Thank you. I was hoping that somebody would mention NAMSA.
Rick and I revived the North American Multihull Sailing Association (NAMSA), and incorporated it, and had hoped that it would be able to unite the multihull community and work toward some positive goals.
NAMSA has money in its treasury because Catamaran Sailor Magazine basically contributed $5 from each subscription toward a membership for each subscriber. I only did that for one year to help get NAMSA off the ground.
But it never has gotten off the ground. The only thing it does is hold the NAMSA Midwinter Championships (aka Tradewinds Regatta).
The problem is that NAMSA needs somebody to run it. Rick simply does not have the time to do it because he is involved in so many other things. Is there a catalyst out there who wants to take on the job?
A problem I have with NAMSA is the name itself. I think it should be renamed to U.S. Multihull Sailing Association. As NAMSA it just seems more complicated when it also includes Canada and Mexico and maybe other North American countries.
When NAMSA was first formed back in the early 1960's, it was "North American" to sort of parallel what was then the North American Yacht Racing Union (NAYRU). That later became the United States Yacht Racing Union (USYRU), and is now the United States Sailing Association (USSA or US SAILING).
So I think NAMSA should be renamed to again parallel the overall governing body for our country.
And then I think it should mobilize to accomplish some of the things that cannot be done for our particular branch of the sport within US Sailing. If the USMSA could get a large number of memberships, we could have more influence within US Sailing. And perhaps we could even start our own training program for young multihull sailors to prove to US Sailing that we are not just a bunch of disorganized beachniks. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />