Barb's HCA letter for funding multihull start
More to Read:
2009 Newsletter
Piñata 2009 NOR
Response to the Letter
Dear HCA North America Region Chairman, Chris Wessels [xanderwess@yahoo.com]
The board members of Tucson Hobie Fleet 514 are proud to present the 24th annual Piñata Regatta in October, 2009. The purpose of this letter is to update our racing organization of our financial dilemma in hosting this Hobie Division 2 “Piñata Regatta” and Division 2 Championships.
As you know, travel to Mexico has been extremely affected by recent news of drug cartel and swine flu issues as well as a down economy which makes the 200 to 500 mile trip one way difficult financially on many of our participants. We expect our attendance to be down significantly due to these uncontrollable circumstances for the next few years and the fact that a few Hobie sailors retire from active racing annually as they approach their seventy or eighty year birthdays (there are approximately 5 retired Hobie racers in Fleet 66 alone).
The 2009 Mid Winters West held in San Felipe, Mexico and the 2009 Cinco De Mayo Regatta recently held in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico (our race site venue) both had significantly fewer participants than previous years. The Cinco De Mayo Regatta was only able to attract 17 Hobie Cat participants. Phoenix Fleet 66 did a fine job of hosting a bare bones regatta. Tucson Fleet 514 however, hosts a FULL service Piñata Regatta. Our Hobie board members and fleet members provide participants with T-Shirts, great goodie bags, 2 chase boats, a RC boat, breakfasts, hot dogs after racing, dinner Saturday night, Tecate Shade tents, free flowing beer, soda and margaritas during our famous Saturday night raffle. We also host a growing salsa contest and have music under the stars after the party Saturday night. Last year our regatta was fabulous but we did lose money after all event costs were totaled.
We know our Arizona Fleet 42 ‘multi-hull’ friends are experiencing similar economic problems hosting their fall “open” regatta two weeks after our event in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. They have 10-15 boats, many of which are Hobie Cats, that are willing to attend our event, pay their registration fee (which includes a HCA membership fee). Their registration fees will help us afford to put on one of the best regattas, if not the best regatta, in Division 2 in 2009. Perhaps after they attend our event and see the Hobie Way of Life, they will decide to become Hobie owners. Every participant that has been to a Piñata Regatta loves our location, party/raffle, organized racing, camaraderie, jumping dolphins and warm water sailing (no wet suits required). We’ll continue this tradition.
A poll of all sailing participants at the Phoenix Hobie Fleet 66 Cinco De Mayo Regatta in May, 2009 fully supported (17 of 17 participants polled) holding the Piñata Regatta with an open class fleet starting after the Hobie fleets if it meant holding onto the traditions of Tucson Hobie Fleet 514 by holding a “Full Service” regatta as described above and not cutting back on T-Shirts, 2 chase boats, raffle, free breakfast, etc, etc, etc. The sailing participants in the poll included many Hobie 16 and 18 California sailors that have made the 500 mile trip to Mexico for most of the last 23 years that the regatta has been held in Mexico.
If our racing organization wants us to continue to host a “Hobie Only” Division Championship, our fleet expects to lose approximately $1,000 annually on the event for the next few years. Since we cant afford to hold our “full regatta” as described above, we hereby request your approval to allow one Open multi-hull start after our five “Hobie Only” starts. We need their participation to meet our 2009 Regatta Expense obligations. The only alternative is for the HCA to supplement our budget for $1,000 annually or for us to cut our regatta to a bare bones regatta which is unacceptable to our board and our participants
We look forward to hearing your response no later than June 7th, 2009. We need to begin advertising our event. The San Diego Classic Regatta is right around the corner and we want to include our flyers in their goodie bags. We want to advertise the 2009 PINATA REGATTA, the Last Regatta before the HOBIE MEGA event in November.
Sincerely,
John Eger
Commodore
Hobie Fleet 514, Tucson, Arizona
jeger@cox.net
520-749-4295 (h)
520-975-5395 ©
PS: After this letter was approved by our board, the following comments were made by two board members. They are included for your information. “He said the OPEN regattas that were approved to be a “Hobie Points Regatta” and run by yacht clubs have NO HOBIE members putting their time and effort into pulling off a nice event. We (Fleet 514) on the other hand, seem to be getting penalized by not being allowed to invite other multi hulls and we are the people doing all the hard work to put on the event. Their reason for denying us just doesn’t seem fair, does it? They should help the HOBIE people putting on our event with our extra start dilemma. It will generate more revenue from registration, more raffle ticket sales and more people exposed to the Hobie Way of Life. Why wouldn’t they welcome that for our event? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Enough said . . Good Night!”
2009 Piñata Regatta Main Page