For the past eight years I've attended a truely great Regatta, Fleet 28's Steve Latham Memorial Buzzard Regatta. This year the points races were canceled due to lack of staff/volunteers. Instead Commodore Nancy Worth, Bob Konkel, John Smith, and others, put together an informal distance race. The venue is fantastic,(if we can get the city to continue to give it to us)...Guarded beach on New Bedford's outer harbor, limited camping,Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound to sail in, and the Elizabeth Islands, Marthas Vineyard, and maybe even Nantucket to sail to or around! This could be a major event again if it attracted enough people. This year we only had 15 boats register, and then 4 decided not to race, but just "fun sail". I was on one of those boats, and still had a fantastic time! An example of how great these events can be for meeting people: I sailed with Ray, who I had met with his then girlfriend Bev at the Buzzard years ago. That was their first anniversary as they had gone to the Buzzard as a second date the year before! Bev sailed with Tom, who she also met at the Buzzard, Wally a.k.a. "The King of String" sailed his 16 with his girlfriend, but he got hooked on cats after meeting Bev, and coming down to the Buzzard only to get a very wet ride with me and Bev on my 17 in 2001! And we are only the "Fun Sailors"! I would really have liked to have done the race on my boat! That is exactly the kind of event that excites me, and I'd even been thinking of suggesting it, when I heard Bob Konkel had set it up! I think everyone enjoyed the race except for two 16 year olds sailing an H16 w/ chute(a Tiger chute to boot). They had a trap line break dumping one of them, and later I think they pitchpoled going through Quicks Hole with the chute up, and no room to bear off! They have great attitudes though, and give me hope that the sport may yet be passed to another generation! The course was SSW(I think) across Buzzards Bay to the Canapitsit Channelthen E along the shore of Nashawena Island, then NNW back across the bay to New Bedford. I'd gues it was about 21 nautical miles as the crow flies. The winds were light in the morning, but picked up to what I'd guess was 15 in the afternoon. I had a blast with Ray on our return from our picnic in Nonquit. We did quite a few screaming reaches out into the bay and back. I had the longest flight of my sailing carreer! After getting back to the beach, a number of folks had to leave, but about25 of us went to a restaurant/pub just around the corner for dinner. It was a great time! Some slept in tents near the beach. I should have, as I was so tired I barely made it back to Westport, where I promptly fell asleep on the couch! I was so zonked I was very late getting back for the second day, and kept everyone waiting! Sunday's sail was to Cuttyhunk for a walking tour with John Smith. I have a great story of the tour he gave me years ago, but that'll have to wait. We didn't go because I was so late, and Ray was a little tired, so we just sailed off the beach. I also got out with Wally Machado on his TheMightyHobie18. He let me skipper for awhile, and I have to say I liked it! Sorry to ramble, but it is late, and I'm not thinking clearly! I have to tell you that Saturday I left Boston at 4:30 a.m. after going to bed at midnight. I woke up early and was so excited to be going sailing I got up, and headed to Westport where my boat, and gear were. John smith had put my hitch on my new car the week before, and if I could get some grease into my bearings, I was going to take "Blessing" over to the race. On my way down, Ray called to say his crew had bailed on him, and would I crew with him? I was psyched! I didn't need to screw with the trailer! I got to Westport grabbed my gear,and was headed out the door when I got a message from Ray that his truck died on his way down. Rick Bliss (typical) was driving by, stopped and towed Ray's boat down to New Bedford! Now he had to get the truck towed to a garage, and get to the beach. I drove to the garage to pick him and his gear up. We got to the beach in time to register set up, and could've made the race! Sunday, he had no way to get the boat home, and I said I'd tow it, but he was concerned because I hadn't put the wiring haness on the car yet! Wally Machado heard this, and in about 10 minutes I had the harness on! Thanks Ray, John, Bob, Rick, Nancy, Scott, Barry, Wally, and all the attedees for keeping it alive one more year! Your cat Cult Bro, Brian

Perhaps you should not try to keep events alive! Many good things do come to and end. Super human efforts will only burn out the humans involved. You don't want those volunteers to walk away from sailing due to exhaustion.

If the number of racers in your region has diminished to the point where you have too many regatta weekends and too few racers to participate then pulling the plug on a great event is a good thing.

The remaining racers will then focus on attending the regattas that remain on the schedule. Nothing like a month long lapse in regattas to focus your attention on the calendar and make sure the date remains booked for sailing.

I have often wondered if running an event every other year or in concert with another club's annual event would be a good idea. Of course the danger is that the volunteers that step forward year after year may not return if you take a year off.

Any thoughts?
Mark