Regattas, what do sailors want?

So, my club is hosting two Laser regattas, the Districts in December and the Masters Mids in February. Our friends the Broadribbs, and my husband and I are organizing both events.

We're currently putting together NOR's and entry forms for them both, and trying to decide how much to charge and what to supply.

Year before last, we hosted what is now famously known at our club as the "Wal-Mart regatta". We charged $20 to enter, and we supplied absolutely nothing whatsoever - except racing of course. Oh, and we gave out Sailing Squadron mugs for prizes.

Before you say "eww, I would never go to a regatta like that" you need to understand that our club is a unique sailing venue. It is a gorgeous spot, with tons of parking, easy launching, a bar that sells pop for 75 cents and draft beer for a buck. For snooty people, a glass of wine is 2 bucks. Usually on weekends somebody is manning the barbecue and selling burgers and dogs for around $2. A 5-minute walk gets you to two reasonable restaurants and a 10 minute walk or 5 minute drive gets you to world-class cuisine and hotels not to mention the world's most gorgeous beaches. But you can also camp at the club for free, with nice showers and restrooms, shady trees, and da works.

So at our Wal-Mart event where we expected 35 or 40 boats we got 74, ran a bunch of excellent races, served hot dogs at the awards with some of the "extra" cash we took in, and everybody went home happy.

The Masters, on the other hand, want a 3-day regatta (which is fine) but they want dinners, lunch on the water, bottled water supplied out on the course, t-shirts, door prizes, nice fancy trophies, and their . . ah . . noses wiped.

So I'd really like to hear from more sailors out there - Do you want us to charge the minimum entry fee we possibly can to cover our overhead and pay for gas for RC boats? OR do you want us to charge you a whopping entry fee and spend your money on souveniers, food and expensive prizes?

Don't know about other places, but at our club you can eat and drink cheap, and buy your own souvenirs if you want them. Does anyone really NEED another t-shirt or dust-catcher bowling trophy?

Yeah, I'm looking for a "re-set" button here. I love running races, setting marks, and taking pictures of sailors racing and having fun. I hate worrying about meals and prizes and stuff while I'm out on the water running races and taking pictures. I really want everyone to re-think the whole regatta adventure because, well, it's getting harder and more expensive to run regattas, even when the people are all volunteers.

Most importantly, it's getting ever harder to assemble a good enough group of volunteers to run the high quality races a one-design fleet like Lasers needs. I don't want to beg and plead the good, experienced RC people into working our regatta, and then have to scrape around to find others to cook and serve food, clean up etc.

It's different at a big, fancy Yacht Club that has a staff, I guess. There I'd be able to just inform the staff that we'd be having 120 guests for dinner, and would they please make Beef Wellington for everyone and serve it at 6pm. (and you'd pay for it in your $150 entry fee) But at our Club we're all volunteers.

So, I need to know what you REALLY want. Because I want to run races, not serve food and give out clothing. :p
 
For food, why not do something like a bagel type thing for breakfast and then do the water, fruit and energy bars after ever race. That way you don't have to cook at all, everything is taken care of, just make sure no one litters and there are people to distribute it out on the water. It can't be that expensive, plus a place like costco, bjs or sams could really give you a great deal. That is definitely better than giving a single lunch and if its windy, people will like the small snacks after every race. Asking for snacks and stuff doesn't seem that rude and really it's simple, cheaper than making sandwiches and needs less people to make it happen.

You could organize some kind of dinner at one of the local resturant and just have people pay their own way. Just reserve so many seats and have them take care of the food (if you don't want to charge for it).

As for trophies, make it something practical. I remember a frostbite series I sailed in, they gave out sailing calenders for the next year. Its something useful and practical.
 
Maybe it's because I'm employed (at least for the time being), in the total scheme of things for anyone that has to travel more then 2 hours to get there for the Masters events, the regatta registration fee isn't really that much of a concern as far as the overall budget for the week goes.

Having said that, I tend to enjoy the low buck regattas for the simple reason that I feel like the host club is more interested in putting on some great racing and not worried about making sure my social life is fulfilled. I can take care of that myself

What I'd like/need:
1. Good racing (including good RC work)
2. Cheap place to stay - free camping works for me.
3. Water provided on the course. It's well worth a couple bucks a day to me to have cold water available so that I don't have to deal with it in the boat.
4. Something to remember the event by. It doesn't have to cost more then 5-10 bucks..
5. If the race course is more then a 30 min sail in avg wind, enough support boats to give everyone a tow out/in when the wind craps out.


What I don't need -
1. Lunch on the course - It 50/50 that I get something I really want, and it's easy enough to tape up some powerbars in the cockpit.
2. A dinner included in the cost that costs me more then 15 bucks - I can get pasta/chicken and salad for that without trying to hard out in the real world.
3. Door prizes/raffles etc. It's a WOFTAM IMHO


On the subject of prizes - I've always liked the atypical ones best - again, they don't have to cost an arm and a leg, just something different.
 
I think handing out the powrbars is a really good idea, i nornally dont want to eat all of the sandwich and cookie/ chips. Itll probably be windy there anyways. For dinner, porbably just suggests the baitshop, or the salty dog; i dont think alot of the visitors know about it. I dont think itll be that hard to get a good race commitee, the squadrons always had pretty good ones in the past. One thing that would be nice, would be an original souvenir, im a little sick of t-shirts but having a souvenir like that is a really good thing to remember the regatta by.

* if u can, you can tell the squadron head people that all the youth sailors there are not that happy with all the new food ( phillie cheese steaks and the old pizzas were GOOD)
 
The Masters, on the other hand, want a 3-day regatta (which is fine) but they want dinners, lunch on the water, bottled water supplied out on the course, t-shirts, door prizes, nice fancy trophies, and their . . ah . . noses wiped.

I don't know the arrangements SSS worked out with Dave Hartman and the Master's Committee when agreeing to take on the event, so forgive me if I am stepping into something I shouldn't... (and I can certainly wipe my own nose, thank you very much!). But, in general, the above goes past what is written in the Master's Regatta Guidelines. These guidelines, written by a group of Master's sailors and explicitly for Master's events, aim to help guide regatta hosts to put on a top event. Obviously, the bulk of the guidelines are aimed at racing, but section 2.5 (Entry Fees) does address both food and giveaways. Some quick notes:
1) Food on the water "should" consist of things that will keep a sailors energy levels up - things like fruit and/or energy bars - not "lunch",
2) Availablility of bottled water while on the water is important,
3) At 2 or 3 day events "a" meal "should" be provided
4) A regatta t-shirt, or other keepsake, "should" be provided,

I think one should note the use of the word "Should" instead of "must". The overall guide should be to put on the best sailing event and set the extras that will help to make it memorable.

From my personal perspective, I would not underestimate the value of at least one "regatta dinner" (which can be a simple bbq burgers and beer thing) at a Master's Regatta. For something like MMWE, you will have sailors from all over the country, many who are close friends, many who know each well but maybe only get together 1-2 times per year, many who are new to the scene and looking to meet the sailors they have been racing against all day, etc. A "regatta dinner", especially at a place like SSS, can be a great way for all of these sailors to get together in one place and easily mingle. So, I'd look at less as a "requirement" and more as an "opportunity".

Whatever you decide to do there, in the end the guiding principle is, I think, stated in the regatta guidelines section on entry fees: "In general, the competitors are happy to pay an entry fee that they perceive gives them good value for their money." I think that means that if, when its all over and done, everyone heads home happy and looking forward to coming back, you've done your job.

PS there do also exist Regatta Guidelines for "open" events. For the top events, these guidelines employ the word "must" quite a bit more often.
 
In all our weekend regattas, the comitee provides every sailor with water after every race and maybe a banana and crunchy bars if they want, but that's all, and everyone is happy with that,and with the trophies we just print a sort of diplomas or someting simple and everyone its still happy because we are there to race and have fun, not to see how fancy the food or the trophy is.
 
I can see, from the sailor's standpoint, that it's inconvenient to carry enough water for a whole day's sailing.

However, here it is from my RC standpoint. We're going to run a 3-day regatta for probably 90 Lasers using a Signal boat and two Mark boats. The Signal boat is busy recording finishes and can't have boats coming to them for water and food. The mark boats are often re-setting the course or the start line for the next race, so they're not sure to be around to give out water and food either.

So, if someone finishes towards the back of the fleet, and can't get water or food before the next Prep signal sounds, they're in BIG trouble. If they get dehydrated and have a medical emergency because they didn't bring enough water and couldn't get it from us, WE'RE in big trouble.

So, do we have to put a fourth boat out on the course to distribute water? Even if we do that, can we be sure that everyone will get what they need?

Then there are all those plastic bottles and wrappers. If we have 90 boats and we run 4 races, that's at least 270 bottles per day of water we're distributing (assuming nobody gets one before the first race). Unless everyone is SUPER careful, how many of those plastic bottles would you bet will end up on the beach at the end of our race day? Multiply that by three days of racing . . . it's a LOT of bottles. Do you mess about collecting trash before you can start the next race? We could be fined by the city for littering if we don't.

So, here's the logical follow-up to that question - do you want 4 races in a day without water and food provided on course, or do you want 3 races and your RC worrying about whether everyone got what they needed, and where the trash is going before they can set up to run the next race?

Sorry, I think serving food and water on the race course comes under the heading of wiping noses. Sailors should be taking care of themselves, if only from a health and liability point of view.

When I raced, I had a port in my boat and the big "fat bag" that goes in it. I carried all the water and food I needed for the whole day, PLUS my spray top if I wasn't wearing it. ( I got really good at rolling it up very small ) I know many top sailors who carry their favorite energy bars in the pockets of their life jacket, so they're easy access and the weight is out there where it counts.

What's the Class rule on the use of Camelbacks? I think that's another great solution to the water supply problem and it keeps the weight out on the rail, too. Plus - a BIG plus - is you can drink while you're racing easily, too.

I know the Regatta Guidelines pretty well. In fact I helped to re-write them a couple of times, but I'm sure that was several re-writes ago. Problem with them is they are very general, and make assumptions about a club's capabilities. A big Yacht Club with a restaurant and staff on salary can obviously offer way more services with no extra work from the regatta organizers than a club like ours where virtually everything must be done by volunteers. Our club offers a completely different regatta experience than, say, Clearwater or St. Pete with free camping, lots of free parking and draft beer for a dollar. But we have severe limitations like very few (and really crappy) club boats available to use for RC.

People love to sail at our Club because we have a wonderful facility, and great sailing conditions. I'd just like to run a regatta that allows the sailors to enjoy those things, and let them take care of themselves a bit more than the Guidelines say we should.Everybody LOVED our Wal-Mart regatta. Why not?
 
Feb. sounds like fun, so I'll be there!

2 water bottles/racer/day is about the average that we've found. Granola bars and apples is all we do, plus coffee/bagels in the AM. We supply all RC boats, incl. start boat, so racers and get water at each, except when they are busy. And all should accept trash. I do have a big port bag, and use it.

After race barbecues are great, assuming the weather is nice. You could make them optional, meaning pay as you go vs. part of the fee.

I do think 4 boats is minimum, especially if you have breakdowns, and/or need to tow back in. Pay for the RC gas, and nice lunches, free dinners if there are some.

Camelbacks are illegal, based on the total clothing weight rules, and I hope they stay that way!

I can send copies of NOR, SI's, coach boat rules, etc from Last years US Nationals. They might be useful as a reference, but in general are way more than you need.

Al Russell
 
Don't care about prizes (unless you are going to go all the way down to 59 out of 66 -- then I am all for great prizes :) )

Water & granola bars/apples are something I REALLY appreciate - I always carry 2 bottles with me but like to drink more.

I like the idea of a hamburger / hotdog barbecue one evening after the race

I could care less about T shirts, since I have about 20 already, but I do like the polo shirts they had at the last Masters MWE and think back on the race every time I wear it.

The racing was great and I think they had at least 4 boats out there, maybe 5.

Looking forward to the masters Midwinters this year - guess I should look are they scheduled yet?
 
It seems I owe an apology for my crude remark about the Masters Committee wanting what I consider unnecessary services at their regatta. i.e. "noses wiped". Sorry to have offended you, Merrily.

I just want all the sailors coming to our events to understand that supplying services and meals and souvenirs not only costs them more on their entry fee, it costs us a lot more work to make it happen.

My point with all this is really that we can offer a wonderful regatta experience at our club for a VERY reasonable entry fee, and if we do that it is also a lot more fun and a lot less work for us. It's a win-win! We'll be inclined to host more regattas if they are simple, and people with dwindling vacation funds will be able to afford more trips to Florida to come and sail with us.

You can trust me when I say that it's going to be more expensive to go to regattas this year. When you can camp for free, eat and drink cheap, and not have to drive back and forth to a motel each night of your stay PLUS have a low entry fee for some really well run sailboat races, what's to not like?

So I want to know what you REALLY need, not what everyone else does, or what the Regatta Guidelines say. I already know that.

Al, thanks for the offer of your paperwork, I have already downloaded the standard NOR and SI's from the Class. (They need to update their estimates for entry fees, too. Gas is going to cost more this year for RC boats, along with everything else.)
 
i'm glad that you are willing to discuss the concerns about your regatta. this should allow competitors to decide if they want to participate. i have attended a few Master Mid's and i feel that a certain standard was maintained. i do know and appreciate all of the planning and labor that goes into a big regatta, and i always appreciate the time and effort of all the volunteers and regatta personnel.

as for supplying water on the course, hasn't this almost become expected at a larger regatta like this? it doesn't really take that much time. if your not doing full lunch (and i'm totally behind power bars and fruit) you can concentrate on water and bars. trash bags in each boat should remedy the trash problem.

also, i always feel that masters are very content to go out to course, get 3 or 4 races in and then come in. supplying grilles for after racing would be appreciated, racers could throw their own burgers, chicken, or dogs and relax and pop a few Advil.

please remember that alot of racers are travelling hundreds of miles, and treating the regatta or race week as a semi-vacation. you will also probably gain a number of "volunteers" from family members traveling to the race site. one or two chase boats may be brought also. these volunteeers have done this before and are happy to add a hand.

as for trophies and shirts, if the regatta is priced reasonably, there should be room for top 3 in each age group and a few designated trophies. it seems like your overhead is low, so a reasonable entry fee looks possible.

obviously, the regatta is in your hands and racers will come and enjoy. good luck with all plans and i hope to attend your race and the week of other races.
 
So, if someone finishes towards the back of the fleet, and can't get water or food before the next Prep signal sounds, they're in BIG trouble. If they get dehydrated and have a medical emergency because they didn't bring enough water and couldn't get it from us, WE'RE in big trouble.

So, do we have to put a fourth boat out on the course to distribute water? Even if we do that, can we be sure that everyone will get what they need?

Then there are all those plastic bottles and wrappers. If we have 90 boats and we run 4 races, that's at least 270 bottles per day of water we're distributing (assuming nobody gets one before the first race). Unless everyone is SUPER careful, how many of those plastic bottles would you bet will end up on the beach at the end of our race day? Multiply that by three days of racing . . . it's a LOT of bottles. Do you mess about collecting trash before you can start the next race? We could be fined by the city for littering if we don't.

Sorry, I think serving food and water on the race course comes under the heading of wiping noses. Sailors should be taking care of themselves, if only from a health and liability point of view.

When I raced, I had a port in my boat and the big "fat bag" that goes in it. I carried all the water and food I needed for the whole day, PLUS my spray top if I wasn't wearing it. ( I got really good at rolling it up very small ) I know many top sailors who carry their favorite energy bars in the pockets of their life jacket, so they're easy access and the weight is out there where it counts.

Say for example you need 270 bottles a day. There are cases of 24 1/2 liter bottles for $7. Thats a total of $84 a day for a total of $168. Divide that by 90 and thats a little under $2 a person. As for bars you can get a box of 36 Quaker chewie bars for $8-10 a box. Hopefully a member of the regatta staff has a card at one of the wholesale clubs. You can really save money on fruit, water and snacks by buying in bulk and it really doesn't cost very much. But you do need a 4th boat or more just for safety. They all should have trash bags and water and maybe give one boat the food and have them anchor before the end of every race.

There just isn't much space in the boat for people to store water food or even gear. I won't put a port cover in my boat and my lifejacket won't store much anyway. Any bigger of a boat and the club running the regatta start to remove lunch from the equation.

I can understand how you want to make regattas cheaper, and I commend you for doing it (costly regattas that don't give you much really bother me). But if you charge enough and offer enough, I don't think people will mind it, it's only when you start charging and wondering where the money goes is when they would start to worry.
 
This is a thoughtful discussion :).
Let me emphasize once again that a 'waterboat' is really wonderful on a long day in the sun. There should be a good hearted soul in the Sarasota area willing to cruise around in his own Bayliner, or whatever, and collect thank yous from the sailors upon the successful toss of a water bottle, Clif bar or banana. Such a boat should also be willing to collect trash. We will all be so grateful!
 
MyThoughts:
With 50-60 Lasers on the water, you need a couple of Patrol/Safety boats not involved in RC duties, in case of heavy air and sailors needing assistance. One of those boats can be a water/bar boat. No Lunch sandwich needed.
No tee shirt or souvenoir is needed.
Minimal cost awards, a usable item. A SSQ Mug OK with me. Never been there before.
Have the grills operating for at least one Evening Social or both Fri and Sat. as others have mentioned these February Florida Regattas are a sort of Annual Family Gathering.
Ask on registration form who will attend Fri and/or Sat and Pay so you can plan numbers.
We don't camp so supply good minimal cost Motel info in NOR.
Sail and Socialize at reasonable cost.
Newt Wattis
 
Interesting. I've never been to a regatta here in Australia where the organisers provide drinks or food on the water, but it sounds like a standard thing in NA. Here, everyone just takes care of themselves.
A dinner is pretty much expected though, especially for the Masters. It doesn't have to be fancy - maybe a basic barbeque or group booking at a local restaurant. Just a chance for the sailors to catch up, or get to know each other.

I'm always a sucker for a regatta t-shirt. I love sailing and hate clothes shopping, so its a win-win for me.
 
For the laser events when we are having 3 races back to back I just have a bottle of drink in my cockpit, a spare taped to the mast and cereal bars in my lifejacket pocket or taped along my boom. When my first water bottle is empty I give it to a rib rather than chuck it in the water.

Storing enough on board a laser for a full days sailing is not hard. Ensuring you get drink from a rib when there are 100+ other boats around all trying the same to me sounds really hard. I wouldn't be interested in a club supplying a lunch on the water (I've done one event where this was offered as an extra and didn't take it up) and I carry everything I need at a regatta.

What I want in my entry fee is good fair racing and nice prizes for the winners in each fleet. For a big event its nice to get a t-shirt or something but it depends on the event.
 
Lanie, I feel like you may be overthinking this or you are looking for agreement from the masters to only have to provide Race Management and then it's "on your own" for everything else.

We are MASTERS not a group of 18 to 20 somethings that just finished backpacking in europe. Most of us have decent jobs and we treat multiple day events, (3+ days) as mini vacations and we like a few "extras" to go along with the event.

Water provided on the water is VERY important as some of us may have had a Viagra binge the night before and need the hydration! Not to mention a few of us may drink, er a little, and need the hydration. For Masters the social aspect of these events are as much fun as the actual sailing.

T-shirts are nice, but dinner is nicer, (if you have to rank them). If you get 90 boats your budget should be pretty nice even if you only charge $ 40.00 per boat. I can say this because I've run 2 district events over the past 3 years on this kind of budget. We provided T-shirts, Water, Cheap Breakfast food and a nice dinner for each competitor. We even finished in the Black, but did not make a big profit.

If you are looking for this event to be a big money maker for your club I think that is the wrong approach.

With all that said I expect to pay a higher entry fee for a 3 day Masters event. I'm sure there are folks you can talk to to see what they did like Melbourne YC last Spring. They put on a great event.

Don't overthink the event. You'll probably end up with 60 something boats.
 
I think there is some overthought into this as well. Granted I havent met a vast amount of Laser sailors, but the masters I have met seem to be a pretty laid back bunch of people that go with the flow and dont seem to need their noses wiped (metaphorically of course).

I personally think that if you can make it known what to expect, and that the entry fee is in line with the expenses of the club and a little profit, then the people that want to be there will, and the people that need complimentary nose wipings wont.

Anyone who looks at a regatta and sees $20 entry fee and wants breakfast, lunch & dinner for 3 days, along with a good nose wiping is really being a prick anyway... and the type that you would likely invite to spend next years regatta weekend elsewhere.

If someone is firing up a barbecue and handing our burgers and beer, I will graciously accept my hosts' hospitality, however if no one is doing that, I will graciously make other arrangements.

To directly answer your question, I want to race other sailors and have a good time chatting it up after. Anything beyond that is at the expense of the host's hospitality.
 
Thanks for these thoughtful replies. Pez, this is what I was hoping to hear. Rob, you're right, I probably am overthinking things. But I am faced with getting NORs written and a budget for two regattas submitted to my club's Board for approval asap. My philosophy on running regattas is that the ideal entry fee covers all costs and makes little if any profit. Clubs should not be in the business of running regattas for profit, and our club is a non-profit organization in any case.

I did already toss this around with your Masters Committee and we really just were stuck on the question of supplying food and drink out on the course (which I still think should not be necessary).

Here's what I've got on my spreadsheet for the 3-day Masters event. For an entry fee of $60 we supply:
- a t-shirt ONLY for those who pre-register (that way I can buy an exact number and it gives an incentive to pre-register)
- a nice basic dinner Saturday night eg. bbq chicken, baked potato, salad or the like.
- six drinks tickets each good for one draft beer, pop or water
- water and granola bars out on the course each day. It isn't the cost so much as the logistics that worry me here.
- For prizes - there are a LOT of prizes for a Masters regatta as you know - 3 deep in 4 age categories plus Overall and First Female. Firsts will get an embroidered backpack and the rest will get a photo of their boat in a frame, with a printed plaque. The backpacks cost around $20 but we can do the photos for about $8 and people seem to like them.

Coffee and bagels will be available for sale at the bar in the mornings, and Friday night someone will be at the barbecue selling burgers and dogs.

I have all the info from last year's regatta in Melbourne. They charged $105 and supplied meals both nights and lunch on the water all 3 days.

For the Districts, we will do the Wal Mart theme again. Charge probably $25 (ack! inflation strikes! RC boat fuel is the problem) with no goodies, basic prizes and again the barbecue running with burgers and dogs for sale Friday and Saturday nights. If we get a really great turnout like we had last year, we will supply free hot dogs at the awards gathering and maybe have a draw for some Tackle Shack gift certificates. I like this idea because then it's not always the same old faces collecting all the prizes.

Reason I think we might get 90 boats for the Masters is that Melbourne had 66 last year, the same week that the Masters Worlds was going on. So some of those hard core keeners will be at our regatta. Plus <big smile> everybody loves to sail at Sarasota, and it's cheap not only to go sailing but to stay, park and to eat, so people that can't afford to go other places will come here.

Ask anybody. (here comes my promo pitch) Sarasota is absolutely the best value for a regatta venue because we have free camping, tons of free parking in the park right outside the gate, cheap food and drinks PLUS we have some fo the most reliable sailing conditions in Florida AND one of the most experienced RC teams in running Laser events anywhere.

When we used to have the open Midwinters East regattas here, we'd get 250 boats easy, because all the kids from all over the country could afford to come and camp and have a great time.

Unfortunately the team that used to run those huge events has scattered to the four winds and we are left with just a small core group now that can handle high caliber racing for Lasers.

Anyway, I'd love to hear further thoughts on this, and thanks again everybody.
 
Hi Lainie,

I just read this whole thread thoroughly (I had just skimmed it last night) and my thoughts have been pretty eloquently covered by others. I also rank the water as very important; much more so than food, because it can be so hot in Florida that I can't store enough water on my Laser, and will ration what I have, and subsequently get dehydrated. Your final list above sounds like a great value to me! It sounds like finding a volunteer/s with a boat that would be willing to help out as the main water boat would be a solution. For Districts, maybe make arrangement with several willing 'Mommy boats' to distribute regatta-provided water to all competitors who ask. Not so many of those at Masters events.

I was at that WalMart regatta and it was a great turnout! Hopefully both these events will be well attended. I'll be there! I love driving in Friday night, pitching tent, rigging boat, and not getting into my car again until Sunday night. You have your Laser, tent, food and a bar all right there!

Good luck with organizing all this. PM me if you think of any way I could be a help to you.
 
---snip---

- water and granola bars out on the course each day. It isn't the cost so much as the logistics that worry me here.

---snip---


FWIW, during frostbiting at Cedar Point (where we've had 50-60 boat days a number of times the past two seasons), we have water in the RC boat, the two mark boats and the safety boat. That usually ensures we have at least one boat hanging around while boats are finishing to handle water duty. If we only have 3 boats out, we have enough bodies on the RC boat that someone can be handing out water after everyone has finished while the PRO is thinking about any changes nec for the next race.

I've also been at a few regattas where they used either a dinghy or innertube with a cooler in it that you just pull alongside and help yourself, and then use it or any of the RC boats for empties dropoff.
 
Having water available on the race course is very important IMHO. In the past year and half, I've done a fair amount of travel to big events and had to charter a Laser for the regatta. None of these boats will have an inspection port or anywhere to store water without tripping over it in the cockpit. It's usually breezy at big events; at 158 lbs I spend the whole day hiking hard and get pretty dehydrated. I will usually consume 4 or 5 bottles of water a day especially if its hot. Those of us who do not have the luxury of coach boats have to rely on regatta organizers to stay hydrated.

Lunch is unnecessary, I carry three or four energy bars in my PFD.

And this sounds like a great event, going to put it on my racing calendar! Regatta photo awards would be very cool, I think they did this at the US Championship in Vermont last year. Not that I'll likely be seeing any of them :)

regards, Mike S
 
I've both run an LMME and sailed in several Laser Masters events now in addition to many other big events over the years. I plan to sail the LMME with you in February. Food and water have been well covered so I won't go there. Keep it reasonably priced if food is included. Chicken & burgers are fine.

When we ran the regatta this spring, we provided housing with members to 25 sailors. I know that some of those would not have been able to come had we not been able to put them up. Hotels and travel are getting very expensive and costs have taken their toll on many regattas this year. If I can't camp or get housing, I don't go any more.

Good race management is the most important thing because we come to race. For the rest of it, if we feel that we got good value for what we paid, we are happy.
 

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