Got this today, sad news. The first RR I did had over 100 cats. I think I did a dozen races or so over the years? Here's a pic of the setup on the flats from '09...
<https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rxP0uWkuCck/WNBqaanJ71I/AAAAAAAAHUc/PuZ8DaXtzY0c7vuoa6lWQdmcjFarZImbgCLcB/s1600/Camera%2B1%2BP9040037.JPG> Today at 1:33 PM Everyone has seen the decline in attendance at local catamaran regattas. The Ruff Rider regatta is no different, if not worse. There are no local sailors who attend this race, only people that travel (some quite far). Over the last several years the attendance has dropped critically low, so low that the event cannot financially survive on the entry fees alone. I have personally kept the event afloat for the last four years. Furthermore, it is very hard to gather volunteers to drum up support for half the year, then host an event 400 miles away from home and only 17 boats show up. Its emotionally deflating to say the least. Unfortunately this situation is the state of the sport right now and this regatta was caught firmly in those crosshairs. The Ruff Rider Regatta is, to my knowledge, the longest running catamaran regatta in the country and maybe the world. It will be a long time before another event takes that distinction away. But unfortunately, the consecutive years run ends here. The regatta has been run for 42 years, that’s two years older than me! It’s a highlight of my sailing calendar every year. South Padre island is the best beach sailing venue in the country, hands down. Everyone has a good Ruff Riders story, here’s mine. I was a college dinghy sailor, I knew nothing about catamarans. 16 years ago, two of my best friends, Jon Domsalla and Matt Parker, convinced me to sail Ruff Riders to Corpus. I borrowed Matt’s banana yellow H16 and talked my girlfriend (now wife) into crewing for me. It was the first regatta I managed to get Laura to sail with me and she was hooked on cats after that. We took second in the H16B fleet, got married 8 months later (had nothing to do with Hobie Hilton, I promise), bought a boat, and gave it another shot. That second year, 4 months after the wedding, we were promptly launched into our first divorce level argument smack dab in the middle of the Mansfield cut while it was blowing 20kts on the nose. In 4 short months of marriage, I hadn’t perfected the “I’m not yelling, I’m loudly suggesting you do it quicker” technique. Somehow, we exited the cut in one piece, our marriage survived, and we went on to win several years in the non-spin fleet. Oh yeah, and we are still married 15 years later with two kids. Once Laura had her fill, I moved to the spin fleet. In the finish results I was always the bridesmaid, but never the bride. That didn’t change the fact I wanted to come back every year. To that end, I agreed to take Ruff Riders over from Scott Kee who had expertly managed this race for 25 years before me. Like I said, I wanted to come back every year, I just couldn’t let the event go. It’s a bunch of work putting an event like this on several hundred miles away from home. It worked for 6 years. But between dwindling attendance and dwindling personal time, unfortunately I need to let it go now. I need to give the biggest thank you to my wife Laura. She had no idea when I agreed to take this event on, but has graciously helped every step of the way. She labels and stuffs goodie bags, frames trophies, sorts paperwork, among 100 other things. Another massively large thank you must go to Carla Cardini. This woman has handled the day of show tasks and allowed me to sail the last three years. She manages gathering donations, starting and scoring, oversees setting up and tearing down the half way point, and is simply one of the best list makers around. She uses lists to help keep track of her lists, it is simply amazing! There have been several other people who are always raising their hand up to help, Othal and Rachel, Patricio, and Dave McDaniel. Stuff like this doesn’t happen without help from people like you. It’s extremely disappointing to let this event go, but it was a blast while it lasted. Thank you all for your support and attendance over the years. Thanks, *Shannon Galway* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Texas City Dike Yacht Club" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/tcdyc. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
