Is inflation impacting Nationals Attendance?

We have all banged on for years about there being too many classes, it would seem inevitable that racers who who like the championship/sailing week thing will congregate in the classes that offer this, including Merlin, Solos and 200s.  Whilst the entry fees for these events may seem high (I just paid Euro 260 to do the Solo Nations Cup) the event organisers are often trying to put together an attractive package including socials by mutualising the costs across the entry.

Correct Jim C. I don’t have any problem with the number of classes. Classes come and classes go. People should sail what they want. If enough people want to sail a class it survives. If they don’t it dies , SIMPLE . 

Originally posted by CT249 Most people in history, and in the world today, have never had the chance to feel a hull carve along under sail; those minutes of joy when a first puffs of a summer sea breeze filters across the water and fills the sail; the stunning beauty of the sunlight hitting wave crests; that lovely sensation of a bow coming off a wave and the curves of the hull meeting the water again; the artful contest of skill in a tacking duel with a friend; and so many more wondrous moments. Every class in this amazing sport has so many wonders to offer the mind, soul and body.

Dinghy sailing summed up to perfection

Originally posted by Mark Aged 42 Originally posted by Grumpycat Correct Jim C. I don’t have any problem with the number of classes. Classes come and classes go. People should sail what they want. If enough people want to sail a class it survives. If they don’t it dies , SIMPLE .  Take the Solo and the ILCA both very  healthy classes that a lot of sailers love . If they were the only two singlehanded classes , I would give up sailing .  But it is silly now. In a bored 5 minutes, I named 30 different single handers, and that was lumping all the Laser variants as 1, all the Aero variants as 1 (and all the Minisail variants as 1   ) The old classes never die - the aforementioned Minisail being one.

I'm not sure half a dozen minisails are affecting other national circuits. And old designs do die. Just take a look at some of the 60s and 70s dinghy recognition books. Occasionally they will turn up on ebay, be the subject of "what is that?" and then vanish again.

There are 'classes' with some semblence of functional class racing, and then there are 'designs' or 'models' which are members of the PY class.  Whether there are too many 'classes' might be a separate question from whether  there are too many 'models' in PY racing. Are there too many classes holding 'Nationals'? I don't tend to think so, I don't think a bunch of people holding an annual championship for a minor class really detracts from the major classes. I think it's generally a good thing for people who sail the less prestigeous classes to get as many boats as possible together and call it a nationals, given that people have already chosen to own and race that 'minor' class. I'm not wholly convinced that the merit or quality of a Nationals is all about 'more boats'.