The North American Multihull Sailing Association, Inc (NAMSA) has been officially reborn and the movement is well underway. This resurrected organization has again hoisted its mainsail, set its jib, sheeted in its chute and is now flying toward its goals.
And here are just an initial short lists of goals – some of which are already underway:
* Unite multihull organizations, and classes under one, strong umbrella organization with dynamic and effective lobbying capabilities (This means that such independent groups as CRAM, CRAW, OCRA, TBSCA, CABB, CRAC, SHBCC, MSA, et al.., and classes such as A-Class, Tornado, Nacra, Prindle, Hobie, Wave, Mystere, Taipan, Dart, G-Cat, Isotope, Inter, Supercat, Formula Classes, et al will form a powerful and productive alliance). NAMSA will create an alliance that will unite all of the multihull sailors & organizations, and boat classes, large or small, skinny or fat, or whatever
* Develop a campaign to acquire sponsorship of events and programs. A strong NAMSA will have more chance of landing sponsorship than individual islands of fleets, clubs and associations.
* Establish an infrastructure for sailing events throughout North America, and Sanction multihull events of all kinds (both racing and fun) around North America. Additionally, NAMSA will sanction and sponsor major championship races, develop a NA Schedule of events for multihulls, and publicize them to ALL media and to ALL the sailors.
* Establish affordable insurance programs for NAMSA sanctioned events, as well as group health, auto, boat, life insurance, etc.
* Lobby for beach, lake, open water and launching access, and to address and educate such event organizers that heretofore have barred or banned multihulls and strongly urge them to OPEN their doors to multihull sailors.
* Have available a uniform, Windows-based scoring software that can be used by all North American Chapter Members, plus offer tech support and instruction on its use. This software will be able to submit results in a media-friendly format.
* Have an all-out war on getting multihull Youth Sailing on an even ground with monohull sailing
* Develop a good, year-around training program for higher level sailing and Olympics.
* Make suggestions to rating organizations to make a more level playing field for handicap racing and develop a uniform, national handicap system for cruising/racing multihulls.
* Establish and make available uniform documents, such as NOR’s, registration and scoring forms, course stickers, etc.
* Train and Sanction Race Officers and Judges with an emphasis on multihull sailing.
* Each Chapter (Organization) will have a seat and voice on the Council – each organization will have a say in the issues before NAMSA.
* Each Individual Member will have FULL voting rights and privileges – each sailor will have a say in issues before NAMSA. Every sailor will be able to contribute. This is an organization for the sailors and run by the sailors.
* Offer consultation to questions on sails, sail materials, boat designs, rigging components, construction materials, how-to, etc.
* Offer a Forum for all multihull sailors – a medium of exchange amongst all multihull sailors (large, small, big, old, new, or whatever)
* Offer a Forum to bring together multihull manufacturers, dealers, and suppliers in order to have a dialogue with the sailors
* Establish a strong Internet presence and website that will be comprehensive and have available all of the services and perks offered to multihull sailors
* Offer a regular news reporting service.
* Provide a strong communication link among all our many little "islands" of organizations that now exist all alone.* Develop an integrated racing program and a strong infrastructure within North America* Give multihulls credibility in the sailing world.
We all love sailing our catamaran, or trimaran, or whichever multihull that gives us those thrills. But have you noticed that we all seem to be treated as second-class citizens by most of the monohull-dominated sailing world.., and have you noticed that lake, beach, water and mooring access is dwindling.
Organizers felt that in order to gain the respect and to have a powerful voice in the overall sailing world we all need to unite into one, strong alliance. As the old saying goes, "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." It is time to unify!
Just look at the "Great Links Page" of the
www.catsailor.com site – you will notice there are between 150 and 200 various and individual multihull clubs, classes, and/or associations. That is just for starters. Now look at the Portsmouth Handicap Tables and notice that there are hundreds of different classes of cats, tris, proas, etc. All of them doing their own thing, all with similar problems, all with the same desire to get others to enjoy the wonderful life of sailing that they enjoy.
These organizations are all like little self-contained islands. And they are all dealing with similar and like problems – like dwindling membership and diminishing beach access and increasingly restrictive government regulations to name a just a few.
Now is the time to again join them together in the North American Multihull Sailing Association (NAMSA).
There are still a few of you out there that may at this moment be saying, "What the heck do we need THAT for — don't we already have enough organizations?" And some of you may be asking, "Isn't that what the Multihull Council is for?"
In answer to the first question, there are a lot of organizations, but none of them do what NAMSA can do for you – unite all of us to speak with a strong voice to US Sailing, ISAF, and other organizations – organizations that shun us, that have not allowed a multihull Youth boat, that will bar us from venues because of our multiple hulls, that will not allow affordable insurance, that will not heed the problems of multihulls when writing rules, and the list goes on. Multihulls, both large and small, have no central organization that can and will speak out for them. We are all tiny voices.., unheard by the thunderous roar of the monohull world.
And to the second question, that is NOT what the Multihull Council is for. The Multihull Council of US Sailing cannot actually do anything except give input to the board of directors of US Sailing. We now have a Multihull Committee in US Sailing, and it has a small budget which makes it possible to administer the Alter Cup Championship and the Fast & Fun program. Neither of these multihull entities has the power, the mandate or the resources to create an overall infrastructure and support network for the multihull community. Put aptly and briefly by retired Multihull Council Chairman, Gordon Isco, "Just think of US Sailing as Washington and the Multihull Council as a representative from one state."
While some multihull organizations are cozy with what they already have, there are many other suffering. Here are some of the reasons why NAMSA has been reincarnated:
* There are getting to be more and more different types of multihulls and fewer regatta venues that will welcome them to race as one-design fleets even when they have enough boats. Many boats do not have strong class associations -- or any class association at all.
* There are a lot of multihull sailors out there, but no network that pulls the whole multihull world together.
* How do we all help each other if we are not united in some way? Some of our little "islands" are isolated from the rest of the multihull community and most are isolated from the mainstream sailing community. We need to build bridges.
* The Hobie Class Association is set up to serve people who own and sail boats manufactured by the Hobie Cat Company. But actively sailed Hobies are only a part of the overall multihull community.
A Democracy and a Republic
NAMSA is set up to be a completely democratic organization, and every sailor who is a member will have a vote on issues that are important to the whole multihull community. The power of the VOTE is something that we have not had through the most multihull classes, nor through US Sailing.
Also, each organization that joins will become a sanctioned Chapter and will have a representative in the Chapter Committee. Each Chapter will have a voice, not matter how big or small. There will not be the "little guy" syndrome in NAMSA.
NAMSA already has enthusiastic Board and Committees working on various aspects of the organization. Now all we need is members. The only way to make this work is to get as many multihull organizations, fleets and classes as possible to join NAMSA and, in so doing, also make every individual sailor who belongs to those organizations a full member of NAMSA.
Please look at the Frequently Asked Questions in the sidebar for more information.
The Costs
The founders and the Board of NAMSA want to make this all happen as painlessly as possible, and to give the membership a lot of bang for their buck. So, here is the cost structure:
Chapters:
An association, club, fleet or whatever can join NAMSA and become a Chapter, i.e., CABB Chapter, or CRAW Chapter, or NAHCA Chapter. The annual dues would be $10 for each member of that organization. This should not be optional for the Chapter members. Each of the individual memberships of the Chapter would get a Membership Card and have full membership rights.
Some of the associations are raising each of their members dues an additional $5 and then matching each from the association’s funds. Others are simply raising the dues $10 per year. Whatever plan your association adopts will be fine.
Worried about paying such a steep cost for getting so much? Just analyze your costs of stopping at MacDonalds, or Pizza Hut.
The association simply needs to contact NAMSA and fill out a form with all the members names and information, or, if your organization has the info on a computer, we can use the data in Access or Excel format..
There are also cases where sailors may be orphaned and not belong to any association of any kind. In that case we do offer a Membership at a cost to be determined.
There are still many folks that could be considered orphans but have just not had an opportunity to meet others in their area. In this case we highly suggest that these folks get together, form an association, and then join NAMSA and become a Chapter Member. We really feel that by each association or Chapter needs to get stronger, and by them getting stronger, so will NAMSA become stronger.
Also, be sure to click on attachments in the left column for FAQ's about NAMSA
For information on Joining, contact:
Tami Shelton
514 E. Shore, Kemah, TX 77565
Tel 281-.538-4700,
vileine18sq@hotmail.comor
Rick White
PO Box 2060, Key Largo, FL 33037
Tel 305-451-3287,
rick@catsailor.com 
