would be a hell of championship.)

Run two courses

The party course- Open to anyone on any boat, a variety of scoring schemes, the more the better.

The Alter Cup course. Strictly limited to top sailors.

Dave

I think everyone would agree that sailors primary focus will be their OD NAs.

So.. Would you attend a second "national" championship (3-4 days over a weekend) in your OD class.

The concern is that the Host of the NA's will get pissed at another national event sucking off sailors who opt for the closer drive of the two regattas.

(The answer could really depend on the OD class you are talking about as well)

PS... for 2012... the option is One Design on F16's... charters should be available.

Exactly!
In order to attract 250 sailors in the US the radius of travel gets pretty large. There has to be an extrodinarily good reason for everyone to want to attend.

At Carnac they have a lot of sailors within a resonable drive (especialy by US standards of distance) The F18 class has made it their tuning and early season shake down as DUH points out. The rest are playing a huge game of handicap racing. Sweetheart rating for certain designs and all the politics/bs of handicap sailing you can find permeating this whole forum.

If I still was racing the only way I would consider this would be to attend a race to practice big fleet starts and they had better have a huge party. As a championship level event - no way. For this kind of event I would have been very unlikely willing to travel more than 6-8 hrs even back when gas was cheep.

There are 2 big open races in the South now (Tradewinds and Spring Fever) Long way from 250 at either of these. Both were down in attendance this year but you can see from the results that the F classes were not. The fall out in attendance came from the handicap guys. This kind of shouts that pulling a big handcap open event will have a hard time flying.

FYI, Tradewinds does have handicap classes.., albeit pretty small the last couple of years. Seems the box classes are growing and dpn racing is declining.
I would love it if 250 boats registered.
Rick

It's always been my fantasy to take it one step further and have a big beachcat regatta as part of Annapolis Race Week (Labor Day weekend & fleets race anywhere between 5 to 2 days, most Fri-Sun?). You already have a huge sailor turn-out with the monohulls and a big party that is organized on the docks of downtown Annapolis. AYC & CBYRA takes care of most of the logistical overhead. We would have to coordinate the beachcate race course and scoring. Sandy Point State Park already has a designated launch beach.

Sign me up!

Agreed.



I would not attend a second national championship, that doesn't make sense. But, if the championship offered a completely different format that isn't currently available at our weekend regattas and national championships I would attend. For example, if the format is match racing, team racing or the prior Alter Cup Championship format I would be very interested in attending that event (assuming I qualified). The good thing about a team racing championship is it could easily support a BYOB format and would NOT require formulas to be applied.



I wouldn't view a DPN/SCHRS regatta as a distraction to our National/North American Championship. Those local to the DPN/SCHRS regatta would probably use the regatta the same way the teams at Carnac used the regatta, as a tune up event. In the end the number of teams lost to the DPN/SCHRS championship would probably only be a handful and it wouldn't be enough to get in a twist about, IMO.

If you have a BYOB event, what prevents retaining the older format?

Alternating fleet races allows time to return to the beach, make repairs, tune etc. You just don't have the craziness of switching boats.

I am all for a Team Race event... we've actually been having discussions about trying to make one happen on the Charles River (awesome amphitheater for sailing!). Would probably run the event out of the MIT sailing pavilion, but launching is an issue. Spent all weekend umpiring the NEISA team race championships- heck of a regatta with the top three teams ending the event tied at 13-6 after two days of racing!

Here's a question. Who the hell wants to deal wither the hassle of having an extra 200 boats on the water that you aren't racing against.

Good point.... much better to have a race of one boat... Saves on the scorekeeper!

I think the same thing 50 boats is plenty to race against. When the fleets get to 100 they split them up anyways as A and B fleets. It seams the more boats the less racing you get. I remember going to the Mega and it was fun but little racing and long lines and lots of waiting and a lot of money. I guess you can tell I am getting old and set in my ways.

Bit of a **** storm shaping up over here: http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=134396

Some complaints about organization as well as an interesting contribution from Bundy. [post #1745 page 70]

Sh!t fight is over stating it a bit Pete. Looks like the typical post event complaints you get from a large handicap regatta to me. I'm confident an overwhelming majority enjoyed the event and accepted it for what it was.

Helen's article was interesting.

Some serious handicap BS and a very thick layer of manufacturer generated fluff. Everyone will walk out of this with a different view I am sure. You cannot look at a class or results and see squat. Heavy boats like the Viper are running their own handicap, playing the ratings game. Put team drivers on them like Bundy and then continue to spout off about being the best – give it a break.

With that many people at an established event like this, I am sure it was blast even if they got skunked on weather.

Mini, I'm in 100% agreement and your observations come across loud and clear even through the internet but this is nothing new for large events and it really is part of game which is one my biggest complaints with handicap events. The amount of unsubstantiated boasting that goes on is a real turn off for those that can see through it. Helen's article should really read: The help did exactly what we paid him to do but we're going to claim it was the equipment.