Dick Macdonald
Cirrus F18
Turtle Mojo
Dick,
You're right, Sorry I bothered.It's obvious you and Ding, with your dearth of experience, have got it covered.What was I thinking.
Won't waste my time again.
Adios.
Todd Hart
Team Cat Fever
As with most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
A good event focuses on racing.
A great event has great racing and parties.
An amazing event also has great PR, leading to better sposors and overall interest and future participants.
These things aren't mutually exclusive. Future success depends on all of these things.
I've heard the excuse before, from lots of people about lots of regattas:
We were focused on the sailors.
Of course that's important, but if you truly believe that's all that matters, there's little hope for you.
And if you're so self-centered that you won't listen to input from people who have done this before, just because they aren't currently able to be at every event, you're not allowing yourself to learn.
It's difficult to monetize interest from fellow sailors on forums like these. But, every time you lose a rabid fan, exactly how does that help your event?
Mike
This kinda Rabid fan?
<img src=" http://www.thebeachcats.com/gallery...
Dick,
You're right, Sorry I bothered.It's obvious you and Ding, with your dearth of experience, have got it covered.What was I thinking.
Won't waste my time again.
Adios.
Todd Hart
Team Cat Fever
You and Mike need to stop looking down your nose and acting like you have all the answers, the RO knows exactly what boxes need to be checked and if you (Todd) ever actually ran or organized an event you'd understand the compromises that have to be made let alone managing the personalities involved. Quite honestly there is nothing you can tell the RO that they don't already know.
And another thing STOP telling us about all your damn miles, we all have miles and at the end of the day you're an
also ran
just like the rest of us.
A good event focuses on racing.
A great event has great racing and parties.
An amazing event also has great PR, leading to better sposors and overall interest and future participants.
These things aren't mutually exclusive. Future success depends on all of these things.
I've heard the excuse before, from lots of people about lots of regattas:
We were focused on the sailors.
Of course that's important, but if you truly believe that's all that matters, there's little hope for you.
And if you're so self-centered that you won't listen to input from people who have done this before, just because they aren't currently able to be at every event, you're not allowing yourself to learn.
It's difficult to monetize interest from fellow sailors on forums like these. But, every time you lose a rabid fan, exactly how does that help your event?
Mike
Fans!? Really! That's your concern? What about losing the folks that donate their time year in and year out to put on these types of events. Do you really think they don't have anything better to do and than to to listen to people like you and Todd tell them why they are doing it wrong. You were an active participant in turning the Alter Cup into just another weekend regatta so I really don't think that makes you an authority on how to make a regatta successful.
Well, at least you're consistent...
Sorry that you're unable to appreciate the big picture, but stop hiding behind that line, and attacking folks who are engaged in more than you know.
Mike
My heroes are the people who gave their time all week so I could steer my boat for 350 miles through beautiful waters. The crews who did this race for the first time not knowing if they would finish, getting back on the boat after being pummeled by thunderstorms. The Mom who stood on the beach waiting for her husband and thirteen year old son to come in. These people have courage and commitment.
And THAT is the human interest side that needs to be presented to the overall public outside of this event. It doesn't even need to be sent out in real-time either... Leave the website open and post this stuff as the participants/crews get around to it. It's almost like free advertising for the 2017 edition.
What made R2K so interesting for me to follow (besides the novelty)? All the human interest/struggle/success/failure stories.
The finish list and trackers were great, but the stories are what compels us to consider trying our hand(s) at something like that.
I'd be happy to help using what little abilities I have if it were to take some of the burden off the RO so they can focus on what makes the event
amazing
.
And to the other point, you are certainly correct that this site is more of a side-bar conversation that people were nice enough to contribute to (event narratives, random info, etc) when they had the opportunity.
Props to everyone who muscled through the event, on boats, on beaches, on computers...
my 2 cents;
1 - The people that put on this race are really overtasked. It's a lot of work and there aren't many people to do it. Seriously. I just PRO'd a Flying Scot District Championship and I would have been sunk if I was limited to the number of people that the Florida 300 has pitching in. Factor in that arrangements have to be made at each stop with local municipalities and hotels well AHEAD of time AND the relative low attendance (and budget) of a race like this and you should start to really appreciate the dedication and significant no-charge dedication that the organizers put into it.
2 - That said, publication of the event is important. It is important to the sponsors and it's important to people that might potentially do the race in the future that aren't sailing in it now. I really didn't sniff around much during the event but I suspect that there was more information over at the Beachcats site, and Facebook, that most of us here weren't aware of. I come here for my information on this race and it wasn't here (we should have probably just shared links here ourselves)
A lot of people clearly care about this race and the real question is how to get more contributing hands into the mix that can improve it in the right areas. Bickering and getting feathers ruffled isn't going to fix anything.
There was some talk at Cocoa beach that a company was interested in interviewing a few teams at the finish about a potential sponsorship and creating a documentary-ish film next year. Not sure if that ever happened but I think it's a cool idea, with or without a
sponsorship.
If a couple of teams came together and kept up with some of the fun stuff from the week on their GoPros both on and off the water and threw in some narratives along the way you could easily make a mashup of the week's experience from the view of a couple different teams. I don't think that would take much effort--just a few GoPros and teams talking to the camera here and there. That would give potential prospects a great look at what the week is like and hopefully stir more interest.
Cocoa Beach? Hey, why not go all in and create something new, like the Ron Jon 1000, run it all the way to NJ. You could stop at all the Ron Jon locations on the way up the coast...
Mike