Back in April, I asked Eric Witte to inquire of Roton Point regarding any interest in hosting our 2012 nationals. Eric informed me, at Racine, that there is a positive interest so it becomes incumbent upon us to make a decision and timely response.

Roton Point has a rich history in the catamaran world, having hosted the "Little America's Cup" among other events. Their annual fall regatta has an enviable reputation and last year, I believe, was the 50th anniversary of that regatta.

Their location, in New England and close proximity to New York City, offers additional incentive for a vacation in conjunction with a regatta. Two birds with one stone if you will.

At any rate, the class officers and I are asking for your input regarding this venue. I would hope a decision can be made soon.

Your comments and opinions are solicited here. Hopefully, some of you with direct knowledge will offer us your experiences.

Personally, I vote that we accept.

http://www.rotonpoint.org/sailing/

St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club in Panama City, Florida is also a possible venue. It seems that a large number of the F16 class members are located in the southeast so this might be a good alternative. If there is an interest in this, I would be happy to pursue as I am the Rear Cmdre of the club. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Pete sums it up well. Fantastic location with great sailing history. WRSC F16 members will probably be there in force for 2012 regardless.

Good opportunity to showcase the class in New England. There will likely be other beachcat classes competing with separate start(s). I believe it will be the 3rd or 4th weekend in September?

If you are not a USF16 member and wish to join to have a vote or support our class, please PM for details.

Chris,

Thanks for the offer. STABYC is definetly on the radar as a great venue. You are right and have identified the single drawback to Roton Point relative to the existing F16 fleets in the US. However, it is also an opportunity for the F16 racers to promote the class in a developing region that has an active dealer.

As a class, we will be obligied to support the Great Lakes region in the future via a Nationals. Of course, they are probably wiped right now and it may be the last thing on their mind.

Perhaps we can map out 2012 and 2013 (2014?) through this discussion? I personally think it would be fair to alternate between Northern & Southern venues so that fleets/racers are not having to travel great distances successive years. Any in between venues would count as an off year.

We also have a USF16 member that is not on CatSailor but in the Baltic Sea and wishes to share the following:

I think whatever criteria is used to select a site the current economic times should be considered. I also believe people should have reality in knowing this is still a developing class.

With that said I would vote to have an event near the most owners, or a location where a sales trend shows a large growing fleet. I would base my final rationale on conditions. No one wants to drive and spend money and not compete because of weather.

I am not online with cat sailor so I could not post my "opinion". Please feel free to post this to the forum.

Very best regards,

Matthew Lynch
Currently in the Baltic Sea

Kris, CRAW was able to post a google map with all the sailor locations. Do you know how to do that? I've no clue.

Pete, Mark Thomson did that map for CRAW. Let me know if you do not have his e-mail.

Have we ever done a F16 census? Surely Matt, Robbie should know who all has purchased boats the last 4-5 years.

Got it! I think Kris has an up to date census.

Thanks!

I've been thinking about this...

And it's been said before, I think we need to alternate locations, if not from North to South, at least East to West if possible. Well, I mean that within reason, cause we know that there aren't a whole lot of F16's out west. The majority being east of the Mississippi and the greatest concentration being in the Southeast. Roton Point would make the regatta being in the Northeast region two years in a row. In my opinion, I think it either needs to be in the southern area at least, and the best option would be the Western part, east of the Mississippi. Basically, a CRAW/Racine venue. Of course, they would have to submit the bid.

Those are just thoughts, and I also think that it wouldn't be a bad idea to map out the next couple/few years of Nationals.

With all of that being said, the majority vote will rule on this one, and I won't be upset with a majority vote!

Spreading it around to minimize the travel is good.

No cat class in the US really has the volume to provide for adequate exposure for the sport as a whole. Putting on a regatta is a lot of work and expensive. Having the mass to be able to justify REAL media coverage so we can reach out beyond the cult following we have is an even more daunting task. Racine was a catamaran championship regatta long before it was going to be also the F18 NA. Unfortunately there were some rather detrimental politics brought up after a proposal was made to combine more than 1 championship and GYC stepped up to the plate for us. I believe that Roton is also already a multi event and combing a championship to it can only be a good thing for both the event and the class. This from my view would be a reason to look toward a club like Roton supporting cat sailing in general.

There are enough issues with promoting the sport we obviously love and fragmenting our already small group does not seem to be the answer. Look at Hobie. They were to do a big combined National but eventually split off into a bunch of separate groups. Now you have 20’s, 18’s 17’s etc all with barely enough participation to call it much more than a friendly gathering, and these events will and have been happening around the country with absolutely no coverage. How is that helping the sport? Yes you may lose a couple of boats from the few who wish to race several classes, but there are a lot less total volunteers required, and the possibilities for combined efforts to showcase the sport far outweigh that as far as I can tell.

Matt, I'm not quite following you.

If I'm understanding all the parties involved, an increased F16 presence at Roton Point is a given. I, for one, will be traveling there as a NE vacation destination. So to will the WRSC folks, I believe.

The specific purpose of this thread is to determine a site for the 2012 nationals, but let's not forget the bigger picture! We should be trying to establish relationships with several clubs around the country. Who knows, a very nice F16 circuit could evolve.

Let's not limit this effort to establishing one event for one specific year.

Just my two cents, but anywhere I gotta go, I've got to drive a long ways. So really it doesn't matter to me. Our pockets of F16's are Florida, and Maryland, with a small group forming with good potential in Wisconsin. So really anywhere in between is about as good a location as any.

I haven't talked to the CRAW folks yet, but I have some interest in possibly putting together something for a nationals at some point. My first choice is actually on the MN WI border on the Mississippi river, but thats where my resources are pooled.



Another thing is that we have people chomping at the bit to host, and that is a very good indication!

I concur on the improved media, marketing, and administration through the economy of scale that would be achieved by hosting multiple "Nationals" at the same venue. I've always liked the idea of the "Formula Beachcat Nationals", a long term goal!

But I am skeptical. There is a lot of cross-over with the As, F18s, and F16s.

After the politics were addressed, the "Racine" concept worked really well and some day a formula nationals would be great. Shared resources, lots of boats, some good (for sailing) media coverage.

I do think you run the risk of cross-over and the largest class will likely pull the sailors to it.

Until then, I like the idea of spreading it around. I was pretty happy when I saw that WRSC was only a 14 hour drive.

That is the downside to such an event. Granted there really isn't that many people who have to make a choice, but it'd be nice to not have to make that choice. Racine there was maybe 4 teams/boats that do both classes.
Mostly I say this out of pure selfish-ness as I want to do both the F16 & F18 Nationals next year.

It is worth noting that Racine Yacht Club has a huge public beach next door. Many locations can't handle a combined event. There just isn't enough room.

Fort Walton Yacht Club can

Yikes! Karl was right. No matter which of the venues being discussed is chosen for the F16 Nationals, Karl will be driving a LONG way! God bless him, and all those hearty sailors who log such long hours on the road to be a part of the sailing community. Since 2011 Nationals will be in Annapolis, and so far on this thread both Rowayton, CT and Panama City, FL have been floated as possible hosts for the 2012 F16 Nationals, I put together a chart showing the driving times between those locations and many of the locations where I am aware there are some active F16 class members. (I realize this doesn’t cover all class member locations, and may not even cover most of them -- these locations are just the ones that I happen to know about.... I also didn’t list distances separately for any location that was within a few hours drive of either Rowayton or Panama City.)
DRIVING TIME BTW Annapolis, MD Panama City, FL Rowayton, CT
Annapolis, MD 0hrs 16hrs 4.5hrs
Atlanta, GA 11 hours 5hrs 15hrs
Clearwater, FL 15.5hrs 6.5hrs 19.5hrs
Lake Hartwell, GA 9.5hrs 7hrs 13.75hrs
Memphis, TN 14.5hrs 8.75hrs 18.25hrs
Merritt Island, FL 14.25hrs 7hrs 18hrs
Miami, FL 17.25hrs 9.75hrs 21.25hrs
Minneapolis, MN 18.25hrs 21.75hrs 20hrs
Panama City, FL 16hrs 0hrs 20.25hrs
Rowayton, CT 4.5hrs 20.25hrs 0hrs

I did confirm with the board of the St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club that the club would be happy to host the 2012 F16 Nationals should the F16 Class decide that it would alternate geographic locations and have the event in the south in 2012. Indeed, when asked, the board voted enthusiastically and unanimously in favor of offering our club as a possible site. If you are unfamiliar with Panama City, we are located on the Florida panhandle approximately 2.5 hours east of Pensacola and 1.5 east of Fort Walton Beach. The St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club (www.stabyc) is located on the large, protected waters of St. Andrews Bay. We have a full club house with separate full service dining room, bar and locker room facilities. We have a swimming pool and a separate sailing loft and sail yard. We have plenty of room in our sail yard and on a large grass lawn for launching a large number of boats. In the past, we have also made room in the sail yard for campers attending a regatta.

I do have one request if the event is held south, and that is hold it at a point when those of us in the less fortunate climates are about to put the boats away. late October/early November. Or minus that some things get rusty, it'd be nice to have it in the early spring like March. It's kinda nice getting the heck outta here that time of year.

OK, here's a question for the group at large:

At a "Nationals" (ie. the biggest "title" event you will race in the entire year, costing you thousands of dollars and a week or more off work) do you want to share the race course with several other fleets, and wait for them to all finish before you can start your next race, or would you rather only have to duck and dodge and wait on boats you are actually racing against?

I'm happy to share the course at just about every regatta, the way we always have, but at the 'one big event' of the year, I don't think having our own separate course is too much to ask.