I took a quick look at the attendance for Gunpowder I and Rehobath. Rehobath was sailed on a perfect (allbeit Mother's day weekend) while the folks a Gunpowder watched a strong northerly cold front blow through. Rehobath had 48 boats while Gunpowder had 43 boats. These events are about 2 to 3 hours apart. and draw sailors from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and 4 states. Both regattas need about 50 boats to cover the costs and make the services available. Both fleets do fantastic jobs and the events are great. Unfortunately they are locked into the dates and the two events are usually back to back.
But:
Only 40 % of the racers were able /or choose to compete at both events. The Madcatter / Hobie north east championship in Syracuse NY only pulled 3 local boats away from their local regatta at Gunpowder.
Obviously a larger turnout at a single event would generate the large one design fleets that people dream about.
What if anything would the racers suggest to respective fleets..
Do nothing and hope that the each fleet is able to keep on going.
Alternate years?
Cancel one or the other regatta?
Revisit moving Rehobath so as not to fall on Mother's day.
Gunpowder is unique in that Fleet 54 is the only group allowed to camp in the park for an event based on their 30 year track record on this date. Moving does not seem possible.
How many of the casual local sailors would simply NOT go to Rehobath because of the time , distance and money factors?
Scale back services and perks at each of these events so that you cover your costs and can operate on small numbers of fleet members.
beating the drums for turnout at two events back to back is time consuming and not productive... 60% of the racers are not going to go to back to back events.
Low turnouts create self destructive spirals.... The mentalityseems to be.. Well... last year attendance was low and thus not much fun to race at... Well... perhaps I will pass this year.
Or... Well... not much competion at X event last year... I will find out where the competition are going this year and skip X event .
Any thoughts, comments or solutions?