2018 Viper 640 North American Championship

Started by Steve Chapman, October 31, 2017, 10:48:08 AM

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Steve Chapman

Save the dates!

The 2018 Viper 640 North American Championship will be in Kingston, Ontario from July 5-8.
Measurements & registration on July 4
Warm-up events will be organized July 2-3.

This event is co-hosted by Kingston Yacht Club and CORK.
CORK will be the race organizers, launch and docking site. KYC will host our social gatherings.
More about KYC at http://www.kingstonyachtclub.com/


CORK is Canada's Olympic sailing site (1976), home to SAIL Canada and organizer of Canada's Olympic Class Regattas.

See more at http://www.cork.org/sailing-venue/

NOR and registration will follow soon.

Steve Chapman
Oshunmare - Viper #288
Chair International Viper 640 Class Association
Ottawa - Great Lakes Region

Ed "Buttons" Padin, Class Administrator

Ed "Buttons" Padin
Viper 640 Class Administrator
erpadin [at] padesta [dot] com

Darren Gilbert

Formerly Black Sheep (#29), Black Sheep II (#194) and Black Sheep III (#106)

James Colburn


Darren Gilbert

Formerly Black Sheep (#29), Black Sheep II (#194) and Black Sheep III (#106)

Darren Gilbert

Up to 19 entries.  Who's going too be #20?
Formerly Black Sheep (#29), Black Sheep II (#194) and Black Sheep III (#106)

Darren Gilbert

Made it to 20 boats (and more than half are Canadian).

Great momentum, let keep it up.
Formerly Black Sheep (#29), Black Sheep II (#194) and Black Sheep III (#106)

Brad Boston

Hey guys,
Its nice that people are registering but how do we keep just the actual people that plan to attend on the list. In the last couple years we have looked like fools with people not showing up and us promoting 70 plus boats for months!
Maybe a small payment??
I understand that things happen and people can't always make it but this has looked bad on the class..
Thoughts??

Brad

Steve Chapman

Good point Brad - we'll look at when we clean out the list of unpaid (do it on a regular basis?) and look at our refund policy to encourage people to commit, but be fair and reasonable for those that have to back out at the last minute.
I'll ask the organising committee to look at this.

Steve
Steve Chapman
Oshunmare - Viper #288
Chair International Viper 640 Class Association
Ottawa - Great Lakes Region

Peter Beardsley

It's a question of the OA following up with competitors regularly (and sometimes individually), even the paid folks, to figure out if their plans have changed.  The Larchmont NAs had the NOR go up late - the high water mark for entries was 53 and that is the number of boats we had since we were removing boats regularly from the scratch sheet. 
Viper 640 East Coast Regional VP / Class Governor
Viper 333 "Glory Days"
Formerly Viper 269 "Great Scott!", Viper 222 "Ghost Panda" and Viper 161 "Vicious Panda"

Darren Gilbert

#10
Great point Brad.  As Steve said, we will monitor it on an ongoing basis and follow up with competitors so we don't reach the week of the regatta and numbers drop off a cliff. 

Just looking down the list, the owners I see are known to travel to regattas.  Meaning I would think the 20 that are already registered will likely be there.

I hope to see Jackpot on there soon!

Cheers!
Formerly Black Sheep (#29), Black Sheep II (#194) and Black Sheep III (#106)

Peter Beardsley

Also, we are by no means the only class to face this situation from time to time.  The 2016 Melges 24 Worlds lost 40% of the fleet that had originally signed up - possibly older boats who were trying to win the "Pimp My Ride" promotion and who bailed after they lost.  There are different philosophies for different event chairs on how to juice attendance.  At some point in the 2017 NAs marketing process last year, we changed our tune from 70+ Vipers will be there (something that was unlikely to happen, even as we were above 70+ entries, based on the fact that registration opened so early and some people's plans changed), to "the largest Viper regatta in Class history" (which was in fact a true statement). 

If Kingston wants an awesome turnout, here would be how I would go about it:
1. Make sure every GL Region boat is signed up early (off to a solid start, but where are the Sarnia / Detroit metro area folks?)

2. Be in touch with regional fleet captains with a good sales pitch and info about the event.

3. Get the NOR posted so that the regatta can be listed on the Events page at yachtscoring.com (UPDATE: this appears to have happened in the past hour, nice work)

4. Talk to folks from further afield to figure out what they need to know to be able to travel.  It'd be great to see a shipment of west coast boats but it'll involve a quick turn from LBRW - I know Jimbo and Timbo are interested though, and probably Fargo too.  Same with the GYA folks - I don't think there is a conflicting Capdevielle event - someone needs to let them know that Canada is The South of The North (Molson Ice and street hockey for all!  Snowmobiles = Winter RVs, etc.) to make them feel welcome.  Maybe Butch Agnew can lead a Bermudian contingent to make his triumphant return to The Motherland.

5. Consider some form of promotion for early registrants, although in my experience, these don't always work and take sponsor support. 

On the whole though, I always consider this to be on each and every Class member who is attending.  If you know you'll be there, then just sign up.  The more people who sign up early, the more the fencesitters will be interested in attending.  Failing to sign up early hurts turnout in The Internet Age - it's not like the 1980s where everyone saw the regatta announcement in the paper class newsletter and showed up to assume there would be 60 boats because there are always at least 60 boats.  Make the early online entries happen and it'll keep building upon itself. 

Did any of that make the Class look foolish in 2016 or 2017?  I don't know about that.  There's only one other spritboat class for boats under 25 feet in the U.S. that gets the same or more entries as we do to our big class championship of the year, so if anyone else is talking trash, they're just jealous. 
Viper 640 East Coast Regional VP / Class Governor
Viper 333 "Glory Days"
Formerly Viper 269 "Great Scott!", Viper 222 "Ghost Panda" and Viper 161 "Vicious Panda"

Darren Gilbert

We are coming up to another mile marker (or should I say kilometre marker?) 30 boats. Who's going to be #30?
Formerly Black Sheep (#29), Black Sheep II (#194) and Black Sheep III (#106)

Peter Beardsley

Hopefully someone from the GL who we don't get to see as often at other events like Steve Conger, or maybe one of the new owners like the folks on 29, 40, 52, 85 or 94.  Or 190 now that they are becoming more active on the circuit and are rolling off good races too.  I'd root for Mr. Kiteley, but only if he shows this time! 
Viper 640 East Coast Regional VP / Class Governor
Viper 333 "Glory Days"
Formerly Viper 269 "Great Scott!", Viper 222 "Ghost Panda" and Viper 161 "Vicious Panda"