The NAHCA organization was set up originally to pretty much emulate the US Sailing system and its hierarchy -- a Governing Body (Hobie Cat Company), Areas (Hobie Divisions), Yacht Clubs (Hobie Fleets).

The only difference was that US Sailing has one other level in there -- the Regional Sailing Associations (RSA's). These are groups of yacht clubs that are relatively close together and have inter-club racing and reciprocity among the clubs that belong. Like the Inter-Lake Yachting Association on Lake Erie, and like the Biscayne Bay Yacht Racing Association in Florida. RSA's within US Sailing are all over the country, and they operate as part of the ladder system for qualifying people for US Sailing events.

So maybe we need to do the same thing. If NAMSA uses the US Sailing Areas and then has RSAs (in this case NAMSA SA's) within each Area, we might actually start looking a little more mainstream to US Sailing and it will make it possible for us to have ladder events that more closely parallel what US Sailing does for youth and women's events, as well as for our own Alter Cup Championship.

This would help solve the problem of the Areas being too large. For instance, we live at the southern end of Florida, and we could occasionally drive the five or six hours to get to Central Florida, but we don't exactly like that 12-hour drive to go to a regatta on the Panhandle, which is in our same US Sailing Area and our same Hobie Division.