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Inland - 1 day

1 (33.3%)

Coastal - 1 day

0 (0%)

Inland - 2 day

0 (0%)

Coastal - 2 day

2 (66.7%)

Total Members Voted: 3

[Cabbage]

* NB - this is a poll, not a referendum - as such results are not guaranteed to be honoured 

[The Belgian]

Hi Rich,
One day inland to start season followed by 2 day coastals and finish with a one day inland is my vote.
Good luck
Ivan

[Cabbage]

Hi Ivan, just to keep you up to speed, I've also asked this poll on FB and 1 day events seem vastly more popular than 2 day events.
That surprised me.

[stevepopple]

begin season in April
Inland 1 day to start then
Coastal 1 day
Coastal 2 day
Inland 1 day to finish

any 3 events to count - rotate venues for fairness & variety

Thanks for taking this on

[maxibuddah]

Perhaps a list of possible and actually viable venues may help if anyone has an idea. And what are your priories for a venue?

[Chris Shelton]

Hi Rich
I think that you need a mixture of venues and durations. Inland waters are probably more suited to 1 day events whilst coastal venues (particularly those that require further travelling) may be better as a 2-day event. One event a month, starting in April, and excluding September (Nationals), would be my suggestion.
In addition, the Southern region covers a very wide area from Kent in the East to Devon (and even Cornwall) to the West. Last year's events seemed to be focused in the West of the region which precluded me from travelling as the shortest journey was well over 3 hours. Please could we have a more geographical spread in 2020.
Finally I would like to offer a coastal Open Meeting at Downs SC (Deal) in 2020. We think that a 2-day event would be best, but would consider a 1-day meeting if this is everybody's preference. As previously, it would be shared with the Contenders and provisionally we are looking at a date in June. To help boost numbers we could invite the Eastern region to join in as Downs is probably equidistance to both the South and the East coast sailors.
Well done for taking on the job and I hope that the above suggestions are useful.
Chris 1211

[Cabbage]

Hi Chris,

I had in mind something along the lines of 7 events - 4 to count. Consisting of:

(3 of) Downs / Shoreham / Island Barn / Burghfield
(3 of) Bowmoor / Salcombe / POSH, Weymouth Regatta
(1 of) Lymington / WOSH / Lee-on-Solent.

My thinking being that everyone should then have 4 events they could get to, and everyone who qualifies has sailed against each other at least once (effectively splitting the region in half, with an 'overlap' event in the middle to tie it together - but lumping all the results together)

But having spoken to a few folks around the region there is a reluctance to travel much more than 150 miles. Unfortunately Downs is around 220 miles from most travelling Southern sailors. I'd be more than happy to include it on the calendar, but I wouldn't want you to go to all the effort of organising it if people won't attend.
Which kind of leads me on to travellers numbers in general, with increasing numbers of people having commitments across multiple classes, travelling numbers seem to have dropped. If you look at previous years attendances, take out people no longer in the class, and those from outside the region, we probably only have half a dozen people travelling. Which makes it difficult to justify running a stand alone event. Piggy-backing onto an existing regatta then looks more sensible, but most of those are SW based, and are 2 day events, which a lot of people don't seem to want.

What a conundrum!

It would be nice to hear from people in the centre of the region (Burghfield down to Shoreham and across to Southampton etc) to see how far East they would be willing to travel, or what the likelihood of them travelling next year is.
Do you think you could tempt many Eastern region sailors to a Downs event?

[Ocean Strider]

I can think of several Eastern area sailors that would be interested in a trip to Downs SC.

We need to make it clear that being in one region or the other doesn't stop you attending any events that you fancy doing.  I've got my eye on the Midlands events as some of them are appealing. 

[maxibuddah]

Chris,
I wouldn't have thought just being in a different region would prevent anyone from travlling to another. What might though is the lack of days available to someone. They may say if I only have 4 away days then I'm doing the ones in my region as I can't qualify in the other one. Not everyone is retired

I like the idea of what Rich is saying in piggy-backing because I am really concerned about fleet only events where 6 boats turn up, looks bad for the class and I doubt the clubs will allow us back.

As for the two day thing Rich, well if you can't get any one day events to piggy-back off so be it. Better off keep fleet only at places where you can guarantee a decent, i.e. 12-15 boat fleet, like Bowmoor.

Can you ask how many boats are spread over the area at what clubs of whoever is doing the membership thing these days (I presume Matthew managed to pass it on)? At least then you can see how many phantoms are actually located in the eastern side of the Southern region.

Whatever you do someone will moan, so just go for your gut feeling as to what will be best supported. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[Cabbage]

Southern Travellers Numbers (those from the Southern region) / Total Attendance...

2018
Bowmoor - 4/11
POSH - 9/11
Weymouth Regatta - 3/9
Salcombe - 5/12

2019
Bowmoor - 9/20
POSH - 8/10
Weymouth - 2/5
Salcombe - TBC

Possible Open Regattas - Not including week long regattas
(There are likely other which I'm not aware of - please add to the list)

POSH
Weymouth
Lymington
Lyme Regis
WOSH
Chew Valley Visitors Day (1 day - inland)

These are distinctly SW biased, which wont impress the rest of the region.
Weymouth / Lymington usually clash. WOSH and Lyme are usually in August, which was deliberately avoided this year due to holiday commitments.

I agree that we should encourage sailors from other regions etc - Glossop / Leigh Lowton are on my calendar every year, but so far circumstances have always conspired against me.
I do however, think we should aim for enough Southern sailors to justify running the event, and 'foreigners' should just be a bonus attendance. Subject to visa applications and valid passports etc.