Is inflation impacting Nationals Attendance?

I was watching the D-Zero Nationals over the weekend as I had quite a few friends going down for it and noticed their attendance was right down in numbers with 27 entries at Brixham compared to last year's 56 at Largs. I would have thought that Brixham would have attracted a good turnout from a currently active class like the D-Zs and that would have compensated in some way for the effects of inflation / cost of living crisis etc, and I'd say it's unusual too see such an attendance drop the year after a Nationals in Scotland (even as a Scot I recognise that travelling north of Watford has it's challenges for some ). 

This is really a follow on to the Open Meeting thread, but are other classes expecting significant disruption to their major event attendance this year from the rising costs of fuel etc?

PS- Kudos to the 7 Scots who stepped up and made the 1000+ mile round trip to attend and support their class, even if it was largely blown off.

I think some of the things that effected the attendance were class and venue related.

Last year the class were a little concerned ( in my view) about Largs so went to a lot of time and trouble drumming up support for the event . This year I felt they thought Brixham would sell its self and then suddenly realised with a few weeks to go that it hadn’t but it’s too late by then . People had arranged other things. 

Also re costs at nationals  there is more than just fuel costs. Last year once you got to Largs , you could camp on site or just park up your motor home job done . This year at Brixham , no camping on site, cars and motor homes have to pay to park in public car parks. You weren’t even allowed to leave your road trailer on site , you either had to find somewhere else to park it or the club would arrange for it to be stored at a local rugby club for a fee. It all seemed a bit of a ball ache to me , looking in from the outside side and maybe it put regulars off too , who knows.

It makes no difference to me , I won’t be doing the D-zero or any nationals ever again but maybe the D-zero should look at venues that are a little more cost and sailor friendly going forward . 

In their defence, being responsible for choosing a venue for any nationals is a c@@p job because where every you choose, someone will not be happy 

* I wonder if £300 off a new sail helped boost the numbers last year  ?

2) Cost of accommodation has gone up dramatically

3) Cost of entry has risen

4) Our calendar is from loaded this year with a Euro's in June and Nationals in July, but nothing in August or September

5) This will be the 4th time in 5 year we've been to Weymouth (once at Castle Cove). It was great that WPNSA stepped up in 2020 last minute. But unfortunate that the RS Games chose Weymouth this year. 

6) There doesn't seem to have been much effort to sell the RS Games this year, at least in the 800 class. No social advertised. Very little in the way of prizes advertised. RS taking the event centrally can work, as you have cross over with lots of other sailing mates... but this time it feels a little bit tame compared to 2011 and 2018... also the 200's and 400's are doing their own thing

7) Crews now have to be class members (response to covid drop in membership). I think this just makes finding a crew harder. 

The 200's currently have 135 pre-entered for their Nationals at HISC. That's already the 2nd biggest Nationals they've ever had and will probably end up being the biggest two person dinghy Nationals of this decade.