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[gordon Kingston]

Hi All
Just noticed on Y&Y the discounted entry for there nationals closes soon. Our entries don't open until much later in the year, do we think this helps or would we prefer a chance to enter earlier?
As organiser at Lee for last years nationals not having some idea of entries until late August was not helpful.
Lets have some feed back to the class so they know what we would prefer.
Regards
Gordon 1465 Seacreature

[The Belgian]

I think the host club and the visitors probably want the opposite. Club as you say want to know asap how many to cater for and the later the discount for entry the better for most of us. Does the cut off put people off coming if they miss it. I doubt many pay full price so why not just have one low price and encourage a few late entries, makes no odds to them that commit early.
I would rather see a discount for first timers at a Phantom nationals and OAP's, we nearly qualify for that one Gordon !!
Ivan 1456 Bruce

[stevepopple]

Ivan, I feel your preference could cause clubs to reconsider agreeing to run Phantom Nationals. It would almost certainly create a financial black hole in the run up and very possibly afterwards too.  Waiting until the day ? British weather, what could possibly go wrong..

[gordon Kingston]

HI Ivan
No you need the discounted entry to make people commit and the class be able to cover the set up costs for the event.
I am just suggesting we open the entry earlier and have the cut off a bit earlier as well.

[maxibuddah]

I couldn’t commit to the nationals last year in time for the early payment commitment and because of the cost increase it meant I couldn’t afford to come in the end. It put me off in other words.

Perhaps there is another way that rather than increasing the cost so it becomes a penalty which puts off the late comers an incentive is used to encourage early entry. Could the sponsors giveaways be given to those that enter early? That way you may still get the early entries but not put off the late comers. I think you would need to make the giveaway good enough to encourage so rather than here’s a free pen, here’s a t-shirt, sail, free boat, whatever

At the moment the method seems too much the penalty route which just puts people off

[The Belgian]

Best thing to boost Nationals entries has always been putting effort into the open meetings then Nationals take care of themselves.
I would give free entry to first time sailors at an away open meeting and half price for first timers at the Nationals.
Ban Facebook too...
Ivan 1454 Bruce

[Phil_1193]

Nationals entry is planned to go live after the inlands.

That way efforts can be put into promoting 2 individual events rather than diluting each one and losing the focus

Early entry is there for the reason, we need to let the club have some idea of numbers 3-4 weeks before the event, partly for catering purposes but general bar stocking etc, also means we have some sort of a clue as to what money we have to spend on other bits and if its pre-entry you don't have to sit there for hours waiting for people to fill in paperwork and take money that someone then has to pay in the bank.

The nationals is designed to break even and not be a burden on the class funds, its also not aimed at making massive profits, entry is dependent on what the club charge, this year its actually quite high so the cost will increase. Next year there is a minimum charge which is the same until it gets to 30 boats then it changes to a number of entries cost, we have to factor in the possibility we might not get the entries, if the forecast is a bit poor the week before it might put people off, but if they have paid then they are more likely to come.

Don't forget for the last few years all the breakfasts and meals have been included in the entry, if the club suddenly has to buy an extra 10 meals it makes their cost dis-proportionally higher and its a bit poor saying Friday morning they suddenly need to fine another 10 meals.