Class Politics US Nationals...who made the dumb call?

dgfagen

New Member
It is an Olympic qualifing year and the US Nationals is limited to 150 boat!!! This just doesn't make sense and add to that the number is combined 4.7, Radials and Full rigs. The Radials and Full rigs should have separate Nationals if that is the case.
Total debacle in my opinion. I tried to register only to be told that more than a month prior to the event registration is closed.

I expect better from the Laser class. Some great sailors won't even be able to attend. I think it discredits the winner since a sailor that might have beaten them was not able to attend because they limited the number of boats without considering any type of ranking system in the process. The laser class is not allowing for the best possible competition using the current process.

Disappointment abounds. Who made this decision anyway?:mad:
 
Well I guess any location has a practical limit on how many boats they can handle. I wonder whether this limit of 150 was known when the class awarded this club the Nationals? It does seem a bit low for such a major event.

On the other hand (looking at the glass as half full) I'd rather the class have this problem than be like so many classes who are facing dwindling attendances at their national championships.

Perhaps we can persuade some other club to run an overflow event and call it the Galactic Championships?
 
Re: US Nationals...who made the dumb call? Do the PCCs in Protest!

So come to the Pacific Coast Championships in San Francisco instead! It's the same weekend (August 10-12), and ISAF Grade 2 event worth 25 Grand Prix Points. There's no entry limit and starts for Lasers, Radials and 4.7s. Oh, and it's on San Francisco Bay, the best place in the world to sail a Laser! :D



LASER_Design_final.jpg
 
Re: US Nationals...who made the dumb call? Do the PCCs in Protest!

PCC's sounds like fun. Too bad I am on the East Coast at the moment. Will have to consider the costs...Charter boat, lodging, flight , transport etc...but it might be an option. Just started sailing laser again after sailing other boats for the past 12 years and could use some time in wind and waves.
 
Sounds like the originator of this thread made the "dumb call" by not thinking ahead.

Everyone at Hyannis was well aware of the US Nationals deadline. Everyone at the events I attended the last 5 weeks has been reminding each other to register early.

Unusual? Yes (here in NA, anyway). But well-publicized beforehand, so if you wanted to attend, you would've registered in advance. Frankly, I've been impressed with the preparation shown by the Mallett's Bay folks - that is a tremendous amount of appropriate info on their website!

Going forward, direct your thoughts to Tracy et al - probably best done via that other thread.
 
Heck, some of us don't even know if we can get the time off from work until a couple of weeks prior. So maybe I am dumb for having a job.

I thought registering a month prior was thinking ahead. Never would have thought a US Nationals would be so limited in numbers. Not even 80 full rigs.

So I guess I need to be a jobless hacker to be able to go to Nationals in the end. Or on a full time Olympic Campaign...been there, done that and still paying for it, so not an option.
 
This would nver have happened if Ross were President.

Vote for Ross. (But vote early as they are going to cut off the voting at 150 votes.)
 
So maybe I am dumb for having a job....

I thought registering a month prior was thinking ahead.

OK, this dig got me.

Look, I understand your disappointment at not being able to attend a major event you really wanted to go to. And if you were considering sailing in the Nationals, I'm quite positive you're a better Laser sailor than me.

But this isn't a sailing issue, this is a life management issue. You need to decide where your priorities are, and set yourself up to succeed in those areas. That means planning ahead and scheduling ahead.

A month ahead of time is NOTHING.

My schedule is full. The only way I get to go sailing AT ALL is to find out the regatta schedule ahead of time and put it on my calendar early. So I'm planning my regattas for the coming summer in November, and getting them on the calendar. I'm communicating with my boss, and letting him know early. "I'll be using my vacation time on these days and this entire week. I'll coordinate with Bob, and Vivek, and Shannon to make sure our business needs are covered during that time."

I'm making my travel plans early, and yes, I'm following the NORs and all the signup requirements and making sure they're covered well in advance. That way, there are no surprises, and I get to attend the events that I planned to do.

Take control. Plan ahead.
 
Could it be this is one of the damned if you do, damned if you don't situations as far as what club is awarded the event ?

It's easy to question the decision to award the US Nationals to a location that can "only" handle 150 boats, especially in the Northeast region, but there are probably a number of other considerations that came into play (such as how many clubs actually wanted to host said regatta, etc.) that we don't know about

If this is the direction that we in NA are headed (limited entries), I would offer the following suggestions that may help us.

1. Put a reminder system in place on the class website so that each time you visit it, you are made aware of registration deadlines or entry limits and how close to the limits the event currently is.
2. Use the mailing list to push out the same info - for example in the case of the US Nationals regatta, an initial email when the registration was opened, and then emails once registered users reached the 50%,60%,70% etc. threshold.

There were some updates about the event filling up on another site http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=56435
 
Or maybe we need to start running qualifiers to sail in the Nationals? Only open to anyone who has finished in the top X% of a district grand prix in the last two years or something like that?
 
Excuse me, where was it publicized that there was a limit on entries for the U.S. Nationals? I did not see that fact highlighted on the NA Class website nor in the "Laser Sailor". Something like this that is extremely out of the ordinary should have been given special high lighting in all publications and on web sites.

And furthermore, what does a member do if he doesn't have access to the internet?

The class organization is sloppy.
 
Well...I see I bent some noses with my comments.
Ended up going to PCC's and had a great time. They ran a great event and I couldn't have been more pleased with the conditions. Sailied in big breeze as well as some light and gave everyone an opportunity to be competitive in the different conditions.
The volunteers at TI made the small ramp work just fine and the food everyday was great.
Looking forward to going to another regatta there in the near future.
Even though the boat I borrowed was 13 years old, it was still fast. Thanks Paul.
 

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