The general feel from the meeting was that the vast majority of windsurfers are not interested in racing. There are a few who will turn up to Melbourne Cup weekend at Sandy Point and the Breakwater to Beacon race but aren't interested in doing anything more than that. Then there are a few who want to race but seem frustrated with trying to get location/windsurfers/wind to coincide. I, for one, love racing & the way it pushes you to try harder than normal. The meeting seemed to come to the conclusion that Formula racers should join a yacht club and race with the yachts and get their silver card membership with AYF. If this is the case which yacht club - parkdale? The more people at the one venue the better. Should the venue rotate or be announced on the Friday night via email / sms? How about Slalom? - general feel was that there is a tight knit group who race amongst themselves in training for national events. A lot of frustration about the fact that most yacht clubs are packing up by 5pm just when the real slalom sailing wind comes in during a seabreeze. Any ideas / solutions? Speed sailing events seem to be popular but are they in danger due to insurance concerns. Supercross appeals to the public eye but may just be more difficult to organise all the gear and conditions. Retro racing is a good idea for bringing back the novelty/fun of racing. Personally I like the idea of having 2 windsurfer boards owned by WV and dragged around to all events to guard against no wind. If there's not enough wind for slalom/formula/speed you can still make use of the gathering to run a series of match races with 2 sailors on the boards (winner goes through to next round - loser races off other loser etc). This can be a couple of buoys just 100m apart sitting right off the beach for the fun of spectators. You can even run a retro expression session for the more wave/freestyle oriented sailors. Would anyone donate a wally?

One other thing is to consider what stops people from racing. Apart from the conditions it's usually family and other commitments. Do we cater for families at events - kids club / bbq / shelter / ????

Any ideas??