Yours was always the first place I looked, Rick

But yes, it's like looking for easter-eggs sometimes to dig up all the different schedules you can find using Ding's google search. which was why I suggested a multiple-fleet calendar on a universally recognized platform (US Sail) for "one-stop shopping", NOR, registration, payment, results, pictures, etc.

But the general consensus seems to be it's the human touch that generates the attendance. Contacting people directly through personal relationships generates the most interest.. You gain those relationships through your attendance at events. Kind of a "virtuous cycle".

Outreach to dead-boat and idle sailors seems to be the crux of building attendance in general, and how to get that personal outreach to those potentially unknown contacts is a challenge

maybe I don't have my screens optimized, but this posting format (general groups, subject list, then the post thread) is easiest for me to navigate, compared to yahoo! groups or some other forums

The ability to invite everyone is event and OA dependent. For our fleet, we attend events such as the Madison Regatta, Roton Point Regatta, and NE 100 where the OAs are smaller catamaran-focused groups and are happy to have an open event. For events like Newport Regatta, Hyannis, and HPDO, the F18 One-Design class is invited, and that is the OAs choice. We feel it is very important for our fleet to attend larger multi-fleet events because that is how we get exposure and grow.

Like Jay, I come here first to see what/where/when the regattas are, look at the third thread down from the top of this page.

Thanks Rick and Mary for all the work you have done over the years, both with the magazine and this web board, without these two excellent sources of cat sailing/racing info, I'd still be racing monohulls!

Brilliant.. These guys know what they are doing..

Registration is one of those activities in life that people go nuts over... both sides of the equation... the club and the sailors. (See Registration chaos at last minute for ACA or any other time in rlife to register for something)

Organizers are reluctant to require the commitment, deadlines, penalties, late fees, no dinner for you etc.. .... Sailors hold back ....because.. (something better will come along… or... ITS a MISTAKE!!! However...

REGISTRATION makes that future happen... the organizers are pumped up when a big fleet is REALLY committed and REGISTERED in coming racing... They want to do a great job.. When a sailor has thrown their hat in the ring... they have signed up.. and Paid with their check or credit card... Life then happens to make their attendance happen in reality. That is just the way it works! Wickfords pre registration policy has integrity.

It is half assed to have a sign up sheet on the web without requiring the financial commitment. (Yes.. its better then nothing… but you need both sides of the equation.) Spring Fever does not require pre payment... and that delivers a certain message.... Sorry, It is just the way humans work.... The promise of swag so long as you sign up... is NOT the same as REGISTRATION with integrity

The constant communication between the OA/YC and the fleet captains... and the fleet captains with the sailors is key...
Again... in a perfect world... you may not need this constant communication... but.. people are people. Spring Fever does things their way and it can bite you in the butt.

Two different things, local regatta vs. National Event... Many local regattas are losing money and add in all the other BS involved with the whinners etc... I don't blame some people for throwing their hands in the air and walking away just to let the event die. We need stop being a class snobs and let others come have some fun, learn something, and maybe be the future F-18 sailor that buys your used boat...

If they are willing to host a "race what you bring class" that keeps the cost down and gets exposure why would this be a problem?

And that totally makes sense. I don't know anyone that would disagree with a 'race what you bring class' as far as keeping costs down and getting exposure. The problem The HCA has, is that we're not allowed to do it at our Association sponsored events. The point I would try to hammer home is this: While we can't do everything we would like or what you would like us to do, we DO have some talented people in our group that will work tirelessly to make events happen and work out and all we would ask is that we get an OD start.

We've been talking about that some among a few folks and I'm considering setting up an event registration service through the EMSA website for our official regattas. The debate is to request payment with registration or not. I poked around with Mr. Ernie about it for Spring Fever and he was not very receptive (I didn't have a chance to dig much deeper but he has a lot of family health issues in front of him at the time being).

I remember that we used to require pre-registration at our events (even if it was a soft requirement) and I had to mail a stupid check and put a stamp on it. I eventually quit doing that and was willing to pay the extra $5 or whatever to avoid the hassle (I realize this is selfish, but I have both a day job and a rather active home business). The web can make it easy and, shoot, if we centralize it in our region, I could just go pre-register for all the events I know I'm going to attend in one sitting.

I suppose the question I have is does anyone think that the requirement for money up front will act as a deterrent to anyone? I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of a newbie sailor. Personally, I don't think it would have an effect (we're also weighing options to not charge registration fees to relatively new sailors).

Because it's not something everyone is into. I sail an F18 because of the numbers and the level of racing it offers not because of the platform, I've never been married to a platform I go where I think the best competition is and I paid a bunch money just to be part of the game. If the only regatta to attend is a DPN only, I'll be looking for fleet that can get the numbers and give me the competition and kind of racing I'm looking for. Monohull or multihull I couldn't care less. So again, one size does not fit all and the current schedule has something for everyone and I don't want to see that change, it is just over saturated.

The voice of reason. Thanks Dave.
If there is a focus group, task force, heads of the 5 families, lynch mob....whatever.....we'd like to be part of it. MVD is our guy if you do, he's pretty insightful and actually spends more time doing than talking about it.

Is that something the HCA has considered revising? Right now it seems to not make sense for events to invite HCA group, if the HCA group can't or won't return the favor.

Dave and I agree. You need a mix of events and we are over scheduled.

So just because Dave and I play so well in the same sandbox. (grin) I suggest this paradigm... for the moment focus on the mid winter events that want to be national regattas... and their goal is to attract sailors outside of their region.

You have the usual events that are one design.... essentially warm ups for the NA's What will get determined is the pecking order in the class which probably doesn't change much and MEANS NOTHING come Monday morning.

I suggest that what is missing from the schedule is an event that puts all of the spinnaker classes into one race.... So 15 to 20 F18's, PLUS 10 to 15 (F16s two up) Plus 5 to 10 near dead Nacra 20's..(it would be their one and only national event. PLUS the one-off's... Marstrom 20s, the CFR 20, the Nacra Carbon 20s.... PLUS the dead boat society of Tornados, Nacra 6.0s with NE chutes ARC's (Supercats) For these guys... it will be their ONLY chance to race against their old friends and in a big fleet.

What gets determined is a NEW pecking order which MEANS NOTHING..... on Monday morning.

This event is not on the schedule... and the core group of F18's and F16 Racers...is KEY because these guys and the format draws the other boats out to the event because they are racing the current hard core sailors... I suggest that the participation is GREATER with this model.

Yup... you have heard it from me before... I am sticking with the model.... It works in the EU and Australia. My philosophy... Variety is the spice of life! And... I have been a band of one with this tune... So... YMMV..... I can guess Dave's reply!

We get funding from Hobie Cat Company, and in return for their monetary support, we have a few rules to follow. The thought being that if HCC has money in the event, do they really want more C2 or Acats there then their own boats? So no, revision is really not an option for us at HCA sponsored events, but the benefit for the OD start for the H16 is that we are likely to come in force to a quality event. Also, as I mentioned, we have a lot of talented people that never shy away from offering up help, equipment, people, boats etc........
And we HAVE revised our strict policy to some degree, by offering F-18 starts at some of our events, since Hobie makes an F-18 it only makes sense. But alas.....we're back to the original question: Why don't the F-18 guys want to come to OSYC to sail in our Mid Winters?

So I understand there should be two different thought trains:
- build multihull events in general (regardless of platform)
- build your particular fleet's attendence

You're right Ding, OD /Box is more fun in some ways. There are others that don't have the time/money commitment to jump platforms to do that.

It makes a world of sense to seek OD events as a racer.

Chris,
It was my understanding that the F18s were being hosted by Ocean Springs and MWE were hosting the Hobies and at that venue, and that was they way they got around the Hobie Rule.

Thus, OSYC was able to cancel and not affect the HCA regatta.

Hmmm. Maybe we could get OSYC to host a Wave Regatta during MWE. In other words, that may be the gimmick to get around the Hobie edict
Rick

Dave, don't take this wrong, but all I read in your post is Me, Me, Me, and Me...... You being pretty myopic and I can understand this being what you have probably spent to have some serious skin in the game... Me...my goal is a little more altruistic, I am looking at this as a way to get more people introduced to cat sailing and out on the water...

So your saying the there could not be two classes, two starts at a regatta and segregate the F-18 class and the "other class" or run them at the same time and do separate scoring...

How many more entrants would you have to get to offset what your getting from Hobie.....? Has anyone run the numbers...?

What are you going to do when the day comes when Hobie stops the Regatta Welfare Program? By then... to late, the "other sailors" have committed to other things..

Holy cow i laughed so hard at that...

Every once in a while I get some "wood on the ball."

I don't think anyone here would disagree that OD the events are better. But ISO don't think anyone is saying that all the boats have to race handicap. If you've got a fleet then's run it that way. I don't exactly see why having a separate open fleet is such a bother to some.

You look at the history of attendance at some of the bigger races like Spring Fever or Tradewinds published in some of the other threads and you see an increase in some of the specific fleets. There used to be big numbers though in the open fleets and these have almost entirely gone away, so the overall attendance is way down.

I will not argue the advantages of sailing 1 design. However with current attendance and the sheer number of designs available, having more than 1-2 events a year with a large fleet of 1 design is not really feasible. Traveling more than the distance to my local lake to race just a couple of boats is not very appealing so no wonder there is not much attendance at races. Nobody really wants to race a wave against a carbon 20, but the bigger attended fleets, F18, A class and F16 all rate extremely close. A start with 20+ boats, now is something that would be more worthy of some travel.
Segregation of the classes is not the cause of poor attendance, but I do not see it helping either.

From a training point it is a huge problem with US sailors trying to compete internationally also as we almost never get a big fleet start. If you can’t practice this, getting off a line in a 70 boat fleet at World Cup event is going to be problematic and pulling a miracle from the back of the fleet just can’t be relied upon if you expect to compete for a podium place.