Open Meetings

People notice the fuel price and moan about it, but my car is nothing specia and will do 40mpg towing a boat. That's about 20p a mile on diesel. It might influence whether I'm keen to do an open in the North East, it's not really significant for anything South of the M4. A lot of noise about fuel costs, but the roads are still just as busy. In fact if anything reduces my willingness to travel at weekends, it's the traffic of all those people not being priced off the roads! It takes longer to get anywhere than it did 20 years ago, and driving is less pleasant.

The cost and changing lifestyles seem to be a big factor and I think another major factor is how people feel about life in general. Lots of unpleasant stuff has happened over the last few years........maybe the added excitement and competition of attending an open event is just not wanted by some atm.

Leisure activities typically thrive in times of prosperity and security, times of safety. Creativity, the arts and leisure are moving down many folks list of priorities quite rapidly.........it's not all about money. 

Edited by Sussex Lad - 04 Jun 22 at 11:40am

I always thought he was responsible for generating a lot of posts, but more people are posting now and more diverse people and less acrimony.

Originally posted by Oatsandbeans I don’t know-did someone upset him? He’s such a sensitive little thing!

For us, the most important thing is that meeting has to be worth going to - not full of selfish people pumping their way round the course and only interested in how much they've spent paying someone to do up their boat. Yes, we could protest, but can't film evidence and sail at the same time. So we vote with out feet and only travel to events we enjoy.
One day events aren't worth travelling for unless they are commutable from home. Some clubs arrange for visitors to join in with the club racing on the Sunday which can be fun. We normally make a weekend of it and travel on the Friday or even Thursday or extend it into a bit of a holiday and explore a different area.
Clubs where you can stay in the camper in the car park are favourite because it keeps the cost down. Commercial campsite prices have just gone stupid since covid. And an organised social on Saturday night is part of the weekend - a communal order of pizzas or fish & chips, a barbeque or even a cheap cooked meal in the club along with a club bar or BYO beer.
It doesn't have to be expensive but it does have to be friendly.

Edited by patj - 10 Jun 22 at 4:48am