Bill

Do you think the Yacht Club that hosts the regatta might have an opinion and a stake in this?

They provide the PRO, and RC people trained by US Sailing Volunteers.
They provide the Judges, trained by US Sailing volunteers.
They provide the structure for the Junior programs to feed into and lead to a nationals. All Volunteers

OH... and they might even get their insurance package from a company that negotiated with US Sailing . US Sailing worked to get the details right (and so the club did not need to waste their time)
The clubs volunteers who serve on the board as directors don't need this kind of stress and the membership does not want to see their property threatend by any losses.

You are missing the point... the issue is not US Sailing membership... yeah or neah for you the individual.

The issue is MANDATORY membership and what it means to the yacht club and the class who are doing their best to make events succesful. Read the Hobie letter... they got it right!

If you race sailboats... you should belong. not a lot of good reasons for why not.

If you don't... you are a cheap !@#$ freeloader.

Protesting the Olympic fiasco as an individual is your choice... ( and I am sure you would have joined the Finn Sailors in protest if THEY had gotten the boot). Don't conflate this with mandatory membership THAT HAS NOT EVEN happened.

Remember... our entire racing program is run by volunteers... Its's a compact... to keep it running... you volunteer to help run events, you pay the memberships, you support the events in your area.

When you fail to take your responsibility for one of those areas... the compact starts to fall apart.

So... you think that not paying your dues and not supporting your events will be positive for the organized sport of sailing? Not in my book!

The "unenforceable" part could be resolved, but likely won't be.

At the Newport meeting in the spring, I pointed out during the rules meeting the language that the IHCA uses (Class Rule 26), which requires one IHCA member per boat. This is much simpler to enforce than each person who touches the helm. (Forget about how to know if someone is a member, that's another issue entirely.)

Jim didn't get it (at all), and some other major players in the room liked the concept, but appararently thought that was too easy and started changing the verbiage. I reiterated several times that they really need to keep it simple to have any chance of success, but I don't think they were listening after the first few tries...

Mike

Neatly articulated and quite true. Might a bit harsh, but illustrates the reality of the new era with permitting among the many obstacles now ebing enforced. We needed a $550.00 permit to inspect a tractor to drive on the beach for 3 days! Involvement is more than volunteering as RC or grillmaster etc. Should this all be handled by a for profit entity? That is sure to bring about a decline in the turnout and participation at all levels. USSailing may not be ideal but as illustrated earlier in the thread inroads can be made via MHC Don't forget IOC et al are comprised of more than USSailing. There's plenty of blame to spread around rather thickly.
Yes that is a fleet of optikids getting a bit of inspiration from the pros. Don't forget that you will have to race against the same folks FOREVER unless there is a bit of this kind of attention to the little kids. Sorry, they are really RCs, volunteers,and grillmasters of the future. They might also end up changing your adult diapers.

Speaking of which - Happy Bithday and conratulations on making it another year.

I will be paying my US Sailing dues as I have since 1990 when I started sailing with Bill Martin (USYRU former Pres). I would personally rather donate the money to CISA or Sail Sandpoint Youth Sailing where I could see the impact first hand. Where I struggle is that I have paid dues this year to 1 national authority, 3 national class associations, 2 yacht clubs, 2 local fleets, not to mention entry fees ranging between 35 and 200+ dollars to race. Granted it is nothing like the TP52 dues which are $5000.00 annually but if you add up the national, regional and local dues along with the cost of gas to travel go race aginst 12+ boats it is no wonder that we get reduced fleet sizes. Wail all you want against US Sailing but the truth is everyone managing this sport has had their hand out for years.

Good point... I hear this complaint often. Wow... look at all of the organizations with a hand out!

So:
What service is redundant between all of those organizations.

What service is costly and not needed?

I always bitch about this as well... but when I look at this way... I have little basis for complaints. It's not a cheap sport as we know.
Mark

remember the us voted the cats out because there was no heir apparent to contend for the medals after this year. And lets face it the olympics are about medals, so the us went where they thought there was the best chance of a medal.

What's your point? There are heirs to contend for medals - they just didn't see (look for) them.

Yeah, didn't Lovell/Ogletree have some pretty tough competition in the selection trials this year?

Knowing that Robbie Daniel missed out on winning the Olympic bearth by 1 point in the last race of the trials this year, the arguement that there is no future medal contender just does not hold water with me. For US Sailing to use that arguement is pure BS!

37 KENDALL Anthony Bruce NZL SELLERS Brett
TUKE Blair 4 37 36 2312
38 MIRSKY Andre BRA NALDI Gualberto
PONTES Daniel 5 38 33 2138
39 THINSCHMIDT Donald USA FARRAR Jonathan
WIERDA Andrew 4 39 35 1766
40 KOWALEWSKI Piotr POL KłOSOWICZ Maciej 3 41 40 1663
41 LUO Youjia CHN CHEN Xiuke 3 42 39 1659
42 SHAW David NZL SHAW Susan 2 43 42 1362
43 SACH Helge GER SACH Jens-christian
TOLSDORF Kim-patrick 4 44 1 1337
44 DANIEL Robbie Daniel USA CHU Gary 3 45 17 1318
45 LANGWORTHY Rohan AUS BENSON

Current ranking seem to support the decision

15 MARCOLINI Francesco ITA BIANCHI Edoardo 7 12 11 4731
16 HAGARA Roman AUT STEINACHER Hans Peter 7 18 1 4700
17 LOVELL John USA OGLETREE Charles 7 17 1 4690
18 GUICHARD Yann FRA GUYADER Alexandre 7 15 3 4600
19 FIGUEROA Enrique PUR HERNANDEZ Jorge

I'm not saying I like the decision I'm just saying that I can see the influence on the decision. I've seen alot of negative but not much talk about the reasons behind the decision.

I vote Jake's smoking monkey go over there and represent us!

Speaking of which - Happy Bithday and conratulations on making it another year.

Thank you very much. 21years since the toe tag should have been applied if I recall. Screw all this political nonsense. I'm putting my boat together right now and I am going to Cabbage Key and then probably Captiva for a birthday sail and beer without the kids. They'll probably just commit me to the old folks home anyways.
Besides I know USSailing won't care for me either even with 17years of annual dues, go figure.

PEA we'll talk later. Gotta go! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Just cause your country has cat sailors does not mean you get a ticket to the party. You do realize that Enrique F, (known to walk on water in US Hobie circles) could not qualify Puerto Rico this cycle. That gives you some idea just how tough it is.

You could make the case that the US would have missed the 2012 multihull games no matter the politics.

But, this shouln't have been the basis of the USSA vote. and that is the fundamental point. The USSA should have signed onto the 5 disiplines ideal had they represented the best interest of sailing.

Gordon, at any rate, minor details notwithstanding, USYRU and USSA have not been really interested in the cat sailors. The one-design Hobies, Prindles, and Nacras really were the best way to hone skills and membership in the unions did very little in that regard. Rick White and Mary Wells have done more for catamaran sailing than either USSA or USYRU combined. I would even guess that NAMSA back in the 70s and 80s also did more than the national sailing authorities did to promote the sport.

It's the current sailor's game now, as I am out of it, but sometimes old memories are worth revisiting. Thanks for the correction of details.

I think with the undeniable popularity of the Wave, thanks in large part to Rick and Mary, many are in fact, going back to Hobies launched off the beach. That can't be a bad thing.