2008 CLASS CHAMPIONSHIP REGATTA

[grandillusion]

idea, where has the lasgest concentration of 7.9's been, outside of the CCR in rescent years??? could be a starting point

[dave]

August and September are some of the WORST months of the years for dependable day to day winds.

[BarryE]

I did a little web trolling this morning (its nice to have a day off) and came up with the following:
1) largest concentration of 7.9s; Wayzata Yacht Club, in Minnesota, 13 boats listed on their yacht club web site, but not all are in our class assn.
2) Lake Wayzata is not exactly centrally located to the rest of the country.
3) second largest concentration was Chesapeake Bay, accoring the PHRF registry, they have 13 7.9's including 3 fixed keel boats, not exactly centrally located either..
4) Lake Michigan PHRF has 16, but these are scattered up and down the Lake, in 4 states, with an epicenter around Holland, Mi.
5) moving around the Lakes, Lake Huron PHRF counts four boats in the Port Huron/Sarnia area, Detroit PHRF has 2 more, and Lake Erie PHRF counts 6, from LaSalle/Toledo to Buffalo.
6) After that, its a collection of small fleets scattered throughout the lower midwest and south, with Nashville being the most centrally located.
7) Of our listed club membership, there appears to be a number of boats in Florida, but again, they are scattered from one end to the other.
I did notice a large number of club and PHRF boats not listed in our member roster. Maybe we should work harder at getting them to join.
9) Also, I've noticed on our website several local 7.9 fleets that seem to have gone dormant, or fallen completely out of existance.
10) maybe we should consider eliminating some of the local fleets and consolidating them into regional fleets.
11) the one state with the most boats was Michigan, (20+ boats) but they are about evenly split between east (Huron, St. Clair, Erie) and west (Lake Michigan, some 200 road miles apart. (Holland to Detroit/Port Huron.)
12) Taken as a whole, Nashville, might be considered as central as it gets, but the bulk of the boats would have to travel 500+ miles to get there.

Stay tuned for more fun with numbers in a future episode.

[JP]

This is Jeff-

So where and when is the class thinking of holding the regatta?

[Mark Gutteridge]

Jeff;
I am glad you wadded in again.It has been very quiet the last week.
WHERE AND WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SAIL THE S2 7.9 CCR??
As I mentioned before, owners ,FAMILY and crew need to know.
Plans need to be made where to get the coldest keg of beer, shiftiest winds, where we can get leaf springs or bearings on the way,the nearest bass pro shop so I can get my wardrope updated and see my S2 FRIENDS.
Or am I just getting ahead of myself?This retirement thing is new to me.I had been restrained by the work thing and had to plan my sailing events around the work thing.Now I have to plan the sailing thing around the sailing thing.
Hey, does nobody cook ribs?The only response I got to my query about BBQing ribs was from Alice Boston.
Love you guys and gals,
Chimo;
Guts.

[JP]

This is Jeff-

Mark- you're not getting ahead of yourself! I'm sure many folks have already scheduled business trips, regattas, summer vacations, kids’ activities/camps, family reunions etc. Everyone’s calendar is filling up quickly for sure! This regatta should have been booked months ago in my opinion and we now should be and have been building excitement towards our National Regatta on this thread. ~ Jeff

[BarryE]

As always, my schedule is dictated by my contract; I go back to work, first Monday every August, and finish up, last Friday in June. I have all of July free. ( unless I get stuck running summer school.) I get ten days at Christmas, and a week in March/April depending. Any other time off; I have to request way in advance, and it requires a board resolution/vote in a very public forum. A CCR late in July would be wonderful.

[Tim S.]

Just a few thoughts on CCR location. In my mind, the 7.9 has a lot in common with the Thistle class, which I have been active in for several years. The origin of the Thistle was in Ohio -- solidly in the midwest, and where the largest concentration of boats still is. Here's a list of where recent Thistle CCR's have been held:

2003 Eugene, OR
2004 Michigan City, IN
2005 Chesapeake Bay
2006 Monroe, MI
2007 Eugene, OR
2008 Pensacola, FL
2009 East Coast (location TBD)
2010 Great Lakes (location TBD)

As you can see, they try to rotate around the country to give everyone an equal opportunity to attend without having to drive too far. If Oregon is too far from Michigan for you, then you skip it and hope for a closer location the next year. In this scheme, at least one in four years, it will be within range for everybody to participate. The other three years, maybe it's within driving distance for you, and maybe it isn't.

I have one other point to make, and this isn't meant to discredit anybody's venue. Despite the fact that Thistle racing was born on ponds (any inland lake), and pond regattas can be a blast, the CCR is ALWAYS held on big water -- the great lakes or coastal areas. I'm not sure about the reason is for this, whether it's fleet size, or the larger variety of conditions you can get on big water. I suspect fleet size, as the last one I attended in 2006 limited registration to 100 boats.

Just my $0.02