just a thought

[just-me]

With the GREAT RACE coming up is there any intrest in forming a traveller series for south east queensland especially for the not-so-great sailors? The talented sailors will always feature in the results(and so they should), but the rest of us are there to make up the numbers, with some of the best racing still in front of us for the year it would be good to have a competition within a competition that gives everyone an incentive to compete. It would encompass all brands of boats ... similar to a PYS.

What are your thoughts?

[BarryK1200LT]

That sounds good, but can you explain a bit more about what you mean by a "traveller series"?

Cheers

Barry

[Village Idiot]

Been tried ,didn't work,which was very unfortunate ,some sailors don't mind traveling around but others won't move from the one location maybe because of time constraints (usually where you are based sailing from is close to where you live and by the time you work Saturday ,get up Sunday mow the lawn do some chores you don't feel like travelling 1.5 hrs each way to go for a sail),Also you will find alot of people leave their boat rigged up at the club there based at again because of time and often room restraints.so pulling the boat apart is a pain in the butt.

Then you got the task of sitting down with all the clubs involved and working out a time table so proposed events don't clash with important club events such as club championships ect..

then you got to talk all the crews and boats into actually turning up..

Maybe an option would be to hold these type of events during the winter off season ,I'm going back 10 years or so since I last sailed the event but the Moloolaba winter series use to be extremely popular to all classes of boats very good numbers probly 80-100 boats (cats ,mono's , egg shells ect)I think the reason this series was so popular is because it was in the off season and there were no other clashing events,and those of us who were hungry for a sail in the off season would show up every 2nd weekend....lets face it it doesn't get that cold in SEQ in winter.

You will also need some decent sponsors so you can get some good prizes to pull the crowds....

good luck

great idea

all you need is some people to put their hands up and try and organise it!

Jay

[just-me]

Thanks for the comments, please keep them coming, are you saying that we do not attend regattas? leave only the top ten or so sailors to compete in these events.

The prize should only have to be the bragging rights !!! (perhaps a little more).

My thoughts are that we should be able to run it with the existing regattas eg the great race, the peel island marathon, the wyvenhoe marathon and any others that come to mind ... the best way to get exposure to our sport is participation and boats on the water, all I would like to see is a reason for many of us to compete. Similar to the NSW series, I think that they have done a super job down there

[REV YUKKA II]

the nsw nacra super series, the hobbie 16's and the tipans all do a simular sort of thing in nsw and it works very well for all of them. it just takes one person to get if fired up then you will find you will get some help. remember it only takes two boats to have a race. don't listen to others negative comments, it is not that hard to get it up and running if you use regattas all ready running. make up a fair handicap places as well based on the boat and the skipper (not vyc). give places down to 5th and the more people that can get a place the better. if it is any thing like the nacra super series you will end up with a great bunch of people who love to sail and party.