Building A Grassroots Series

On April 27th Sailing Scuttlebutt's carried the following fascinating report from Melges 24 owner Andre Peixoto, one of the team behind the new Melges 24 California Cup:-

As a Melges 24 owner (USA 300 Trezentos), I want to sail my boat as much as possible. With a sailing class' success directly correlated to the involvement of its sailors -- owners and crew alike -- we began talking with Melges racers up and down the Coast. We found that, rather than the more common practice of dictating events, involving more sailors in the organization of events tended to make them more excited and invested in what was going on. Plus, they can be counted upon to have great ideas . . . 

Last year, Chris Farkas (USA 222 practice girl) and I sat down to discuss how we could build a grassroots series of "Melges Race Weeks" along the Coast to burnish the class' image and foster growth. With repeated feedback from our owner group suggesting that fewer, quality traveling events would be preferable to more, less focused events, we used four criteria to build the series: great venues, prestigious Clubs, existing marquee events, and most critically, the integral support of a local Melges owner for each. 

In San Diego, we were fortunate to know John Downing (USA 686), who is doing a superb job in getting the Southern California boats engaged, along with Vince Brun of North Sails One Design, a two-time Melges 24 World Champion, who is giving a Tuning Clinic the day before to share his thoughts on current class developments, local knowledge, and the latest "go-fast" boat handling tricks to help level the playing field. 

On Lake Tahoe, we have Dan Hauserman (USA 657 Personal Puff), who is a long-time, active San Francisco Bay and Tahoe owner, doing a phenomenal job .... to read the final part of this report please go to www.sailingscuttlebutt.com