2010 NA's

[Jeff Jones]

Ok, i'll bite

Give me an "I"

[Tim Carter]

Its perfectly acceptable for the 2010 NA's to be annouced after the 09 NA's. I just hope it is done quickly!

Oh by the way do the US Virgin Islands class as part of North America for this purpose?
I would be sweet to have the NA's at the St Thomas YC.  A night mare to get the boats there though.

Good dream!

I'm sure the 2010 N.A.'s will be at a wonderful venue, and I hope it is announced with enough lead time for the working class to be able to schedule time off.

As far as the when, in my rosy world we would be announcing the location on the 2011 N.A.'s.....at the 2009 gathering...

[Matt Sole]

I could deal with charleston in the fall as a suitable 2011 NA. I like sailing in warm water!
I hope the 2010 NA is Miami not Maine!

[Chris Shaughnessy]

I am unclear how the 2010 NA's has apparently already been decided.

Class bylaws (way I read them) indicate that a proposal may be submitted by email at any time or at the AGM or at a prior NA's.

(When is the AGM anyway ?)

They do not seem to address when is the cutoff for proposals or the timing of the exec commitee decision.

This time last year there was much 'robust debate' about Charleston vs Stamford / WLIS but it seemed too late to make a difference, Stamford was all along the favorite of the exec comm and so it was to be.

Now it seems that Miami has a similar deal in the works, I am sure it is a wonderful venue but I would like to ask if there is any truth to rumors of using future NA commitments as a basis for starting fleets in new areas ?

I don't think we need this sort of conflict coming up every year.

Can we perhaps see every proposal that was submitted and when ? 

[David Morse]

Okay Westies, it's time for a proposal.  Which western venues sound like the best candidates?

Which clubs proposed this time and how is a selection made?

[Laurent Dion]

Okay Westies, it's time for a proposal.  Which western venues sound like the best candidates?

Which clubs proposed this time and how is a selection made?

Alamitos Bay Yacht Club looks the best venue in the West - from what i have seen so far..

[Tim Carter]

As a ABYC member, I woulld love to see the club host the N.A.'s.  In reality were probably talking a 2012 time frame. 

I have been involved with hosting N.A.'s and Worlds and one desirable elemet is that the host culb has a large and established fleet of the class in question.  It allows there to be charter boats availible and a large pool of class members to help support/volunter at the regatta.

One of the problems of having the "Class Championships" at a exotic local, however great the sailing is, the likleyhood of being able to charter a boat is slight and the alternate coasters are looking a 3 k mile road trip.

You would find ABYC a excellent host and wonderfull Viper conditions,  but the immeditate fleet in a 15mi radius is 4 boats, a fifth may be in play soon.  We still have a ways to go...

[Glenn Selvin]

On the east coast, more and more people will to see the fun happening with big one design starts, and will want to join in the fun by buying themselves a Viper.

Not so here on the west coast.  As long as the Viper class will continue not to establish at West Coast regattas, people will perceive them as an east coast class.  ABYC has two large regattas coming up...  Labor Day regatta Sept. 5-6, and Turkey Day regatta middle of November.

I'm sure that Richmond YC has a similar schedule...  

Lets see how it plays out...

[Jason Weisberg]

  The growth of class is spreading like a wildfire.  Be patient.  Boats have shipped to Australia, Cowes, Canada and one now going to Switzerland.  Before you ask, my point is that because of all the hard promotion and dedication of All the class members in all regions it generates great interest.    People read about 35-50 boats on a line most get curious at the least.    The East coasters will travel West.  There has to be some Charter boats.  I have two boats one of which is for Charter for the 2009 NA's you want it?  Boat finished 10th at CRW.  I bought a second boat to fleet build. I am happy to sell it to anyone on the West Coast that wants it but the only caveat is it must be raced in the 2009 NAs by the new owner.  I don't care where it goes as long as it gets sailed.  That is how you build fleets. I'm not made of money but the class members need to do these types of things in order to promote itself.  

[Justin Scott]

Three years ago, we heard all the same arguments about how the Viper would not succeed on the East Coast.

"Its only a one-design class in Marblehead. Everywhere else its nothing other than a PHRF Rocket"

"The only large regattas are in Marblehead. Every NAs are in Marblehead. It will disappear from everywhere else"

"All the class officers are based in Marblehead. They won't represent a national class"

Blah blah blah.  I got so mad with one pessimist on sailing Anarchy that I had a bet that we would have a 25 boat start outside of Marblehead within 2 years (at that time the NAs had attracted 11 boats! and the largest regatta outside Marblehead had been 6 boats at the St Pete NOOD, 4 from Marblehead).

I'm pleased to say that to my incredible surprise he remembered the bet, and this May I recieved a gift certificate for $100 to APS and a nice note, shortly after Charleston.

The Viper is a VERY RECENT phenomena. In 2 1/2 years we went from an 11 boat NAs at the Marblehead NOOD to a 34 boat start at Charleston Race Week.

This September is two firsts:-
It is the first time we have a dedicated Viper North American Championships.
It is the first time the NAs have been hosted outside of Marblehead.
So a huge thanks to the Stamford YC and IHYC fleets. It will be a great event and a lot of fun.....culminating 2 years of growth for the WLIS fleet.

There will be plenty of other firsts in the class in the future.

There surely will be a first NAs on the West Coast.
There surely will be a first West Coast Championships.

In the meantime there will be another first when the South East Vipers host the first NAs in the South East, celebrating their growth and momentum by hosting an amazing NAs in Miami this April.    

This West vs East coast thing gets no traction in the Viper class. We view the challenge of promoting and supporting the expansion  of the class on the West Coast as no different from the challenge of seeding and growing the class in the South east.

We will find regional spark plugs. They will find friends. Those friends will find friends. We are such a young class, we were all prepared to be innovators and part of a new direction in one design sailing.  We all bought our boats because we wanted to put the fun back into racing in one design. I know the West coast sailing scene and I know they put at least as much importance on fun as the East coast.  

Trust me, the West coast sparkplugs talk and email every week to the East coast spark plugs. We share ideas and camraderie. Get a Viper and you will see.

To all those pessimists on the West coast. I'm ready for another bet. The Viper is better placed for the West Coast over the next two years than  the East coast two years ago.
1. You have a West Coast dealer/agent. He 's a great guy giving great service, who has negotiated an amazing price with Rondar and is personaly taking zippo margin for his troubles so you can seed  your fleets.  We would have loved that. We had no local service back then. We bought our boats from the UK, individualy at great expense and picked them up from the docks, negotiated thru customs etc. ourselves for the love of the game. Now we are spoilt rotten with Rondar North america.
2.  You have a nascent regatta circuit , with what? 10 boats going to the fisrt sportboat fest.   We celebrated our first 6 boat regatta !    
3. You have all the support of the East Coast infrastructure, website etc...which simply didnt exist 2 1/2 years ago.

Its a great boat.......folks will join the class when they try racing them.....but for the west coast, there is a little more infrastructure in place than when it started on the East coast.

Finally: Part of our success on the East Coast was that we underpromised and over delivered.   We smiled politely when the Laser SB3 guys were talking about "huge fleets" .  In the Vipers we set ourselves the task of having a few local small fleets and agreeing to meet for a few understated but really fun "rendez vous" regattas.  We made sure that we would have a lot of fun if 6 of us got together for racing. We celebrated a 10 boat start. We got a little more aggresive and set ourselves the target of 15 boats at the 2007 NAs, and high fived when 18 showed up.  In 2008  we surprised the sports boat world when 26 boats showed up at the NAs

We got some traction in the South East and 8 -12 of us gathered at Charleston Race Week in 2008. We had such a good time and the word was getting out about the Viper in the South east that we accepted the organizers challenge to get to 25 boats in 2009.  34 Vipers showed.  

The growth happens because the boats are fun, fast, easy and affordable.
The regattas are fun, not because of any title, but because you only need to get five to six Vipes together and you are going to have fun, tight, close racing. Then you can get 10 togther. Then 15. Then 20 and hello, suddenly everyone wants a Viper.

Good luck...and I cant wait to be invited to a West Coast regatta, whatever it is called!


 

[Tim Carter]

I am sure Viperdad, Finnster and others will join me in carring the torch for the 1st West Coast N.A.'s @ ABYC.....

When do you folks want to shoot for, Summer 2011 or 12 ???

Should Texas have a shot 1st??

Ultimatly the class starts moving it to different regions each year i.e.

2009 South East

2010 ???

2011 Gulf Coast

2012 West Coast

2013 North east.......

This will also draw regional interest in the class, we just need to figure out how to have some loaner boats in areas of small representation

[David Morse]

2010 SE

[Dan Tucker]

I am sure Viperdad, Finnster and others will join me in carring the torch for the 1st West Coast N.A.'s @ ABYC.....

When do you folks want to shoot for, Summer 2011 or 12 ???

Should Texas have a shot 1st??

Ultimatly the class starts moving it to different regions each year i.e.

2009 South East

2010 ???

2011 Gulf Coast

2012 West Coast

2013 North east.......

This will also draw regional interest in the class, we just need to figure out how to have some loaner boats in areas of small representation

This sort of approach has been the intention of the class and officers that I've spoken with over the past couple of years. There is a balance between using NA's and big regattas as tools for local fleet growth vs. having an established base to organize and host. Remember, this is a volunteer run class, so local fleet volunteers to organize large events ARE important.

I've just recently been hearing the first whispers of "international". Someday, we'll be having this same debate about World Championships!

[Justin Scott]

2010 Viper North Americans hosted by Coral Reef YC , Biscayne Bay , Miami,
March

It will be biggest yet. Be there.

Oh and dont forget to read the website page that deals with factors that influence the choice of location for future NAs. It includes:-

The level of participation by the host fleet in previous North American Championships and sanctioned regattas

[Justin Scott]

The Bacardi Cup in Miami is one of the worlds legendary regattas, up there with Kiel week, CORK, the Finn Gold Cup, the POW etc. Its been hosted by the Bacardi family since 1927, first in Havana and subsequently at Coral Reef YC and up till now it has only been open to the Star Class.  

A couple of months ago, the Bacardis and CRYC sat down to discuss the future of this event.  Rather than rein in the regatta to reflect the current economic climate they decided (after some generous libation from the factory) to expand it and include a couple more classes.

More libation. Then someone at the meeting pondered "The Star is a timeless classic. So why not include a modern , state of the art boat. Something that has a lot in common with the Star. A flat out race boat. A hiking, planing keel boat. But something exciting that says the Bacardi Cup is as relevent today as it was in 1927".  "Si si." enthused  the Bacardi PR advisors. The speaker continued "Something that has the same grass roots enthusiasm as the Star. Something that the Star sailors will respect and admire on the hallowed race course of the historic Trofeo Bacardi. "  "Respect!" agreed everyone pounding their fists and empty glasses on the polished table.

As the glasses were refilled, the speaker passed round some pictures taken the previous March at the Coral Reef Cup. In the hushed silence all eyes turned towards the patriarch at the head of the table as he held up a photograph of a boat planing down wind in a sea of spray. After a pause, he lifted his glass and said  "This boat is worthy".

Ladies, Gentlemen and Viperers :-

The Viper Class has been invited to participate in the Bacardi Race Week at Miami and we are honored to accept.

More details to follow. This is a very important event for the Bacardi company and something close to the heart of the Bacardi family. They will be supply more details in press releases etc, but we have seen some preliminary drawings of the race village they intend to build and the parties and events they intend to throw. It will be quite a trip. This will be heavily sponsored and the entry fees will be evry reasonable.


40 +  Vipers on Biscayne Bay. Are you excited?