Hi,
<br>It was really funny, but last week I got an email asking that we delete this Forum since Tampa Bay Cat Sailors use Yahoo. And they didn't have time to monitor this site.
<br>I felt as if I had been jilted and left standing in the church.
<br>I did explain to the emailer that it did not require monitoring and our job here was to help cat sailors out.., not send them away.
<br>Barb Short figured out a long time ago that you need to have meetings and communications other than those at a bar or someone's house regarding schedules, plans, parties and the like.
<br>So, I installed a very, very expensive program that not only could do Forums, but also had live chat. While expensive and full of bells and whistles, it was also very slow. So this spring we threw it out and brought this one in which is awesome (although it doesn't have live chat -- but then no one used it anyway. )
<br>So, here we have a great Forum for folks in the St Pete, Tampa area to get together and share.
<br>What bothered me the most was that the emailer asking to remove the Forum prefers to use Yahoo for the groups meetings. That I don't understand. All the bells and whistles that Yahoo has, so do we --
<br>** On this very forum you can post pictures, hot links to your favorite web site, funny faces, files, conduct your own poll, and a great many other things specifed (just click the FAQ at the top of the Forum Page)
<br>** We now have an auction to sell all those old items in the shed and it runs just like ebay, only cheaper
<br>** We now offer FREE E-mail
<br>** We have a very powerful Search Engine that is dedicated to nautical sites
<br>** We are installing a powerful Spyder (webcrawler) which will give up awesome ability to search the entire world wide web
<br>** We have a Crews Nest where you can find crew, try to find a crew job, or whatever
<br>** We have a Personals Forum, for folks that are looking for their soul mates
<br>** A great Classified Ad section -- we've sold more boats than anyone
<br>** Our Great Links Page boasts over 3000 links to sailing, catamaran, trimaran and other nautical sites
<br>** We have a complete Schedule of Events of races, meeting, Boat Shows, etc. for the entire U.S. and most of the world
<br>** We have a FREE place to post your Notices of Race for YOUR events.
<br>** We have a polling booth where you can vote on different boating issues
<br>** We have a FREE RESULTS Page where fleets, divisions, clubs or whatever can post results of their events
<br>** We have a montly nautical (mostly cat and tri oriented) crossword puzzle that you can work right on the site
<br>** We house the Sailing Hall of Fame Museum
<br>
<br>All this and someone wants to have their Forum on Yahoo.
<br>[color:blue]Why Yahoo? </font color=blue> [color:red]When you can Catsail!</font color=red>
<br>Thanks for listening,
<br>Rick White<br><br>

Rick;
<br>Thanks for providing this forum. I use yahoo, too, for other things like an additional email address and got to using the groups just to look at some other catsailing ideas.
<br>
<br>The TBCS site on Yahoo isn't very active contrary to what the person that sent you the email believes. I think it's averaging about 2 posts a week.
<br>
<br>I'm hoping this one gets active. I have an old Prindle 16 and bang it up at Dunedin Causeway. I also belong to the Windjammers of Clearwater and work on the board there with Barb.
<br>
<br>No, I don't think deleting this board would accomplish very much. It gives access for Tampa Bay Catsailors and of course the other Catsailor.com users to information about sailing in the Tampa Bay area.
<br>
<br>Thanks for your (and Mary's) work in getting the forums and the website going. I saw you at the Cocoa Beach - Daytona Beach leg of the Worrell but was "too shy" to drop by the motorhome and introduce myself -- maybe next year.
<br>
<br>Please keep up the good work. By the way, would I get anything out of your sailing school if I brought my beat up old Prindle? Or would I be better off to see if I could rent/lease a newer boat?
<br>
<br>David<br><br>

Rick. You know the very reason that I inserted the initial post to ask for help in KICK STARTING the dog; was I wondered
<br>how long you were going to let it be.
<br>I felt that there were enough catsailors in the area to make it work. Anyway, as you can see, there ARE catsailors from the Tampa Bay area posting.
<br>Thank you for all that you have done, AND are doing for catsailing.
<br>
<br>Dave
<br>
<br>

Some of us don't even live in Tampa and look at this part of the forum to see what is going on around our state. Keep up the great work.
<br>Dan
<br>Melbourne<br><br>

About the seminars, you really can't go wrong, no matter what boat you use. The program is based on first learning the basics (just like in football, you have to know how to block and tackle, throw and catch before you can have trick plays) which are totally learning how to handle your boat -- tack and jibe efficiently, stop quickly, accelerate fast, park, backup and learn how to steer your boat by use of sails and rudders.
<br>Once there, we move on to work on starts, finishes and mark roundings and end up the week working on tactics and windshifts.
<br>Again, you can do this on a Wave or an Inter 20, or anything in between.
<br>The program has proven to be great for novice to advanced sailors, and has even been used to train a number of Olympic Medalists.
<br>Can't beat it! Hope you can make one of them -- you learning curve will go straight off the top of the chart.
<br>Rick White<br><br>