Hi All
Ivan has done a great job this year trying to encouage us all to attend Open Meetings. He has even turned up at events when he was not able to sail himself. But unfortunately attendance has generally not been good.
This is not a Phantom phenomenon, many other classes are suffering with poor attendance at Open Meetings. Everybody's time is precious, there are family commitments, cost of travelling, the list of excuses is endless and I don't think that it will change overnight.
Why do clubs want to run Open Meetings? Some do it to make money, but surely this does not work if there is poor attendance. Some like the kudos of inviting visiting sailors to their home waters, but this seems to have lost favour. For many people it is just easier to sail at their home club than go to all of the trouble of travelling.
My suggestion for 2019 would be to go for quality rather than quanity. Cut down the number of events with the hope that more people will make the effort to travel for the few that there are. With that in mind, and looking at Ivan's earlier dates I think that we are almost there:
March - no event (it's still too cold).
April - Bowmoor on 13th.
May - POSH on 11th/12th.
June - this could be a good date for a joint meeting with the Eastern gang at Creeksea. Only we want to make sure that it is not too close to the Inlands on 1st/2nd.
July - Weymouth on 13th/14th.
August - no event, it holiday season and there are plenty of alternative regattas as well.
September - Nationals at Lee-on-Solent.
October - finish the year with a bang at Salcombe on 19th/20th.
Unfortunately for me, a lot of these events are in the West which may limit my attendance, but I will certainly try to get to some of them. Its a shame that we may have to drop other venues, but I agree with Ivan that there is no point holding events where there are only half a dozen entrants.
These are my thoughts - what do other people think.
Chris 1211
