Class Business

[W.F. Oliver III]

I look forward to seeing many of our class members at the Barnegat Bay Regatta later this month. There is a lot going on behind the seens for our class. In two weeks, the Javelin 2 will be strutting its stuff for the Sailing World Magazine Boat of the Year judges at the Annapolis Boat Show.

The following weekend (10/19&20), the Javelin will be on display at the Worrell 1000 Seminar in Va Beach. Of course, myself and several class members will be racing in Barnegat Bay on 10/26&27. Afterwards, those who have made reservations, will be loading their boats on one of the class trailers for delivery to Key Largo and the First F-18HT North Americans.

Speaking of our North Americans, I have spoken to several of you guys have told me that you are attending they event, but have not signed up on Rick's preregistration page. Please take the time to fill out the form (link found on Cat Sailor Website front page), as it will help Rick do an even greater job!

There have been discussions at regattas, over the phone, and through e-mail about the coming year's schedule. The consensus is that we be more careful in scheduling less conflicts this year, so let's start planning now. Also, most agree that there should be only one event per month so not to overburden the racers. I will list some of the candidates mentioned to date, below:

January- Tradewinds Regatta-Key Largo, Fl
February- Key West Race (more info soon)
March-Performance Midwinters (Yep!)
April-???????????????
May- (may skip due to W-1000)
June-Summer Sizzler in Va Beach, Va
July-Sail Newport (possibly our NAs??)
August-Cat Fight????
Sept-Rotan Point or Annapolis (more later)
October-F-18HT World Cup in Ft Walton Beach, Fl
November-Central Florida has be mentioned
December-????????

We also need to keep the F-18HT Europeans schedule in date, when planning, as several of our members wish to return toItaly for this event next year. I look forward to all your input and suggestions.

Responsibility for each regatta will be assigned to a class member or committee, so planning will start immediately after the schedule is finalized at the F-18HT Class General Meeting, to be held in Key Largo in conjunction with the NA's (meeting times will be released later). Attendence to the NAs and the General Meeting is important, as the classes' schedule, adoption of a mission statement, election of officers, formation of committees, and other important class business will take place there. So get on down to the beautiful Florida Keys!


Sail Fast and Light,

W.F.
USA-3

[Nacracando]

I think that WF hit on an important point. The class needs a mission statement. Where does the class want to go from here? How is best to get there?

I discussed these points with WF recently, when I was changing boats from an A-Cat to a F-18HT. This change is another long drawn out story, but what really matters is that I am going F18Ht now.

Coming from outside cat racing, I may see things differently than some of you. What I do know is that most paths taken by other cat classes have been dead ends, in terms of expanding their rolls beyond current cat sailors. The term 'zero net gain' came up often during our talks. I feel that to expand cat sailing in general and our class in particular, we must draw new sailors into cat sailing. Having sailors switch from one cat class to another does not help build the sport overall.

How do we do grow our class and cat sailing? I think that we need to take another road. I propose that we abandon the idea of participating exclusively in "catamaran regattas". The class should seek to be included in larger "mainstream" regattas. I saw that the Sail Newport Regatta was up for consideration. This is EXACTLY the type of regatta that we shoud seek out. These regattas are attended by dinghy sailors and sports boat sailors that could be swung our way, once they see our cats in action.

More later.

SB Jones

[49er]

Nacracando has hit on a couple of important points. The class does need a mission statement. Additionally, the class should take a good look at what has worked and not worked with other new catamaran classes.

I like the idea of scheduling racing with large, existing yacht club sponsored events. No offense intended, but the "have a Hobie day mentality" has done much damage to the image of catamaran sailing, in the eyes of the general sailing community. The class will do well to avoid this mentality.

I have read that the class intended to, in 2002 anyway, to race as a group within large open class events. Do we really want to continue this policy, now that we have achieved "critical mass" and are growing faster than the other cat classes? I think that there is room to do this in a few races, but not necessarily in our Circuit Schedule.

We should approach the Annapolis YC, The Newport Sailing Center, the Miami YC, and other established clubs to be included in their regattas. Another possible direction would be to approach Universities and College sailing teams and offer to make donations in exchange for running races for the class. In the end, we will make more headway in the general sailing community though approaches like these.

Just some thoughts, so do what you wish with them.

[W.F. Oliver III]

As mentioned in my 10/3 post, the F-18Ht Class General Meeting will be held at the North Americans in Key Largo, on Saturday night (11/16). The exact time and location will be announced at the North Americans on Friday.

Everyone should be prepared to discuss the the upcomming schedule, class officers, and any other class business.

See you in the Keys!

W.F.