dyzzypyxxy
Member
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.
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.