When to schedule regattas

What do you guys think about when to schedule regattas ? Is it easier to go to just a weekend regatta or a monday through friday regatta? It seems like most major regattas give you the weekends to get there and return and race all week (four wasted days for travel). Is sailing all week too long? It would be easier for me going to the large regattas if they were like friday, sat, sun, mon (less time off work). Spring Fever is a three day regatta and I only miss 1 day of work. I leave thursday after work and drive home sunday night (it is on easter weekend). I guess when I retire in a couple of years it won't matter (I wish). I keep trying to get my wife to take over the company so I can become a full time sailor but that is not going too well.

Personally I like the way they schedule regattas.

It seems to go like this:
Local/Area Wide Regatta: Weekend
Regional: 3 Day
National: Week long.

The Nationals being a week gives people a chance to drive on the weekends to the regatta. Most Nationals that I attend are at least a full days drive from my house. So if you did a Fri-Mon regatta then I would be gone Thur-Tues and that is 4 days of work. Really not much different that 5 days and much nicer to have the weekends on either side of the regatta.

What I don't understand is why some Nationals have a 4 day regatta instead of a 5 day. I'd much prefer a relaxed 5 day schedule so that we have room for make up days if there is no wind or too much wind for one of the days. It sucks going to a nationals and getting 7 races in. I've done this at quite a few Nationals.

Mike Hill
www.stlouiscats.com

I agree with you Mike. Just a side note. If a regatta gets planned every year on the same weekend you get better attendance because you don't really have to "plan" for it. Everybody knows just to show up.

Agreed on getting "locked-in" dates. We were lucky with both the Wave Nationals and the Key Largo Steeplechase. It seemed no one had much going around that time and so we just started doing them automatically the first weekend in December for the Wave Nationals and the second weekend in December for the Key Largo Steeplechase.
It seemed to work.

Also, we have always had the Tradewinds during MLK weekend.
Most of our reasoning for scheduling in the Keys is that we have to try for "off Season" times or the room rates are really high.
Believe it or not, there is a window of slowness in the Keys right after New Years until late January where you can negotiate some better rates.
Same with my Rick White Sailing Seminars we hold every April. We have to schedule them for the last two weeks in April or we run into high room rates from high season and Spring Breakers.
Rick