Assume that the "Fun Quotient" is there. If everything were "taken care of", no need to belong to any particular club, no "politics", etc., & all you had to do was show up, what might be a reasonable cost to enter a battle? How far might you be willing to drive? How often? What sort of support facilities would you expect to be provided? Single day or multiple? Overnight facilities such as hotel/motel/camping? Would it matter whether or not an event were "sanctioned" by any club? JM
I'd say about ten bucks. Per battle. I would drive if I had a car... about 5 hours. Once a month for the spring summer months so say four to five times. I'd like a place to rest my head and shower up. Single or multiple does not matter. Facilities would be good. Sanctioned by a club? Who cares! Have boat, will play!
I will be travelling 4-5 hours once or twice a month to battle with a club but I could care a less about it being sanctioned, lets be honest what does that really mean; you follow there rules, pay there dues, put up with there politics. The way I see it as long as you enjoy yourself and like being around the people you battle with it is worth the time and gas. It is a hobby after all.
What I was thinking was as long as the group of people agree to a set of rules you don't have to be part of a club.
You'd have to have some rules. Anarchy sucks if there's somebody bigger & badder than you are, who wants to force his will on you (& there always is sombody...). How to pick rules? TBD, but suffice for the sake of this topic that there are rules & you're OK with them. Consider that part of everything being "taken care of". JM
Well many people drive/fly to MWCI NATS every summer, cost for NATS itself is about $100-$150 for a week of battling with an awards banquet at the end of the week. Going across or halfway across the country isnt uncommon. Most of the cost is in the transportation, food, and lodging. Many guys will also drive 8+ hours for a three day weekend of battling, costing maybe $20 to battle. At a paid battle I expect CO2, a decent pond, and a decent work area. I have never based my decisison on if I should attend a battle on if it was sanctioned or not, it doesnt really matter that much to me. Im think a good 2-3 day battle every other month or so would be about right with the off months having a one day local battle, and then a large weeklong battle once a year. (or twice a year, say summer and winter)
If I were battling independently, I'd be content if everybody present had simply built and maintained their ships in accordance with a pre-existing, current club ruleset for a sizable/sanctioned club (.i.e. ircwcc, mabg, mwci, wwcc, etc.). I'd let the higher firing rates of the fast gun cannons balance themselves against the larger caliber and higher count of cannon allowed in big gun vessels although for the event, I think it'd be best to somewhat commonize the allowed speeds....
In our Club we have people that travel from all compass points (N/S/E/W) for about 1-2 hours to get to our pond every second week, we have one member coming from the US every battle day also so the travel is not a issue, what would I expect well being with a club we have insurance which is a good thing, everyone should be a member of something like NAMBA or some such to protect themselves also, if I paid for a event I would expect to pay around 10$ and in return get free CO2 fills, other than that nice to have would be power outlets for charging things, benches or tables, or a place we could set up our own, sun/rain protection or again a place to setup our own, close by parking so we do not have to drag our junk a country mile (or away to get it there in one load safely and securely. Is that what you were interested in? Bryan
The main thing that sactioning gets you is INSURANCE! Many pond owners would like you to have that! The other thing it gets you is a chance to vote on the rules (not quite as important).
That is funny as we cannot use the IRCWCC insurence here in Canada and as we use public beaches andd lakes as long as you have the cities ok that is all that is required and I forgot alot of caution tape.
