After a few weeks of radio silence, and lots of interesting comments in the chatroom and in person, it's about time I threw my weight behind some of the ideas discussed.
Firstly, we should be clear what we want to achieve and why.
1) The structure of C2 competition must be designed primarily around the needs and desires of the paddlers themselves. Whilst we all need organisers and administrators, I think it's generally agreed that we can make the system fit the paddlers and not the other way round. If it's not the same as for K1s and C1s, so what? - I'm sure we're collectively smart enough to cope.
2) We need to build the pyramid from the bottom up, therefore concentrate on engaging and retaining C2 crews. Until we get a critical mass in the lower echelons we won't get sufficient desire to paddle at the top level.
3) Whilst C2 is not a "joke event" it is, and always ought to be, fun and fulfilling for the competitors (and spectators). We want people to think to themselves: "I fancy a go at that, and actually it's got a lot about it that other classes don't". Only once we engage paddlers will they consider taking it more "seriously" as their main, or preferred, class.
4) We cannot legislate or anticipate how things will develop, or how many crews will stick together for many years - we need to solve the initial problems first and then influence how things develop. If we don't get the class active again, there's no point in thinking about what might happen 3 or 4 years down the line, or what changes we may need to make to cope with the different set of circumstances that may arise.
5) Money! We won't get take up unless it's seen as value for money. Travelling half the length of the country and having to pay £4 per minute or more (at some events) to race against one or two other boats just will not work.
6) Progression and ambition. We must work towards ensuring that any ranking system that leads to crews being "top of the class" has the support of the national associations to encourage progression to international competition. I won't bore you with another rant about UK Sport funding at this time (although dropping C2 from elite coaching comes down to it not being worthwhile as it's not an Olympic class so there's no funding gain to be had).
Given the above, and all the comments from others, I think we should look at a competition structure for C2 that removes divisions and the distinction between quorate and non-quorate events:
1) Crews should be able to enter whichever event they feel most comfortable with and most fulfilling. For new starters this will usually be div 3 or 4, but more experienced paddlers may wish to jump straight to div 2 (or even div 1) water.
2) Crews do not need to be ranked in order to compete (at least in divs 2-4). This will encourage more people to try it, particularly on the day, and avoids unnecessary bureaucracy.
3) C2 points will be awarded at all events in comparison to the K1M scores. Points are calculated automatically, so it relieves the organiser of a chore. This means that good crews will always score high, and poor crews low, regardless of the number of boats competing. The actual points scored will always depend on the nature of the water and the course design - no change there - so some competitions will still provide more (or less) points to crews than others. (We won't change that anomaly until we start to rank our courses rather than have divisions where the course standard can vary widely - that's a whole different debate.)
4) The "multiplier" used to compare scores against kayaks needs re-examining (it's just plain wrong at the minute), but, in fact, we could probably drop it altogether. It may mean that crews no longer score maximum (standard kayak) points at any event, but a C2 doing well at a premier event will still score twice as much as doing the same (relatively) at a div 1 or four times as much at a div 2 event, so the scores within the C2 class will still represent a true ranking. Simple is best!
5) Whilst I think a single competition structure and universal points system provides the fairest way of providing rankings, we really want to find ways of getting more boats at each event. Nothing beats paddling against your peers, and helps develop a healthy and enjoyable rivalry between crews (and establishes the innate superiority of the C2 class compared to kayaks
). It can't be too much of a financial burden on organisers and national associations to keep 5-10 places available for C2s at events, can it?
6) Therefore we should reduce the entry fees for C2 to make it attractive (£5?) - particularly since many paddlers will already be competing in a different class and will feel it worth paying the extra for more fun and more challenge. If we start to get lots of crews paddling at prem and div 1, we can reconsider the financial contribution they should make.
7) Any crew that wants to keep its points must apply to be ranked. It puts the onus on the paddlers to go through the registration process and fill in entries correctly thereafter without adding a burden to the ranking list compiler. Anybody who wants to jump into a boat at an event to try it won't be put off, and who knows how quickly the bug will bite to motivate them to do more?
Will crews hang around lower division events just for the prizes, rather than move on to bigger and better challenges. I don't really think so. I'm sure organisers can be given freedom to award prizes as they see fit if it becomes an issue - nowt wrong with a bar of chocolate for first ranked crew, and a shiny trophy for unranked or newly-ranked crews at lower division events.
As usual, there are lots more details that can be discussed and argued about, but we should move now to come up with a simple, transparent and easy-to-use structure that gets people paddling C2 again, both at the bottom and the top, because more boats want to compete, and are encouraged by the system rather than discouraged. Nowt's perfect, but we need to start somewhere and give it a go.
Steve A