Title sponsors are good and all, but there's one big question still - where are the racers? This year's race was organized and ready to go as far as I can tell, but there weren't the folks signed up. Were they not signed up due to not having a title sponsor? I don't think so.

As strong as this race has been, I think if you look at the past couple of years of entrants, you'll find a core of mostly the same people. Velocity has done the most to bring in some new blood (if not for their efforts, things would be worse IMO). But where is the rest of the new crop of distance racing junkies coming from?

If an event or club relies on the same core year after year, eventually it will fall apart because some or most of those people eventually drift away for whatever reason. If there isn't an influx of new blood then you're left short-handed when the tried and true move their efforts around.

Most sailors I know have enough respect for the Tybee type races to not think they can just jump in and do it. They know they need to have the chops and their boat will need work. I look at our situation here on the Chesapeake - once Doug and Andy (and others) moved on, there are few if any that are looking to go that route. You can't badger those folks to come back, they will if they want to, but you can't bank on it. Alec and I cut our teeth and got our confidence doing the distance races on the Bay, races that have gone away themselves, leaving a reduced chance of getting people involved in this kind of racing. As people gravitate to A-Cats, F-16s, and F-18s more emphasis is on buoy racing. So how do we convince folks they can step up?

There are pros that obviously populate races like the Tybee, but then again, depending on what they have going their commitments and programs may take them away from it on any given year.

And there lies another question - does the soul of the future of the race look more like a professional sailor's venue, or one that is still open to the crazies who have enough vacation time? Can you successfully cater to both? Should you?

There was mention that there were foreign teams looking to charter boats. I only heard about this after it was too late. Not sure if I would have chartered my boat (hey, you never know), but it makes me think there isn't a good network to match up boats and sailors. There's one suggestion for the T500 organizers - a crew/team/charter board on the T500 site itself to help facilitate match making. This and other sites are helpful, but again the feature needs to be part of the T500 site, front and center.

Anyway, maybe more questions than answers, but I've always been a believer in achieving critical mass - that way when people go off to other endeavors there are new ones coming in. Recruit, recruit, recruit. It's not always easy, but if you have enough people that want to play plus some, you can play even if some are away.