Making events prizes is the most retarded thing the catsailing world could do right now. Right now, I have the benefit of being able to pay my way into sailing with some of the best catsailors in the world if I so choose. If they go towards a cash system, certain races and regattas will leave the novices behind to race in the regattas that the big boys don't want to bother with anymore because theres no payout.

Same thing happened in paintball. The prize system led to a very well supported sponsored elite that had a stranglehold on the talent in the sport for YEARS until the rest of the community could pay their way to the top. It left the good teams playing against the good teams, and left the unexperienced playing by themselves. If you wanted to play with the big boys, you had to fork over several thousand dollars in entry fees and stupid insurance BS... basically the aristocracy of the sport tried to keep it elite.

I don't mind racing against some of the best the sport has to offer, but hell if I'm going to fork over the entry fee that it costs to merely compete over and over again just to have my butt handed to me on the end of a spin pole.

I would hate to see that happen to catsailing.