Hello,
You are getting this email because you have expressed an interest in Tornado sailing in the past or actively race the boat currently.
The North American Tornado Class has expressed interest in the need to promote the class to other potential Tornado sailors at this year’s annual meeting at the OCR. One of the ways to expose the boat and at the same time benefit the membership is to have the current membership attend regional regattas where the Tornado can compete.
The Tornado Class has decided to focus on attending one or two regattas in a region to revive interest in the boat regionally and racing on 20 footers in general. I am heading up this initiative to see if we can put together a regional racing circuit that promotes the class in North America. Since the racing between the I20 and the Tornado is virtually level; based on peoples experience at the last few Michigan Catfights and the measurement based Texel ratings, I will be trying to enroll Tornado and I20 sailors to coordinate efforts and generate a good turnout for head to head racing and hope this will increase the fun factor for all.
If you have an event that would hit the mark for this initiative… please let me know and we will schedule it. The ideal event would have historically attracted the spin equipped boats in a region. All of the spin boats would start and race the same course, and collect finish times. Scoring would be on Portsmouth, class and perhaps even up. Trophies in portsmouth overall for the Tornado’s would be fine unless we can generate enough pre registered boats so that the regatta organizer can provide trophies.
We will have a schedule of North American non ISAF ranked events posted on the US and Canadian portion of the
www.tornado.org web site. (The Statue Race is posted already)
Right now, the proposed schedule for the I20 / Tornado joint fleet is:
Gunpowder Regatta May 6-7 Baltimore, MD
June ??
Statue of Liberty Race July 2 Sandy Hook, NJ
Newport Regatta ?? July 7-9 Newport, RI
CatFight August 12-14 Racine, WI
Ches Bay Champ/ Area C Oct 21-22 St Michaels, MD
Carlisle Classic Nov Clearwater, Fl
SteepleChase Dec Key Largo, Fl
Tradewinds Jan Key Largo, Fl
The Gunpowder Regatta is north of Baltimore, MD and is selected because it piggy backs with the Volvo 70 and Volvo 40 foot cat racing that week. The regatta is in early May and perhaps the New England and Canadian sailors want a jump start on the season. We have 12 I20’s and 3 Tornado’s within 1 hour of Gunpowder… so we SHOULD get a turnout at a 50 boat regatta.
The Statue of Liberty race … is a medium distance race with a single start and 70 to 100 boats on the line. The course circles the statue in NY Harbor and returns to Sandy Hook New Jersey. This event that should draw a decent turnout of 20 foot spin boats (10 or more last year.)
The Cat Fight in Racine Wisconsin in August. … This is another high profile event that will get some Tornado’s to attend (5 last year) and the 7 or so I20’s in CRAW.
The Area C Alter cup qualifier / Chesapeake Bay Championship because it’s a spectacular club on the Chesapeake, and it’s the last good date in October in the Mid Atlantic. So again, since the northern racing has stopped and people might be willing to come south for a nice club and a decent race on the river in front of St Michaels.
Finally, the Steeple Chase regatta in Fl in December is a crazy distance race that circles Key Largo and draws 30 or so 20- foot cat’s.
Finally, the Tradewinds Regatta in January is a good excuse to come to Fl early… do the event and then head to the OCR’s in Miami (You can sail there from the Key’s)
We are discussing the prospects of adding the Newport Regatta to the schedule which is a 1000 sailor regatta and Party at Sail Newport in Rhode Island with the New England I20 fleet.
Let me know of an event you would like to have your region focus on for getting some turnout and generating some interest in the class. Please take the lead in generating a turnout for an event in your region and let the world know what you are about.
I have found that on line registration and fee payment is a great way for getting people to commit to an event AND see who else has committed to racing that weekend. Some regattas have this feature while I should be able to set up all of the other events much like the events on the CRAC web site..
www.sailcrac.com that I run.
So, the game plan is to put out the schedule, develop the draft schedule, and then publicize it within the region and surround and get people signed up on line. . At worst… if people focus on one event a year… its one more then last year!
I understand everyone’s interest in staying one design (and both the I20 and Tornado sailors have offered some resistance to this initiative as well) but I suggest that a turnout of 10 or so evenly matched sailors on similar boats is a lot better then a turnout of 3 or so of the same boats.
What I need from you now.
The class email list is a bit out of date and this one is the best we have.
So, If you could reply and tell us your current sailing status or wish to be taken off the list .. please respond with:
Name
Old or new Rig
Region of the country and
Land based contact info:
Best email address for you.
All suggestions (pro and con) and opinions are appreciated.
BTW, The Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TornadoCat/ is an excellent venue to publicly express yourself or simply reply to this email. You sign up and put yourself on or off of the email list serve.
Thanks
Mark Schneider
USA 827
NATA webmeister!
