support for competitors
I could write a book about the RYA's promises, which amount to nothing, but in brief some 5 years ago I got in touch with the RYA with a new boat design and a new race concept, which did not fall into the catagory of offshore and ended up under the umbrella of circuit racing, although the race concept is about as far from circuit racing as it can get.
The RYA showed great enthuasium and encourged me to go on with the project. At the beginning of the project I attended both offshore and circuit events and to support "fastman" he is right, you have to get up close an personal to the spectating crowd, this would help increase spectating numbers, encourage media attention and make it far more enjoyable for the competitors.
When boats leave the start line and make their way out to sea away from the spectators lets be fair - doesn't make for good viewing - unless you happen to own a helicopter!!!
Cutting a long story short, I carried on with my project, built the boat and fine tuned the new race concept, eventually I ended up at a meeting with the circuit racing committee

and that 's where the project ended, the promise of support and the encouragment to start a new class of racing was just talk, I now have to try and raise funding and introduce this new race concept outside of the RYA - its a shame but I've worked too long and hard to let it go now...
Thanks for listening