News 2007 Laser North American Championship (ILCA-NA)

weren't NA's held at Hyannis Yacht Club a couple of years ago? and didn't it totally suck?
 
The last time the North Americans were in New England was 2004 when they were at Cedar Point YC on Long Island Sound. If I remember correctly, every day of racing except one was lost due to insufficient wind. So there wasn't much sucking or blowing either that year Ross.

For the geographicaly challenged, Hyannis is a completely different location on Nantucket Sound. The yacht club is very experienced in running major regattas and every time I have sailed there the organization and race management (and the winds) have been superb.
 
ahh my bad, I must have been thinking of 2004

I remember there was some big race within the last decade at HYC
 
The Laser Worlds and Masters Worlds were at Hyannis in 2002. I can't speak about the senior Worlds but the Masters was an excellent event with plenty of blowing on some days and no sucking that I can recall.
 
The Hyannis Yacht Club, with Peter Johns (who was ILCA-NA Chairman a few years ago) organizing, are going to do a great job (they sure did a really good job with the Laser Senior and Master Worlds in 2002!). And they do have a really good seabreeze so I've no doubt the racing will be top quality as well.

The important points about the post are:

1) the early registration deadline is May 15 and is rapidly approaching,

2) No entries will be accepted after June 1. This means you can NOT show up the day of the regatta and expect to sail if you have not already registered. This is the first time this has been true (though will become more common).

So, we need to get the word out about these two deadlines. If you know anyone planning to go to the NA's then please point them at www.laser.org now.
 
Over riding rule:

Laser events are for the sailors


Laser sailors are notorious for not telling you they will play with you until they show up at the last minute.

We can follow any number of paths with respect to this known historical social characteristic of our fleet. .

Consider the following :

1. We can attempt to find hosts who actually want to have regattas aimed at our fleet.
2. We can find hosts who believe part of hosting an event is to use their hosting as power and an opportunity to teach us to act according to their value system.
3. We can schedule our events years in advance and carefuly select hosts who really want to have the opportunity to bring the ENTIRE fleet to the best possible event.
4. We can wait so long to schedule our major events that we have to do whatever the last minute hosts demand of our fleet.
5. We can select venues based upon appropriateness for the ENTIRE fleet.
6. We can use hosts who have no available camping, high priced nearby accomodations, and whose police force will arrest a person for sleeping in his RV or van.
7. We can go places where the kids will be able to party on site half way through the night.
8. We can go places where kids are told to go home and the only way to stay at the venue is to buy food or alcohol in an expensive bar.

Summary: We can choose great sailing sites that are socially and financially appropriate for Laser sailors or we can attempt to reshape our fleet to fit in-appropriate venues.

I have been hosting Laser events for a quarter century and have never had more than 50% pre registration for any of those events. One year I had three preregistrations and 45 sailors showed up saturday morning and sailed with me in my event.
A new rule for the Easter Laser regatta demanding pre registration would do nothing to enhance the size of the fleet or the enjoyment of the sailors.

I don't host the event to have an easy time hosting the event, I host the event to get lots of friends to come to town and play with me for a couple days.

It is a sad day when we actually write rules that will cause Laser sailors not to sail.
In the case of the Hyannis NA event, I find it hard to believe that Hyannis is the best possible available venue for hosting as many as possible of the over 1000 very diverse paid up North American Class members who live within a one day commute.

I am truly disappointed that our association could not find a New England area venue that wants to host as many Laser sailors as possible.

My response to a host who says, " Hey Fred. If you jump through the following hoops, I will let you come visit me." is simple. I don't go.

Hospitality is treating your guests LIKE GUESTS.

Hyannis hosts have already chosen to NOT be hospitable!

This musunderstanding of hospitality is truly unfortunate.

If as Tracy says, The North American Laser Class Association is planning a future where sailors must pre register very early or pay outrageous fees and regularly be turned away because they "just decided to show up at the last minute."

Well Let's just say, That is really very unfortunate....

The rest of this message has been deleted by the author because, with respect to this subject, he is incapable of being sweet and lovable while communicating his feelings.
 

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