Its not a matter of the club asking for an open meeting,we as a group of sailiors in a fleet ask a club to run it for us and it is the class that is looking for venues to go to.
A club is not going to ask its members to give up its time and also make a loss for a bunch of non members, it is giving the members of a class in its club an opportunity to races against other like minded people on home ground and to open the racing of that class to its members.
I get the feeling that the class is thinking to much of itself,we are not some fancy franchise that everyone is clamouring to make some money from but a very nice class of boat and people who are looking for new playgrounds to play at.
As for the club not being willing to pay for the privilege,we all know that it will only come from the class members via the club anyway and they are just having to have to do more paper work for us !!
Steve,your point about never sailing against other people is correct but that has only come about from adding more opens to the pot.
I think that having to choose from six opens is to much to ask and is in danger of watering down the numbers at each open.
We also have the Dannish and Dutch Nats to go to that we are hoping will encourage them to come to us in Weymouth.
The inlands at Grafham is a nice inclusion and Upper Thames has a its established Splashaway,likewise Bough Beech at the end of the year and as they had a go last year I would have left out one for them for a year from the Circuit Series.
That would leave five opens and a trip abroad if we can run to it.
Before UTSC and BB jump on me,I do love doing opens and going to all the clubs we have Wayfarers at,I dont have to prove that !!
It is just that, its not a cheap thing to do and we all have so much to do it with. I do not think we want to go to an open that has small numbers at it when we can keep it to a number that lots more can find a way to .
Keep it to a size that more can enjoy and I think we will have achieved for me what an Open Circuit Series is all about.
C P 😀