I'm not sitting here saying it needs to be like it was. I realize the change had to happen as the boat prices are freakin' out of control. What I do believe, and is not represented in the poll, is that the event should still maintain a level of exclusivity. Entries should be limited and you should have to qualify. The BYOB aspect of it is fine, but the planning will need to be made carefully schedules to avoid falling within a year of a World Championship in the US of that class, or National Championship of that class by 6 months.

I'm sitting here thinking about having the championship as a combined event and it just dawned on me how completely and utterly backwards this is. For years, we fought a losing battle with Liz/Us Sailing over the qualifying events. We were pushed hard out of having them combined with other events, to combined events but separate starts, to free-standing events, then certified clubs, certified PROs, yada yada. It made the qualifiers difficult and expensive to manage, lowly attended, and more separated from the general catsailing community. In some cases, we ended up with PROs that weren't familiar with catamarans and the stand-alone regatta could have been better. So after living through all of this detailed requirement, I'm a little shocked that the qualifiers are out the window and the championship is looking to be combined with another event. This seems really backwards.

The event needs a degree of exclusivity and status to be anything of merit. I think we still need qualifiers but with considerably relaxed requirements. Before Liz accuses me again of wanting to relax the USS membership requirement to discount my opinion, let me state clearly: I believe all competitors of the qualifiers should be US Sailing members. We have had issues with this in our area in the past (not as much an issues as some others) but in some cases, we needed the head count to make the free standing qualifier survive financially and some of those people wanted to sail, didn't care about the championship, didn't want to be US Sailing members, but we needed their entry fee and enjoy their company.

Here's what I think will work. Re-introduce the qualifiers in conjunction with other major regional regattas. Make the actual championship a freestanding event, BYOB, class and location known well ahead of time and not conflicting with that class' US based worlds within a calendar year and not with that class' national championship within 6 months. Limit the actual championship to a 20, 25, or 30 boat fleet. Don't require certified PROs or certified clubs for the qualifier and allow it to be a mixed start of qualify-ees and non qualify-ees at major regional regattas. However, qualify-ees must be US Sailing members at the time of the qualifier. Let Spring Fever have a qualifier enabled fleet, Catfight, etc. If F18 is the boat of the year, F18 sailors can choose to partake of the qualifier in their normal fleet start and be ranked with other qualifier participants for inclusion in the event. We can finally have a legitimate event on a single handed boat too. Eliminate the portsmouth handicap qualifier and make the qualifier part of the class fleet of the selected boat for that championship. Go deep within these results for attendees. Draw for an open spot or two giving someone a chance that might not otherwise normally qualified to provide incentive for more qualifier involvement. Have a couple of limited special case slots for a youth team or other special cases. Stop with the restrictive requirements and let us enjoy the darn thing.

I'm not sitting here saying it needs to be like it was. I realize the change had to happen as the boat prices are freakin' out of control. What I do believe, and is not represented in the poll, is that the event should still maintain a level of exclusivity. Entries should be limited and you should have to qualify. The BYOB aspect of it is fine, but the planning will need to be made carefully schedules to avoid falling within a year of a World Championship in the US of that class, or National Championship of that class by 6 months.

I'm sitting here thinking about having the championship as a combined event and it just dawned on me how completely and utterly backwards this is. For years, we fought a losing battle with Liz/Us Sailing over the qualifying events. We were pushed hard out of having them combined with other events, to combined events but separate starts, to free-standing events, then certified clubs, certified PROs, yada yada. It made the qualifiers difficult and expensive to manage, lowly attended, and more separated from the general catsailing community. In some cases, we ended up with PROs that weren't familiar with catamarans and the stand-alone regatta could have been better. So after living through all of this detailed requirement, I'm a little shocked that the qualifiers are out the window and the championship is looking to be combined with another event. This seems really backwards.

The event needs a degree of exclusivity and status to be anything of merit. I think we still need qualifiers but with considerably relaxed requirements. Before Liz accuses me again of wanting to relax the USS membership requirement to discount my opinion, let me state clearly: I believe all competitors of the qualifiers should be US Sailing members. We have had issues with this in our area in the past (not as much an issues as some others) but in some cases, we needed the head count to make the free standing qualifier survive financially and some of those people wanted to sail, didn't care about the championship, didn't want to be US Sailing members, but we needed their entry fee and enjoy their company.

Here's what I think will work. Re-introduce the qualifiers in conjunction with other major regional regattas. Make the actual championship a freestanding event, BYOB, class and location known well ahead of time and not conflicting with that class' US based worlds within a calendar year and not with that class' national championship within 6 months. Limit the actual championship to a 20, 25, or 30 boat fleet. Don't require certified PROs or certified clubs for the qualifier and allow it to be a mixed start of qualify-ees and non qualify-ees at major regional regattas. However, qualify-ees must be US Sailing members at the time of the qualifier. Let Spring Fever have a qualifier enabled fleet, Catfight, etc. If F18 is the boat of the year, F18 sailors can choose to partake of the qualifier in their normal fleet start and be ranked with other qualifier participants for inclusion in the event. We can finally have a legitimate event on a single handed boat too. Eliminate the portsmouth handicap qualifier and make the qualifier part of the class fleet of the selected boat for that championship. Go deep within these results for attendees. Draw for an open spot or two giving someone a chance that might not otherwise normally qualified to provide incentive for more qualifier involvement. Have a couple of limited special case slots for a youth team or other special cases. Stop with the restrictive requirements and let us enjoy the darn thing.

hmm... what is a North Amercians for a class....
Is it not the best XX sailors competeing against each other?? (I define this as the "Elite" sailors of the class competing for the NAs)

What you guys want is "Special" something Exclusive that only the special sailors get to compete in.

The observation of the facts on the ground is that US Sailors are not going to compete in two multiday national events in a year.... Time and budgets are limited. ... SPECIAL EVENTS do not rise to the top of enough sailors must do events.

This is not new....Special is over rated... Many a year (not always) saw a mad scramble to actually FILL the "Special Event" On Two occasions... I was asked to recommend sailors from my region who A) were competent an B) were likely to make sudden plans to race the 20 boat championship with 3 weeks to spare... The "Special" regatta was just not getting 20 teams to show up for whatever reason ...They managed to fill most of the events. THIS WAS WHEN we were spending 7 K in cash and using manufacturer supplied boats... I understand the appeal of Special.... however, Area qualifiers with an absolute certainity to get one of those "Special" Slots were poorly attended....(the rules to conduct them are a red herring in this debate) Area C sailors failed to show up to qualifiers or put them on their schedule because "Special" was just not a big deal.

Jake's proposal does not solve the underyling problem. Even Special Sailors will not show up for more then 1 major national event a year with their BYOB. We do not get the numbers needed to have a credible championship. (Survey said that 20 teams was a credible championship and the committe set the standard at 15)

The theory of the case is that competing for the US Sailing Alter cup Trophy is a very worth while endevour... The history and culture of the competitition in all of its previous incarnations is very important to beach cat racers.

I believe that Elite sailors at their NA's deserve a chance to win the Alter Cup Trophy and reflect the principals and values of the Championship....

I believe that SPECIAL sailors have the same constraints that every sailor has and they will not part with their time and money... Bottom line... you can't run an event for them that hits a reasonable standard. More the point.... You can't tell "Special Sailors" how they should spend their time and money... This championship is an invitation to compete... nobody makes you spend your money to go. . Nothing is stopping the top F16 Sailors from agreeing amongst themselves to show up and compete... They just are not doing it.

FYI, My point of view was a minority on the committee.

The F16 was chosen for 2012 because the committee felt that the next Olympics would be held on a spinnaker boat, the Nacra F17 doesn't really exist yet, and the F18 Worlds on the other side of the continent would make boats unavailable. The date was selected to give the event its own weekend, and it was believed that since there are so few of these boats in the country, putting them close to the nationals in time and physical location would increase opportunities for chartering. None of these decisions came without plenty of discussion of the pros and cons of each.

Combining qualifiers with existing cat regattas has been tried, and has also failed (at least once at Roton Point for sure). By and large, people want to sail OD at the local regattas.

Finding certified officials is easier than you realize, many of them are within our ranks.

Personally, I prefer having qualifiers, and making them the only way to get to the finals, even if it's BYOB.

I have been beating the drum that we need to schedule these events at least three years out (we're trying, keep in mind that we are rebuilding from scratch this year).

I like the idea of using the same platform for the qualifiers and finals (if that's what was proposed by Jake above). This has also been discussed by me and Jack as a possibility for the future. Basically, if the 2014 event is to be held on Hobie Dragoons, the qualifiers would be held at existing regional regattas in 2013, and the Hobie Dragoon fleet would serve as the qualifier. Don't go to the qualifiers and/or don't bring a Hobie Dragoon, don't show up at the finals.

For this to work, we'd all need to get on board to support this. In the example above, all Hobie Dragoon sailors (skippers and crews) would need to be US Sailing members. While I used that boat as a non-threatening example, think it through if the finals were to be on a F18 or A Cat. Would people stay home from their local event just to avoid the membership requirement?

I see the loss of qualifiers as a major problem for US Sailing, as there are no other flag-bearing local cat regattas. I am working with Jack to see what we might be able to do, several ideas have been floated, and this will be a project for the winter. Training and rules clinics are on the top of the list. Send suggestions if you have them.

Mike

The Hobie Dragoon is a youth development boat used by the French Sailing Federation... pretty sure Mike was just using it as an example.

Then again, the strength of French multihull sailing makes a strong case for having a fleet of youth spinnaker cats... but that is a whole different question!

OK, let me put this out there. Would this be supported?

2014: Hobie 16
2015: IWCA Wave
2016: F18

Finals are stand-alone events, BYOB, scheduled in the spring/early summer, four-day race weekend, optional clinic on registration day (fifth day).

Qualifiers the prior year on the appropriate boat, held at local existing regattas meeting all current US Sailing rules, no other way into finals.

Mike

For the finals, Memorial Day weekend (every year) is an idea that has been floated and has merit (few existing regattas on that date).

No, we don't get to pick and choose rules. Everyone in the selected class would need to be members for that event (qualifier). Everyone else should be encouraged to join.

BEFORE ANY OF YOU REPLY, READ THE REST OF THIS (a few times, if needed)...

We need to find ways to make people WANT to join. We could use these events (qualifiers) as the locations for the local clinics / rules seminars. I'm sure there are other good ideas.

Mike

The current iteration is butted up against another major championship that people were already planning on when this one was planned and is in direct competition with the other event only a matter of weeks apart.

This was a FEATURE.... not a bug.... All of the former Alter cup sailors who advised the committee thought that this idea of back to back events was a true winner... J22 sailors use this strategy for woman's champs and then NAs....

While membership is required at these events, championships alone are not enough of a carrot to drive membership, which is why I wrote that post the way I did. Read it again before ranting.

Mike

That is SO not true. I was on the call and voiced my opinion when shortly afterwards I was reminded that I wasn't officially on the committee (aka "shutup").