The race is a lot of work and the juice you get in putting this on is in having the top international and domestic teams compete in your race.
From Mike Worrell onwards... they always look overseas and see the Archipelago Raid, Texel, Carnac and the PR that these events generate. Then they decide that the grass is greener!... So... the solution is to convert their race to the F18 class... Worrell tried to get a deal with F18's before he took on the F18HT class in his fiasco. Result= no Worrel.
Heck this year they ran the race as you might in the EU with all boats competing on handicap in SCHRS and then in their one design fleets. IMO....Perfect! ( Hell, The turnout was the best it's been in years... Now... if you don't know the sailor... you root for your flavor of boat).
Why drop the N20's??... Because he still can't purge the uniquely American bias that One Design sailing is the only legitimate and ultimate race!
For the record... on the east coast... note that the F18... still did not make a class of 10 boats in the Tybee... Spring Fever??.... nah... only 9 boats. Steeple chase??... nah... only 2 boats. Tradewinds??... nah only 8 boats. Am I missing a 10 boat F18 event??? more to the point... 10 F18's distance racing. (maybe the Texas race gets to ten F18 boats)
What's really needed is a skilled person who can explain to the public the multiple races going on out on the ocean. Hell, I bet the boy friend vs girl friend story line... or the father vs son story line or even... the david and goliath story of 18's versus 20 footers are much more interesting to the general public then who won the 8 boat F18 race (er... hobie cat to the masses).
The US obsession on one design one design one design will kill us! (and could kill the Tybee quicker then you think)!
