Sorry Tim, yeah, the tone of my post shouldn't have been so harsh. I think the email I sent them a couple of weeks had a nicer tone, but I was a bit miff'd when I wrote that post and they didn't deserve that. I'm sure I struck a nerve with the tone of my post, and being harsh isn't constructive, but neither is telling me to just shut up and paddle. Oh, and actually I have offered to volunteer by offering to help with the website for free (I'm a software developer who does a lot of web based stuff), and with figuring out a timing system (I used to run ski races, and thought perhaps that experience could offer some insight) and they haven't taken me up on either, but that's beside the point... Perhaps it would be most constructive if you looked past the tone and saw the actual content of the post. I did email them directly, but haven't received an email back, so I was hoping posting this here would lead to action being taken to change the schedule before anyone can say, "oops, it's too late, it was put off for too long and now people have already bought their plane tickets." Let me ask you this Tim: Are you going to do long course Keanae, and M2M, and the solo? Even if you are, do you like it that way or would you rather not have them back to back to back?
Regarding non-hawaii paddlers: I think it's awesome that these events attract paddlers from outside Hawaii, however, a vast majority of the paddlers in these events are from Hawaii. I know it's a no-no to say it, but in reality you're hurting more paddlers overall by putting them back to back to back, and even though you're making it more likely that a few more non-Hawaii paddlers will be able to do both races instead of just one, you're making it much more likely that many more paddlers won't do both M2M and Molo Solo, and way less likely that Hawaii paddlers are going to do all 3. And with Keanae, there's not going to be many non-Hawaii paddlers (and not even many non-Maui paddlers) doing it either way, so I don't think the point even applies to Keanae. Why not make Keanae so the most Maui paddlers can do it? Or do they think more off-island paddlers will do Keanae because they're shipping their canoes to Maui anyway for M2M? If so, I'd have to strongly disagree. How many off-island paddlers did Keanae last year? Not many, if at all. Last year it was back to back, and I know several paddlers who did short course because of that, and some who just stayed home because of it.
If M2M is the week before the solo so that traveling paddlers can do both races, that is unique in the sporting world. In Kona, there's no triathlon the weekend before the Ironman championships for traveling competitors (and for that one, a huge majority of the competitors are from outside Hawaii). For the Boston marathon, there's no marathon or half marathon in Boston the weekend before for traveling runners to do 2 races.
Regarding shipping logistics: For the last several years M2M has been before the Kaiwi relay, not the Solo. Doing M2M before the relay is waaay different than doing it before the solo. Do they think that they'll get more people to come to M2M who are also doing the solo than they would if it wasn't back to back? Are they trying to attract the top paddlers by making shipping easier? I'd think fewer people who are doing the solo would do M2M the week before, and if it's 2 weeks before they could still leave their canoe on Molokai. While Pailolo is the most fun race, the Molo Solo is still the most prestigious, and I'm pretty sure making the schedule this way isn't going to attract a greater number of paddlers to M2M.