Solo Nationals

Any number you like, depending on how you choose to add it up.

You might include just the direct additional costs such as boat fuel and trophies.

At the other extreme, what the market will bear.

add in a bit of sponsorship and the entry fees are sure to go up!

Seriously, it's very variable, and it's not always clear where the money's going, between the host club, class association and any other parties such as the town council who may be charging for the sea front or whatever.

I've had some slight involvement with totally commercially run events. £500 a day for a staffed committee boat, couple of hundred for a mark-laying RIB.Our club boys get some free beer and food. They wouldn't be taking time off work to do it if the club wasn't doing well out of it.

Don't forget that there are more man hours of admin than racing, meetings between club and CA, entries to deal with, all sorts of preparation. Some stuff in both Club and CA is probably never really split between the champs and the rest of the year, much of it is never accounted for at all. Superficially, a champs is extremely good for our bank balance, but we can only do that once a year as an exercise in monetising the club's assets, very much including the human assets!. Either running a champs is part and parcel of the make-up of the club or it isn't and you can't create that from nowhere...

But none of that reduces the  need to give the paying punters good value. By the time the flags start breaking out, the costs are mostly fixed, the value is yet to be established.

The amount of effort/time/cash that goes into something is no guarantee of it providing a given amount  of 'value' to the consumer.

If the experience of taking part in the racing is not satisfactory to the 'marginal' participants, they will moan and/or not cme back.  We all have a lor of choices as to how we can spend a few hundred quid and 'n' days holiday on our sailing. We can choose another class, do other events, spend it on coaching, buy a second boat, do a Nielsen holiday etc etc.

There is a huge pool of club sailors in the Uk who are not going to your Nationals because it's not what they choose to spend thier time and cash on. That's not a problem if you have a sufficient pool of happy Nationals entrants. But clearly a lot of classes are not really in that position.

Of course a lot of volunteers may be quite happy spending their time not adding huge value to the competion experience, because they are enjoying being involved with their club. If I do some washing up in the galley after the prizegiving, or help organise trailer parking that's not a cost you have to justify or account for. IF we had to pay everyone for every bit of effort, we'd have to use such resources more efficiently. What is the monetary 'value' of taking part in a Nationals? If you're coming in the top 3 and generating kudos for your sail loft, possibly it's a much bigger amount than if you're going to come in the bottom quarter, same as you did last time and the time before.Obviously the cost of taking part is more, sometimes very much more than the entry fee, but that fee is one of the first things people see when they consider an event. If you're getting irked by potential customers baulking at your price tag, it might be time for a quiet think about your market. If you charge Tesla money, there's no point getting upset when the Nissan Leaf pulls more punters.Likewise if I see the Fastnet Race costs too much to enter, no point me moaning, I'd be better spending my money and time elsewhere. They chose their market and it might not include me! I doubt RORC get 'irked' by me saying it costs too much.