But it's not too far. It just doesn't guarantee enough of a fleet to race in. That's Mark's point. If they guaranteed that even if he was the only Tornado there he would still be racing against (not just starting with) 30 other boats I bet he would be there. That's what they did the first couple of years at Spring Fever. I wish they would do it again, I think it would bring more boats and would build the regatta. I understand why they don't, it's a whole lot of work handicapping that many boats.

I go because of Nigel and Mr Ernie, they're friends, and I go to see them and the rest of my sailing friends from that part of the country.

Jamie

I would bring my Tornado to spring fever if I had other boats to sail against..So I agree with Mark and Jamie on having an open format like Mich. Cat fights. Why limit races to one class racing.

Matt

Now Jake,

I'm sorry to say that I'm Marks side on this one.

We brought 7 boats to Springfever one time with me flying in from Europe and we got burned pretty bad that year when they threw us in with the H14, P16, Mystere 4.3 and Marks Tornado on; what to us; were miniscule 10 minute courses.

So class size didn't save us then, we still got the waste basket start and course. It got so bad that we simply decided to trash the party on the bigger course and forget about the scoring.

I'm sorry to say that this causes me to not likely ever considering Springfever again.

The party and meeting all the guys from catsailor.com was great though. But I need some more real racing to ever attend again.

Wouter

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Racing everybody else on an one-start/open class format WORKS !

Wouter

Geez, Im sorry I invited you soil sports.
I'll see you fun loving, comraderie minded, catamaran fans there...

If Spring Fever originally set up the starts and scoring the way Mark suggests, why did they change the format? Was it because it was too difficult for the race committee? Or was it because sailors complained about it? Just curious.

Well thats one concern off my conscious.

I'll see you there Dave. I need to get away from this damned office.

Good job promoting the regatta.

I simply challenged a few people from the Northern areas to come down.

I didn't expect a tirade. My apologies.

I'm not really sure why people seem to be taking this so personally. A group of sailors brought up valid reasons why they don't think it's worth it to travel so far to attend a regatta that has a scoring format that isn't very much fun unless you are a part of a one-design class. Seems like a valid gripe to me. The individuals who volunteer there time to run the event have a choice to change the format to make it more appealing for open class racers to come or not. The balls in your court now guys. You no longer have to wonder why you don't have a wider variety of catamarans on the starting line. Is that wrong? No. Certainly makes it fun for all the one-design racers, just don't take it personally when they don't want to invest in the time and expense to travel for a weekend regatta and only compete against a handful of sailors on drastically different boats, and less desireable courses.

Mary,

Thanks for interjecting a useful question! Most regattas do seem to focus on one-design these days. Why not have a big open-class(es) regatta?

For local classes like the Isotope, there is no incentive to travel to one-design regattas because the one-design fleet there will never match the local fleet size. I travel so I can sail with other classes.

Personally, I'd much rather sail in a large fleet of similarly rated boats ("B-fleet" in my case) than a 5-boat fleet of Isotopes sharing the lake with a bunch of other 5-boat fleets.

If that isn't an option, then I hope to at least have a multi-class start so I can pretend I'm racing against all of them. At past regattas, I've asked Jeff Price (why does Jeff always seem to run the races - major thanks for that!) to start us with the H-17 and H-18 fleets, which have pretty close portsmouth numbers.

For non-local fleets, I suppose the story is the other way around. Those sailors probably race on handicap at home and only get big one-design fleets at away regattas. I can understand that desire too.

Regards,
Eric

I guess the opposite extreme would be something like the Canandaigua Multihull Open (Lake Canandaigua, NY), where I have heard that ALL the boats are started together in one big start and all are scored on Portsmouth. I don't know whether they then break out individual one-design fleets for their own trophies or it is strictly overall Portsmouth.

Has anybody ever been to that regatta? If so, did you enjoy that format? (Maybe they have changed it, but that is the way it used to be.)

It always sounded interesting to me. They probably are able to get fewer races in, but nobody would be able to complain that there are not enough boats to race against.

And it must be a dream event for Darline Hobock in terms of getting Portsmouth comparisons.

Maybe the Spring Fever organizers,like all organizers, should look at the "Feedback" and see what can be done differant to attract more boats.(the numbers seem to be declining)
I went in 2000 and did have some issues. The red clay I can get over. The small shifty lake is normal for me. After driving all night and getting there Friday, we quickly registered and got the boat to the beach to go out. It was blowing about 20. Most of the 16's were already there and on the beach. They chose not to register and stayed on the beach. I was not happy to find out that they all would get average finishes later. On Saturday I was over early on the last race of the day and went back to be sure and get a finish. The RC did not see this and I was given an OCS. I tried to file for redress and was told there were no forms and no jury and nothing could be done. Another sailor wanted to file a protest and had the same results. I had at least 5 witnesses that would testify that I had went back. On Sunday there was no wind. A race was started and everyone floated for a very long time. Not light wind, 0 with puffs to 1. I will go places for a great party,which it was, but the race management has got to be good to make the long drive. I could live with loosing a hearing, but not with being told I could not have one. At the awards ceromony it was announced that once again "there were no protests" and then to have guys that did not race on Friday that were there finish ahead me.That was the icing on the cake for me. The comments made in prevoius posts about why they will not attend all go back to the race management and quality of the on the water racing. Try to look at the complaining as feedback,filter out what is constructive, and try to do better.
Give a kid some stick time.

Mary: Canandaigua does still have one large start(around 60 boats) and scores both portsmouth and by fleet. It is a great event that we try to attend every year. They give out trophies for the one design broke out and the overall. They did score the 14's seperate last year for fear they would be to slow. That wasn't the case.

Oh snap.....a spinny Tornado just signed up for Spring Fever
http://www.twinhulls.com/springfever2006/06attendees/

Go CMOR

Great event, great location, great parties shifty racing, but so what

WORD!

The problem is that there usually is no good "feedback" to regatta organizers and race committees because there seems to be an unwritten rule about not criticizing.

Nobody wants to discourage organizers and volunteers, so most people keep their mouths shut (except for grumbling to fellow sailors). So instead of providing constructive criticism or suggestions, some people just do not go back to that regatta, and then the organizers have no idea why the numbers are declining.

My suggestion would be to have a generic, universal survey form of some sort to hand out to everybody who attends every regatta so all the sailors can express their opinions and give suggestions anonymously to help the organizers and race committee know what the majority of the sailors liked and did not like about the regatta, including the racing format.

The problem is, do you think most people would be willing to fill out a survey like that at the end of the regatta and stuff it in a "Survey Box" so nobody knows who said what and it is totally anonymous?

I will even volunteer to make up a survey that we could put on our web site and can be downloaded by regatta organizers.
Is this a good idea or a bad idea?

My father didn't like to hurt people's feelings, so if he got bad food or bad service in a restaurant, he just paid his bill and never went back there again. We don't want that to happen to our regattas, do we?

Jake cops a tude... get the f#$% out of here!

Oh, and what he said!

Dude, I don't see the issue here. The F16's are supposed to be in the kiddie course. I'm almost certian it's one of your class rules. Now back to the F16 forum (kiddie forum) with you!