Hi Yachtie and all skippers thinking of coming to the Worlds.
Chris If l read you right you are thinking of going to florida after the event ?
How do you and rest of your skippers feel about having the event there instead of up north?
Even though its Ricks party,he is allowing us this discussion to give out what we think about having the event in Orlando.
l have not sailed at the St james venuue but have at Orlando,its a good lake,rooms open direct on to the water.swimming pool just round the corner for skippers to cool off after/during sailing.
There is a international airport.loads of places to eat and drink and of course the attractions.
Yes as some will say its touristy but hey are we not tourists!
Well nows your chance guys to say.

Woody

Frank will slap me for getting in here, but as the guy who set up Disney in 05 and the guy who promised Rick to be the liaison between him and Disney in 09, I have a few things to say.

The Disney location is nice and clean for sure. The hotel (Economy Resort) is right at the edge of the lake and you can walk from your room to the staging area in about 5 seconds.

Dining, entertainment, etc is all as Woody has stated. And Disney will roll out the red carpet when the time comes. In the mean time however, they are slow to respond until they are a month away from the event. This has to do with how good they are at doing these things. For them it is not a worry and they simply mark their calendar for when they need to go to work and it is perfect in the end. But it sure makes you nervous for a year leading up to it.

Then there are the fees. Disney requires two life guards to be on duty and we have to pay that. It was $1,200 USD last time. The awards dinner was $75 a plate and a $500 deposit for the cash bar. The room rates were great at only $60, but the rest set us back a bit. They do set up evening events for us when asked, like making large group reservations at shows and dinners, and they offer some small discounts on park tickets.

November is the perfect time for Disney as it is the slowest time of year there.

The major draw back to the venue is that the lake is one dimensional. So long as the wind blows out of the North or South, things are great, but if they come out of the West you get a reaching course and if they come out of the East, the 4-story hotel makes a mess of the wind.

The link to the 05 Nationals is still up http://www.floridaec12.com/nats/disney.html
You can read about the venue here.

Just wanted you all to know what you are talking about.

Joe Walter #24

Thanks for that Joe.
Woody

Having sailed both venues I'd vote Disney to host Worlds.
The wind/lake at Charleston can't be beat but the facilities in Orlando are super!

R.C.Greer

yeh Doc but if the winds don't cooperate the sailing could merely be a reach up- reach back. thats not much fun as we found out down in Palm beach regatta.

I would say that the ability to modify the course for variuos wind directions is paramount for an event like this.

probably on of the key reasons the location was chosen

there are not many sailing locations that aford this option and still have the course easily seen/sailed ( not having to sail away from shore to do it)

there are a few locations around that do have a predominant wind direction(s) and have suitable water, but some of them are not in locations that would be November Regatta Friendly.

Fairly sure CHarleston is set in stone at this point....but it will be coming back.......for those in the US that would like a new location.....hold a regular season regatta at the location as a test bed if it is outside our normal locations.

Someone at Champions Mentioned Foxwoods casino in CT has some very nice lakes