Hi Jason, everyone else monitoring or chiming in: Please do chime in.

On getting more boats to the starting line I think this years slimmed down schedule, at least in the Fun Series, is a good start to get more boats on the line consistently. But, I'll also say, that the Fleet Series this year is a serious undertaking from the standpoint of as Grand Prix as you can get around here and I think thats the purpose of that series.

As far as my encouraging that the weight limit be raised 100#, that's simply to make it easier, for me at least, to sustain a decent crew from a cast of crew member choices through the season. Which includes accomodating the crew exchange situation I've gotten myself into for sailing on a number of different boats. Maybe we only raise the weight limit for the Fun Series (100#s) as a one year test revisted at the begining of the 2009 season.

Further, I don't believe raising the weight limit by 100# will hurt attendance. Nor do I believe it will dramatically increase attendance. Simply, that it allows a wider range of crew choices to sail the boat through the year without having to get all caught up in meeting what I believe to be a low weight barrier in terms of ease of administration of sustaining crew for the the 'low hassle' Fun series. Followed by all those other reasons I've previously voiced.

Specific to small headsails for the Fun Series, well, one of the ideas of opening the weight limit here was also to compete with the superset of the PHRF fleet in some of these races such as the Lightship. And who knows what other Fun races might be included in the Fun schedule into the future; that might include PHRF competitors, or fleet honors under the PHRF rating system.

So, for the Fun Series, I'm still an advocate of the 155% max headsail. For the Fleet Series I don't really care, believe trying something different is good in terms of experimentation, however, would counsel evolutionary change and improvements to that change managed in small steps rather than big radical steps. Here again I suggest the +100# test in the Fun Series.

Specfic to what the Moore fleet does better than E27 to get more boats on the line, I don't think they do a lot better in terms of ease of adminisitration. The Road Master Series is logictically complex and an expensive outting. That includes Fleet Admin putting on all the barbeques, mixers, dinners and beer kegs. And, we can do that here without having to travel 100's of miles.

The Moore fleet has also been a little laxer in the past on non owner drivers and I've always abstained on limits being put on who can drive an E27 is a major regatta. And that's because I don't care if there are pro drivers in the fleet. Specific to class hoppers, well, very few full time owners want to sail against class hoppers. Although, I think they raise the level of visible competion in a fleet. And would not object to opening this option as an experiment.

One other series schedule idea is to repeat what was attempted last year going to Huntington; but in this case designating such a regatta as one off and not included in any series. I'd suggest this year's Monterey Race might qualify as such a one off race that would attract a lot of good boats. Also, everyone would get a chance to check their trailors for a short hop home anticipating the fleet might travel to destinations farther away on the future for such a one off event.

Mike

:: I have been trying to hold off from getting too involved
:: with the back and forth posts below, but I feel that
:: since I am an owner I will put out my two cents.
::
:: We all have opinions and personal agendas to think
:: about, but first and foremost we should be thinking
:: about what is best for the class. If the class decides
:: to change a rule then it should be done because it is
:: going to better the class. In other words, what is going
:: to get more boats out on the starting line? That should
:: be our primary goal. There are far too many boats
:: sitting on the hard and not being used and we need to
:: come together and figure out how to fix this!!!!!
::
:: If we want to compare our fleet to the Moore24 fleet, we
:: should be looking at what are they doing differently
:: that gets 30+ boats on the starting line regularly?
::
:: I am one of those skippers who is over the 200 lb mark
:: and I don't have a problem getting crew to weigh in at
:: 880. That being said, I have no personal reason against
:: changing the weight limit to a higher one either. I
:: would only ask to prove to me that raising the weight
:: limit is going to get more boats out on the starting
:: line. If you can do that, then I would go along with the
:: change.
::
:: Anybody else have any suggestions on how to improve
:: class participation? I would love to hear other thoughts
:: and suggestions on this topic.
::

:: -Jason