I think intimidating may apply better in some cases. As our local fleets dwindled, we're left with a large majority of "serious" sailors; national champions, tybee sailors, and sailors with fast new(er) boats. The last Catapalooza - while not the highly organized and polished event it could (but will eventually) be - opened my eyes a little to those sailors that are around us. They're out there. There is just some trepidation about showing up with a rusty-dusty and some inexperience at our regattas. The truth is, none of us really feel any disregard for these sailors and I promise you we will be most helpful if asked...but we need events like Catapalooza to break down some of those barriers and rebuild the critical mass of newbie sailors to make the events seem openly welcoming to other newbies.

****.People need to stick around to get comfortable.If they are old guard with a dead class and don't want to switch boats then portsmouth is there for them. What kind of coddling do you propose to make them feel welcome? Where did you feel unwelcome?
Todd

Just a thought here. Events like Catapalooza are great. We sailed with some newsailors out to the island, wind picked up a bit and people teamed up on 20's and f-18's. I think that's awesome, however I think we should be careful. If our intention is to bring out "ol rusty" and get them sailing at our events again we should make a conserted effort to value the boat they brought. The temptation is to try to grow "our" fleet by introducing people to "our boat". More boats in OD is a good thing but there's nothing wrong with runnin' what you brung.

I think the comittment of the new folks needs to be strong enough to bring back B fleet, but with people who show up every now and then that's hard to do. I got my start ,and still sail with a club that let's ANYTHING sail, we have everything from prams to proas and snarks to Nacra 20s. It's all about a good time, hell I'm the vice commodore.It can be a little to relaxed for some hardcore racers, but it really helps balance me out.Anyone who finds this of interest is more than welcome to come out.Get up with me and I'll give you the details.
Todd

Todd or "Tawd" as you seem to like.

Your question is apples and oranges.

Since you asked, Vintage car races are about people having fun with whatever old POS they might have. It could be a million dollar Ferrari or an old home built one-off that never made sense, even in it's day.

We have a place for everyone to race safely if not fairly in respect to winning anything. We have so many classes (typically at least 60 per event) and we award medals three deep, that virtually everone gets several.

Nobody cares who finishes first except the guy that does.

Our events are down a little this year because of the economy. Just got back from Elkhart Lake where we had 150 this year as opposed to 170 last. Our big events get 400-500 cars. We must be doing something that people like.

Our sport could die overnight with fuel uncertainty and such. However, at the moment we must be on to something, wouldn't you say?

If someone thinks a rule could be written better or has a suggestion, I take it under consideration. That's how we present a better product. We don't stick our head in the sand....oops..sorry.

I'll bet I have more old shoes than you!

What you described sounds alike lot portsmouth to me, so there's your answer. It's pretty obvious that if anyone here tries to explain to you what they've learned from years of doing this ,you take offense and consider it looking down on you. So on that note I'll leave you to your stew.

If you don't get the Todd /Tawd thing I'll splain it to you in person.

Okay, what is missing? And if you say embrace handicap racing I'm gonna say make it happen and until then... it's just words on a forum.

Hot, young women, fun races (chugboat races, etc), and communal beer buckets.

Oh yeah, and media.

Bingo!
The Nacra way of life!

I didn't see it like that - the kids of the parents who were there want to ride on the big boats to see what it was like. It was their suggestion. However, I do agree that we didn't put enough emphasis on helping them with their own boats - capsize and recovery should be a main event. Trey is the professor in this area.

There are no handicaps. Once you're placed in a class as fairly as we can, you race heads-up. Nothing like Portsmouth. Again, apples and oranges.

If you don't "get it" I am not going to try and make you feel like an idiot.

Post deleted.
Sorry, Jack.

Lets go way back to say '82. I sailed with my dad on a 16, was a local fleet member and sailed "B" fleet. The crowds of spectators were huge, beer distributors provided tap trucks, every event had a specially designed t-shirt, awesome door prizes and great meals provided by local sponsors.
Today there is no fleet for me to join, regatta crowds are small, some times beer is provided, sometimes there is a t-shirt, usually a meal but not what it was. Its just not the same atmosphere now. Without the local fleet organization its much harder to get "outsiders" motivated.
Why is there no registration on the EMSA site? If there were it would at least give you a starting point for rallying the troops. Other than Trey Brown encouraging me to attend events I hear from no one in the sailing community. In fact, I will venture to say that Trey Brown has done as much or more for the sailing scene in the SE than anyone. I know of several other sailors that he encourages as well. No one else contacts these guys regularly and none of them sail an I-20. Its about organization and communication, if I don't know about an event how can I attend. Not all SE sailors even know that EMSA exists, much less that there is a website with race info. The masses are simply left out and uninformed, those in the click have all the info.
And lets not even bring up the subject of race management and what happens to a newbie if his boat gets damaged, his fault or not.

Please relax. I know both of you and you're both reasonable people and your hearts are in the right place....I think perhaps you're getting lost a little in the anonymity of the internet and (a far to easy to do) mis-understood ideas and methodology.

Maybe I should have been more clear. I don't think we intentionally steer new people to our fleet. It's just that we have been on some of the older boats and moved on to what we feel is a more exillerating ride. I think sometimes we assume that it is more exillerating for the new folks too. So my temptation is to enlighten them when I should be excited about their Hobie wave adding to the number of participants.

Don't make him get out the squeegee!

Zan,

You are right on here and this is what we talked about last year. I agree that this concept was misdirected at the event.

Jake,

I'm up for it again depending on the dates. I'll bring my own toilet paper since I am an butt!

Well said. Props to Trey, Jake, etc. for all their hard work at increasing regatta attendance in the SE.

IMO, preregistration is critical. New sailors will not pack up their boats and drive long distances to regattas unless they have some sort of idea what they are going for.

what if 1/2 the entry fee's went to getting bikini models? It works for boxing, nascar, football, basket ball...

PS i have felt ostracized, outcast and shun at events... and thats just my birthday party for starters!!!

Dave, I agree...Words... It's all that I have left.

On the Chesapeake... we were forced to shut down the open class for next year's Gunpowder event.... Only three F16's bothered to show for the May open class event this year. The goal is to keep the regatta alive so we hope that if it becomes Hobie Only and Syracuse moves their date to the fall that the three open boats will be replaced by a few extra Hobies.

I would prefer to use words then the action of killing off regattas and class starts.

What's left for open class racing is:
Va Beach's fleet 32 Open class race.
Rock Hall Open class (which will really be hobie 16's and 18's.)
Corsica and Cambridge... (ditto class participation) .. One of which will likely be killed off after this year because of a conflict with the 16 NA's and just not enough interest to keep the regattas going.
The only other Open event is the West River Pumpkin patch. which is a handicap race between three one design fleets at the club.

Bottom line.... No new sailors... No new sailors on old race boats... No sailors converting to one design boats replacing those that retire. Fewer racing sailors active on the bay.

A new sailor does not mind getting beat in a game he is just learning... I assert he resents being marginalized and not feeling included in the racing when the attention is focused on the magic and superiority of the 7 boat one design fleet while he putters around in the 5 boat open class fleet of dead boats like his.. So he is "inferior". No matter how friendly... the sailors are... he will feel unwelcome and not likely to come back.

A sea change is needed.... The sailors ... NOT the OA's. need to decide how best to keep the sport accessible.
I assert that we must agree to group every one together and race what you brung and then score it one design. Otherwise... the scene just gets smaller and smaller year by year. It means that we one design sailors have to give something up...

From my vantage point... the "stronger" the one design fleets have gotten... The fewer the number of racing sailors we have on the water year after year. Although we have one design fleets... nobody is remarking how healthy they look!

Here is another event scored just like the Tybee... Overall on handicap and then in smaller fleets... all PHRF handicap.
I am equally sure that each of the 35 sailors wished that the other 34 were sailing a boat ... just like theirs!

Down the Bay Overall

Fleet Results

But...
The three guys in PHRF C are racing Donnybrook the fastest boat on the bay... maybe one day.. they will save their time and correct out.... Racing against everyone keeps the little guys coming back.