If I was planning a regatta, what would you like to see.
Entertainment for spectators while the race is on?
Do you take your partners and family to regattas?
Types of food ... hamburgers sangas etc. or perhaps bigger meals?
Types of prizes ... cash or trophies, perhaps lucky draws.
Length of races short course or marathon
One day event or two?
I suspose what I am trying to find out is what makes a regatta really great for not only the sailors but the spectators as well.
I wold like you to expand on this topic so that any club officals can use your thoughts to improve their next regatta

Go to the Madcatter, watch, listen, ask questions, and learn from them. If you want to sail in it buy yourself a hobie.

beer,lots of it.

Yes.

I mean, all the above. Your problem will be to find people to help you put it on.

If you were in the US I'd suggest traveling to Deep South regatta held in Lake Charles LA in the spring. Best regatta, nonpareil, something for everyone and a whole lot of it. Regardless of what boat you sail you're invited.

sea ya
tami

This has just disqualified madcatter as a great regatta !

Wouter

Talk to Nigel and Ernie about how they run Spring Fever

They manage to pull a massive amount of boats to their regatta year after year on Easter weekend and manage to include the families in all the activities.

wiining solutions posted by Mark

Wouter's derogatory comment aside (you just can't help yourself can you? (don't answer that))...

... you can only do what you can do as far as how much you can offer the sailors. But the thing that seems to be best remembered, both good and bad, form regattas both big and small, is keeping everyone together. That is, if it's spread out too much, people don't intermingle. It's the co-mingling that seems to provide the camaraderie atmosphere that people like.

The more centralized the regatta, the better as far as I’m concerned. After that - remember - the regatta is for the sailors, offer them everything you can, within your budget and workload. The more volunteers the better.

Great regattas are large professionally run events with good people (both your competitors and the regatta support people), good venue and good wind.

well run racing, good turnout, good food, good facilities are all assumed in the above statement.

Newport Regatta comes to mind. I'm not sure if they have a catamaran class this year, it might be an opportunity for a beach cat class to participate in an excellent regatta.

The HT class did the Newport Regatta for 2 years and it was excellent. We paid to have Randy Smythe come and give us a clinic one year on the Friday prior to racing.

The races committees are top notch. The venue is extrodinary, right on the lawn next to Newport Sailing center, Sail Newport, the spot of the ex Newport AC bases. The town of Newport ranks right up with Annapolis as the hot sailing spot on the east coast.

If you can get your class invited it would be well worth your time.

http://www.sailnewport.org/npt/m/_general/05volksreport.asp

If you want to know what great is, I suggest you check out this one.

Venue - Pick a scenic catamaran accessible area and the season when the winds are more or less dependable. Examples: Great Texas, Tybee 500, Hill Country, almost any regatta between P'cola and P'city
Fleet - a friendly fleet of competent racers who are open and accessible to newbies and who are also willing to take on some of the tasks of hosting a regatta. Examples are compiling lists of inside knowledge on local hotels, non-sailing attractions for families, maps or nautical charts, restaurants or marine supplies. Examples: Mid-Americas, RTI, Mug Race, GT, Spring Fever
Conditions - Wide sandy beaches, free of overhead power lines, forgiving local constabulatory, wind and lots of it. Examples: GT, Juana's, Tybee
Inclusiveness - Everyone is welcome, the only criteria for inclusion is love of sailing. Examples: Hill Country, Deep South, Ruff Rider, Spring Fever.

I agree with your sentement here regarding regattas.

But your jab at Wouter in this case is wrong. You need to police your own as well if your going to make comments like that. Chris9's comment was a stupid one.

Uh Dave,

Chris9 is from Maryland and is not one of us 204er's

We have no control over what people say or do.

See ya

Tom

The madcatter fails to be a great regatta if one wants to emphasize "inclusiveness"

How can anyone argue against that?

I guess the prioritys for me are:
1. Good competition in a 1 design or formula or box rule class
2. Good wind.
3. Competent RC
4. Post race socializing with fellow competetors

Things I don't care about. giveways, food, fancy bling for winning. I would pick a windy venue over a good party anyday. I would pick a 9 boat one desighn fleet over a 50 boat open fleet anyday.

If you're going call a guy out in the Netherlands for making a derogatory reply to a derogatory post then you damn well better call out the person that initiated it. I'm ready for this [censored] storm the Hobie edict caused to die. If for some reason some of the hobie folks want to keep throwing it into our face then I certainly don't see where that is good for the sport of multihull racing, do you?

I enjoy giving Wouter a boot in the nuts as much as the next guy but in this case Chris9 earned it.

I'm still trying to figure out what Chris9 said that was so "stupid". Was it the fact that there's a regatta good enough to learn from, or that you need a Hobie to race in it? If both are true, then what's your point Dingram?

I think Chris9 might have been attempting to be sarcastic - he's a Nacra 20 sailor. Benefit of a doubt?

Dave,

Perhaps you could elaborate on what was derogatory or stupid? Both are factual.

"I'm ready for this [censored] storm the Hobie edict caused to die. If for some reason some of the hobie folks want to keep throwing it into our face then I certainly don't see where that is good for the sport of multihull racing, do you?"

Are you referring to me with the above?

Tom,

You are correct. I am not from your fleet. I have raced in the Madcatter on 2 occasions and enjoyed the racing and the fleet greatly. That is why I promote your regatta, even though in its current state I wont be attending. I have even posted on this forum several times about how great the regatta is. I have posted on this forum that I wish you would open it up to other classes.

Actually, Chris is not a hobie edict supporter at all.

He once upon a time sailed a hobie and always enjoyed the 204 regatta effort… something about rum squall’s... In his opinion… it is just a great time with all of the features of a great regatta.…. (All be it cold.)

What got lost was the sarcasm that he usually attaches to the Hobie only thing.

So his personal standard of a great regatta doesn’t factor in… who gets to come play…. That’s it. Period.

PS… you would not knock a national one design or formulae championship back on the great regatta scale just because the other classes are not invited.

So… Fleet 204 is like a yacht club which denies a class a start… It’s impact is compounded by all of the yacht clubs in the region denying a class a start…. Doesn’t happen anywhere else that I know of and I don’t see any evidence that it grows the sport of cat racing.