Considering the vote next week whether to allow laminated mainsails, I return to this idea from the point of view of promoting one-design sailing by refocusing attention on the fleets.

The key to creating and sustaining one-design racing is ‘critical mass’. It relies on having a fleet of boats at one or several clubs or marinas nearby. Fleet leaders encourage those who sail these boats to race. Time and cost constraints mean that traveling more than a couple hours, much less days, to race is likely to be limited to one or a few regattas per year.

In recent history there have been J/30 one-design events in Annapolis, Cedar Point, Marblehead, New Orleans, and Rhode Island. In each case the majority of those sailing have been located nearby. Boats scattered about large bays, lakes, or geographic regions do little to help reach critical mass.

There are currently several established fleets:

Chesapeake --> Annapolis
Long Island Sound --> Cedar Point
Northern New England --> Marblehead
Gulf Coast --> New Orleans
Southern New England --> Rhode Island
Western Great Lakes --> Chicago

There may be enough boats for fleets in Hampton/Norfolk (VA), Halifax, Miami, Michigan, Ontario, Pamlico Sound (NC), Raritan Bay (NJ), East Texas, Vancouver or other locations, however I cannot identify them without additional boat and membership detail than provided by the Class directory.

Currently the Class votes by geographic region. I propose that in the future we vote by fleet with consideration given to the number of members in each fleet and only organize by region.

I agree with Bob. Under the current format repesentation of the J30 Class members is not fairly distributed. One district with 10 or 15 members has the same vote as a district with 4 members. I believe we had a war concerning a similar situation, taxation withouot representation.

I would agree with proportional vote representation based on paid class membership in each region. This basically breaks down to an equal vote for each paid class member rather than a vote for each region.

I don't agree that voting representation should be based on the race fleets. That is basically stacking the cards against developing new fleets in other locations.

Basically when I pay my membership dues, I expect that my vote will be worth no more, and no less, than someone who has their boat on the Chesepeake. I would agree that under the current format, my vote is worth more because my region has less paid members.