OOPS! I Mean NAMSA~

Why?

How Do you think that ISAF being lobbied or blasted by a group of pissed off activists will do anything?

In fact... The US Multihull Council DID effect a change in the policy. Thank god that we did not count on a seperate organizations or we would be really behind the eight ball.

I think you need to explain How forming a new group NOW will do anything....

I believe you once raised the question...
"How come cat sailors don't join yacht clubs?"

One of the consequences of our choice to not belong to the establishment of yacht clubs ... is that we don't have any power when the establishment has to decide on this kind of issue.

Decide is an interesting word...similar words are Homocide, Fratricide.... basically it's root is to kill off).

So... as the powers that be decide what to kill off... those with no power (oh say... those catamaran sailors who don't play ball with us) ... get killed.

The solution to me is.... join the clubs... run the clubs.... wield some power...

Do you think that US Sailing would try to kill off cats IF the top Racing Clubs in the country had cat sailors on their boards of directors, a junior mulithull development program and active racing fleets of cats?

IMO, No... they would kill off somebody else. This entire mess is about power and our organizational lack of it!

Mark,
I think your right on the money!

If you get tired of being pushed around by "The Man". You have to step up and become "The Man" <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />.
Then you have a better understanding of all the issues, and you can affect the changes you looked for when you were one of "The Little People"

I am a club member, a USSailing member and an ISAF member for those reasons. The only reason for asking about NAMSA is to get those numbers under one entity for the purposes of setting goals, an agenda and an umbrella which to organize from. If USSailing is it and it represents all of us, then so be it. I remember earlier in this thread it being suggested that you join stating that you are a multihull sailor. I looked for that on the site and realized though the multihull council exists, there is no place online to choose multihull as an option.

I agree with Mark about the parallel universe that we live in not being helpful to our cause overall. I've spent a lot of time in monohull world this year, in Newport, RI. I can tell you that other than the Tornados getting attention because of the close racing in the Olympic Trials, they have absolutely no clue how successful we are overall. When I mentioned that there is a two-week, 60-supplied-boat Hobie Worlds happening in Fiji as we speak, they were completely in shock that such an event could be happening in ANY class, mono, multi, or otherwise. We ran a 55+ boat Hobie 16 NAs in Narragansett, RI last year, and other than the judges that helped at the event, no one had a clue that we existed.

Anyway, the USSA website is a disjointed mess. This may very well be an indication of how the organization is structured and managed, but certainly is not helpful to the average sailor who is not intimately familiar with their "system." This is apparent in a number of areas, including championships, junior events vs. Junior Olympics, etc. To join as a multihull sailor, you have to join through the multihull council, which has its own form in its own section of the site, which does not appear to have a link from the general Membership section of the website. Clear as mud...

Mike

Well then maybe it is time for the multihull council to insist on a seperate choice on the site for multihull sailors. I see the need for this for the simple reason of generating accurate numbers when discussing multihull and monohull sailors.

How do we keep this thread at the forefront of this site?

The simple answer (maybe not what you're looking for) is - by keeping the discussion, or a discussion, going.

Not sure exactly what's in your mind. I guess there are a few issues this discussion has thrown up - how to participate in and influence administrative bodies long term, how to put pressure on these bodies in the near term, how to stimulate grass roots growth of the sport, how to increase media visibility etc... I think ideally people would step up to work on these issues (and I'm sure some are) and will use the forum to recruit support, stimulate debate, get advice and keep the community informed. So I can see this thread spawning a number of others.

Get Rick to:

1, Make it a "sticky" thread and it will stay at the top.
2, Link to this thread from the front of the site.

With only a few days to go until the ISAF conference...Has everyone signed the petition?