Retaining history in the internet age

The website used for the 2024 J/24 World Championship was j24worldsseattle.org. The website used for the 2025 Etchells World Championship was etchellsworldsmelbourne.com. Both sites were created specifically for the event, they hold all the history from the event, and they both will most assuredly soon be deleted.

Scuttlebutt has indexed a list of event communication tips, but no mistake is more egregious than buying event domains specifically for an event, as these will not be retained in perpetuity. Just like the website for the 2021 J/70 World Championship. Carol Ewing offers this reminder:

It is becoming more apparent that the best way for clubs and class organizations to handle their ongoing regattas is to create event websites under their own umbrella. There are many positives and probably most important to most is maintaining the history of their events that “don’t go away” when the organizers for one of their events chooses not to renew the website they use when running the event (ie: third party regatta websites).

There are several suppliers that I know of that offer this service and, although old dogs may need to learn new tricks, the benefits outweigh the training that would be required. Check out the International Melges 24 class (www.melges24.com) that keeps all of their World Championships and Continental events directly on their class website.

In answer to the concern of general public awareness and exposure, the best thing is for SOMEBODY to maintain and publish an international calendar, sorted by class, that gives links to the class/yacht club websites (maybe a site with a URL like www.regattas.com). Kind of a no-brainer.