Why don't you introduce yourself. You must work for
US Sailing in some capacity. Please elaborate.


Jean Pudl wrote:
No connection at all, other than having been a member for several
periods. I have, however, been a beneficiary of their work on numerous
occasions, in particular, whenever I've raced.

How so?

I've raced quite a lot, from local clubs to international
events, and didn't feel that I benefitted at all from USSA.

In fact, on at least one occasion, their short-sightedness &
nepotism cost me several finishes. But that's probably the
fault of individuals, not the whole organization.






So you think the clients of ASA are yuppies? That is
funny!


That's the demographic (more or less) of those who are seeking the
keelboat certification offered by both USSailing and ASA. The
difference is that this is the only business of ASA, because that's
where the money is. USSailing, on the other hand, serves the entire
boating community.


And does US Sailing offer anything to the 'cruising
education oriented' boating community that ASA does not?

ASA was there first, in fact at one point US Sailing stated
as their official policy that they would rather not get
involved in certification for keelboat sailing & cruising
education, since there were so many other groups already
doing this (ASA and the Power Squadron). Then they saw the
revenue potential and changed their minds.




.... And from my point of view,
claiming the two organizations are "identical" is ludicrous.


I don't think the claim was made that the two organizations
were identical. I think that the claim was made there there
is small difference between certifications offered by
them... which is true.




The rest of your material is interesting, but misses the point. US
Sailing IS the "National Governing Body" of the sport according to an
act of Congress. That is a matter of fact.

Big deal. Other than changing the rules unecessarily and
mismanaging protests, what do they actually DO? Collect
money. Yeah, that's a "service."


... They are the folks that run
the national team, send sailers to the Olympics,

In other words, they sponge up money from many sources and
hand it to their favorite butt-kisser boy racers.

The last time the Olympic sailing team was decided on the
water, by cumulative series regatta results, a friend of
mine ended representing the US in his class... and the USSA
favorites all screamed bloody murder. Since then, it's been
a nepotism system.

Don't get me wrong on this, the U.S. Olympic sailors are
great athletes and very skilled... but I would describe
USSA's role in the selection process as interfering,
money-laundering, and playing favorites.



...trains the race
committees, etc.

Don't get me started on that. I struggled on correcting
their race committee training for years. USSA has a habit of
producing inflexible big-headed tyrants for PROs.






USSailing IS the "National Governing Body" by act of Congress.

And I guess the benevolent Congress awarded them this
distinction out of recognition for their outstanding service
to humanity?

No, US Sailing paid some lobbysits to get it done. A comment
on the state of both the Congress and US Sailing.


The main reason for an individual sailor to join USSA is to
avoid their extortion on regatta entry fees. I don't
understand any reason why a club or class would join USSA,
other than "recognition." The cost to benefit ratio is
totally out of whack IMHO.

I've had vice presidents of USSA tell me that dinghy sailing
is a dying sport and they don't want to waste money trying
to bring it back. Yet they are happy to collect money from
all the centerboard one-designs! I've also heard big boat
sailors bitch that USSA uses their higher fees to subsidize
small one-design racing. So apparently both camps are
getting screwed.

BTW collegiate sailing is directly administered by the IYRA.

If you want the facts, Jean, here they are. I remember when
the governing body for the sport of sailing (ie racing) was
NAYRU and it's been downhill since then.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King