Hmm. From the title of this thread, I would have never suspected I needed to take a look at it after Jamie's original polls.
Alter Cup is for the express purpose of selecting a US Multihull Champion. Everyone who participates in the ladder events and the Championship must be current USSA members. Individual classes are not required to be member organizations specifically because they are not conducting ladder events, though the teams they send must join before registering for the Championship. Classes get other benefits through membership, and other championships (such as Championship of Champions) require class membership before accepting petitions.
The class representatives (Hobie, Performance, Tornado and one rotating class) have sole discretion in selecting their representatives. They are encouraged, but not required, to choose the champions from their largest classes in the most recent national-level events. In every case, the class representatives indicated they had contacted multiple candidates and were sending the best that were available. The folks they selected were acceptable to the Committee this year, though they haven’t always been in the past. In those cases, the class representatives were asked to try again. The same is true of the Areas - the Area Rep is responsible for contacting their winner, and if he can't go, they are allowed to go down to third place. It used to be second, but we changed it because many times people are unable or unwilling to come.
The current format (20 teams) has been around for a while and is working well. The Championship is meaningful in that, whoever has won, it has been clear that they are skillful competitors and have often proven themselves outside of a single class. In any case, majority rules - if you want to see a change, raise your hand when you show up. I did.
The current rotation, while it may seem "crazy" to some, is not new and is used, in one form or another, for other events that have provided boats. After day one, it was enthusiastically embraced by everyone I spoke with about it at the event. It has long been the Committee's feeling that the matrix we used for so long was flawed, and had, in some cases, resulted in an unfair Championship. People were leaving at the end feeling a little dissatisfied. That sucked. This, what we have now, is immeasurably better, and will continue to be refined before next year's event. I would encourage anyone who doesn’t understand it to talk to someone who was at the event – it is difficult to explain clearly, but easy to understand once in use. It took a couple of tries on my part to understand what it was all about. It is a lot more work for the volunteers on the beach, but serves the fleet much better than the matrix did.
Anyone who feels that the Alter Cup is "off course" is welcome to take the tiller, but you'd better be able to listen to what the competitors are saying over your ego. As chairman, I have sometimes swallowed my personal feelings in order to serve the job. The pay sucks, sailors can be bitchy, my friends get angry with me over decisions that must be made, red-faced competitors are up my butt on the beach when they think the PRO should have abandoned a race, and I don't always make it to the parties when I'm dealing with admin details, broken boats or scoring problems.
Why would anyone do the job? ‘Cause I think that the goal is worthy and honorable. I embrace the feeling of tradition attached to that hunk of metal and wood. My hands shook when I was soldering a piece of wire that had worked loose before the presentation on Sunday because it felt like the people whose names are on that trophy were looking over my shoulder to make sure I was taking care…
I’ll be trying my level best to somehow qualify for the 2007 event when I’m eligible to compete again because that is where the real action is. Greg is a great example of the kind of competitor we all should want to see at the event – ask him and he’ll tell you he’s been trying to get his name on that trophy for a long time. And he’s in good company.
Everyone here is entitled to their opinion, but... I’ll leave the rest of that uncharitable thought unvoiced.
