What price would you be willing to pay

Sailorchick

Member
for a UK qualifier?

For the non-UK sailor these are used to create the ranking ladder and select who goes to World and European events. There are 6 a year with 4 to count, each takes place over 2 days (5 races). They have cost £30 for the last few years.

Now we all knew the cost was going to increase a bit this year as the fleet has chosen to go to more expensive venues (its a huge fleet, 150+ boats at each event, so limited in choice too). The prices for the first 3 are published now with the first one being £35, up a bit but expected. The next two are now £45! In my opinion thats getting far too expensive for a 2 day event. Many people, myself included will pay up as no choice when we are trying to qualify for events this year. That price will surely put people off starting to attend and I can see competitor numbers going down rapidly!

So my question is, would you pay this? Do you think its a reasonable cost?
 
It's probably not too bad a price considering the pleasure for a joe bloggs club sailor like me to sail against goodison, thompson, powell etc. but it may further alienate club sailors who are simply going along as it's local or for the experience etc.

It will be interesting to see how the numbers pan out this year....may make the whole thing too elitist!
 
I think the Class needs to remember that the entry cost if not the only thing people have to pay. Whilst the Class might think "£45 not bad for a weekend's sailing", those attending have to think "£45 plus petrol+meals+beers+bed and breakfast/campsite+etc." which makes for a much larger number.

Whilst the £30 -> £45 is probably not much as a percentage of the total weekend cost, other costs have also gone up as well (we have pretty high inflation in the UK at the moment plus the economy is encouraging people to look for cutting back their spending).

Whilst I have not been to one and have no plans to go to any this year (so I cannot really moan), I agree it is getting expensive. I hope it does not result in lower numbers as these things can easily get into a positive feedback cycle where fewer people means that even more decide not to bother next time/year (as the numbers/competition are not there), so more people decide .... Also, the more people attending, the lower the organisation costs per head.

Ian
 
It is enough of an increase that I am seriously considering whether I continue with the Q's after the summer. As the worlds are in the UK this year I am trying to get to them but once they are passed its a lot of money when the south coast circuit is of a high standard and much more fun.

As Deimos says, its not just to the cost of the event, its the travel, accommodation, food etc. I'm in the fortunate position that 2 of the first Q's are close enough to home that I can go home each night. Many people have long long drives to get to the events.

I can see the cost putting families off entering too. A £15 increase equates to the equivalent of another entry if you have 2 kids entering, or parent and child etc.

£30 to £35 I can accept, £30 to £45 is excessive to my mind.
 
I'm not sure a 50% increase is justified. I don't think the cost to clubs has gone up by that much in the last year!
 
Does the entry fee get you anything other then the sailing ? (ie food/water onshore or on the water, regatta trinket etc )

Do the events have on the water judging or anything else besides the normal race committee functions that would drive the cost up ?

The trend we are seeing in the US during this downturn is Yacht Clubs loosing members and trying to make up for the missing income partly with increased regatta fees. Probably nothing new.. IMHO, it's also not enough to "fight it" by just not going to the regatta, it's well worth the time to write to the regatta organizer, and let them know that the cost of the event is why you decided not to attend. The good ones will listen and act -
 
The entry fee just covers sailing. You don't get food, water, regatta souvenirs etc.

The events do have on water jury etc but this cost has been met by the £30 entry for a number of years now.
 
It's probably not too bad a price considering the pleasure for a joe bloggs club sailor like me to sail against goodison, thompson, powell etc. but it may further alienate club sailors who are simply going along as it's local or for the experience etc.

It will be interesting to see how the numbers pan out this year....may make the whole thing too elitist!

The club sailor in the UK has 10 Grand Prix regions with great racing at great venues (to quote Adam John) these events are fab value for money with high turnouts. For example this coming Saturday 13th Feb, South Cerney Sailing Club 'WESSEX AREA WINTER CHAMPIONSHIPS' - breakfast snack, tea or coffee FOC all day, 3 races back to back, hot meal after racing all for £10.00 and a surprise (if you sign on).

As for the Qs have you checked what the venues are charging the UKLA this season?
 
The club sailor in the UK has 10 Grand Prix regions with great racing at great venues (to quote Adam John) these events are fab value for money with high turnouts. For example this coming Saturday 13th Feb, South Cerney Sailing Club 'WESSEX AREA WINTER CHAMPIONSHIPS' - breakfast snack, tea or coffee FOC all day, 3 races back to back, hot meal after racing all for £10.00 and a surprise (if you sign on).

As for the Qs have you checked what the venues are charging the UKLA this season?

I don't know of their charge but what region are you in? I'm in Home Counties and Eastern and it's terrible for events...15 out of 17 are inland with only about 5 or 6 competitors doing enough events to count!
 
how much have you fellow brits got in over the last few months - i can't remember a winter quite so bad, sub zero temps and unhelpful wind directions (for where i sail) mean i have hardly been out at all. about 3 hours so far in 2010!!!!
 
The NSW District in NSW went through similar problems more than a decade ago and we managed to cap the costs, although in the last two years we've begun drifting back up to expensive regattas.

The committee begun contacting potential host clubs and asked what they would charge and then began negotiating from their, we had a definite fixed maximum. For many clubs, the revenue gained from running a laser event is probably their financial highlight.

While there is a degree of arrogance attached, but there are very few other classes around that can get a fleet half our size and with that comes bargaining power. The committee needs to start arguing along the basis of a fixed fee for running the event, rather than on a certain amount per boat.
 
Will be at the Winter Champs this Sat Jon, looking forward to it and the forecast looks good so far, if a bit chilly but used to that by now.

I used to sail the Home Counties circuit (Northampton used to be my home club) and its a friendly circuit but some of the venues are very small and there is no consideration given to radial sailors.

I now sail out of Southampton and do the South Coast circuit, occasional South East, Thames Valley events too. The grand prix events are usually well run, good fun and good value for money.

The venues chosen for the Q's this year are very expensive venues, we've not used them before due to the cost the venues wanted to charge. Nothing seems to have changed just the UKLA expect us to pay a huge increase to fund the venues for no real improvement on the water. For example, Plymouth will be the same sailing area, but the change of club has increased the cost (we used Royal Corinthian previously).
 
Will be at the Winter Champs this Sat Jon, looking forward to it and the forecast looks good so far, if a bit chilly but used to that by now.

I used to sail the Home Counties circuit (Northampton used to be my home club) and its a friendly circuit but some of the venues are very small and there is no consideration given to radial sailors.
.

Will be great to see you Saturday, there is going to be consideration for radials.... L1,2,3 prizes; R1,2,3 prizes and if I twist the PROs arm handicap overall results, what do you think?
 

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