Hello everyone,

The Area D South Eliminations are quickly approaching. The weekend of November 21 & 22 the Clearwater Community Sailing Center is hosting our 2010 US Multihull Championship Area D South Elimination. This the same venue that just hosted the 2009 Alter Cup Championship and we will also have the same PRO so this is clearly a treat.

This regatta is also a little different than your traditional regatta. USSailing membership is required for both the skipper and the crew. There will only be one start so everyone is on the same line together. No DPN mods are permitted, please review the NOR.

Fairlie Brinkley is our PRO for this event and he has been known to get off a few races per day, so eat your Wheaties and be prepared for a full weekend of racing.

I know it’s a busy time of year and the weekend before Thanksgiving can be a bit hectic but, if you can spare the time we’d love to see you all.

Regards,

David Ingram
Alter Cup Championship Area D South Rep.
Area D South NOR

In.

Check out Gary Jobson's acceptance speech to US Sailing on the USSA website.

Gary states that the Championships are important to US Sailing and must be promoted going forward.
So, a good turnout is important to our branch of the sport holding its place in this game.

Buy in by all catamaran classes is vital.

Photo's of F16's flying around at the championship with young people racing is just what we need at this critical time.

Finally, on one of the two issues that drove catamaran sailors nuts... mandatory membership, Gary said this in his acceptance speech...

Paraphrasing

I thought the mandatory US Sailing membership was a good idea and supported Jim Capron's initiative. However, there was an enormous amount of pushback. I will not ask for that policy in my term.

HOWERVER.... I ask that IF US Sailing helps you in ANY way or INSPIRES others... You should JOIN US Sailing.

So...

JOIN UP and SHOW UP at the Area D N and S qualifiers.

My membership is all paid up. I will renew it at the appropriate time, at the Area elimination. No Championship, no check.

+1

Crap I gotta renew.

Well at least I'll stop getting those annoying emails... right? :P

Will I stop sending you Area D South emails, of course and sorry about that. Will I stop sending annoying emails, no, that simply gives me too much pleasure.

No I was talking about the weekly "RENEW YOUR US SAILING MEMBERSHIP TODAY!!" emails I'd get.

Renew at your Area Elimination regatta.

And make sure when you renew, you tell US Sailing, up in RI, that you are a MULTIHULL sailor.

Does no good. I did that last year, no notice was taken so I emailed the lady who handles that stuff (and included a cc to JW). No one responded, no action was taken.

JW? What's up with that?

Ah, Pete...

If you recall our exchange from April of this year, you had me chasing your renewal around for quite a while until you realized the last time you'd renewed was in 2006, and not under the Multihull Council Golden Anchor. Kate was kind enough to extend you the GA pricing with your payment over the phone (which she really doesn't have to do) and now you're in the program, even though you never sent in any paperwork. There is no special lollipop you get for being a multihull sailor other than the $10 discount each year... with which you can buy a lot of lollies.

There is a $10 discount for being a multihull sailor?

I do recall the exchange. This is a different matter. If as you say I'm in the GA program, all is well. It's news to me, but good news. Thanks.

GA membership forms will be available at the registration desk for your pleasure.

Our Council participates in a program that allows US SAILING to offer a discount. It involves designating a program admin who collects up all the membership forms from a particular subset, and forwards them to the organization in batches, which is intended to save time. The program was originally envisioned to serve yacht clubs and sailing associations, but suits multihull sailors as well. US SAILING can easily track how many people are members through each of these subsets. We have almost 500 people who have been members through the Multihull Council Golden Anchor. Only about 10% are current.

"Only about 10% are current." That's the only valid reason I've seen for USS not take the multihull community seriously. If there's no money in it, why do the work?

Thanks for clearing that up for us John. I hope we all re-new under the Golden Anchor program and you save $10 too!

Now, you guys want to see cat racing on TV? Email ESPN and Gary Jobsen and tell them. Squeaky wheel and all that.

I've been trying to use logic on them, "Since the America's Cup will be sailed on Multis, shouldn't you guys be showing more multihull racing so viewers are more familiar with them?" not sure it's working!

How splendid! Who are the ones deserving credit for collecting the batches?

Hope everybody take notice and spreads the word! One of the best arrangements I have heard about to both get counted as a group AND get a discount.