The bottom line is that the cat sailors with their 400# boats have exactly what they want and deserve. The real truth comes out by what you open and close your wallet for. There is no desire for more performance; they tie the hands of anyone who wants to build a better performing boat with a laundry list of rules that limit boat design/construction to the status quo. Claiming that the rules are in place to make racing more “fair”. In reality it is fear driven…the fear that the 400# behemoth they bought will be rendered obsolete by some mythical space age miracle design …you know the one they always talk about ruining cat sailing by using Kevlar, or Carbon or anything other than the same old low tech stuff that has been around since the original Hobie 14.
The manufactures are more than happy to give you a cheaper built, heavier boat for the same money if that’s what you want....In the 400# boat climate there is no incentive for them to improve the product. It has been said that “One gets what one puts up with”
I think it will play out like the Israelites in the Old testament when their spies came back saying there were Giants in the land that God had promised them…and they were made to walk around in the desert for 40 years until that particular generation with no vision for the future died off …and a new generation with some faith and enthusiasm rose to leadership.
It will be interesting to see what will happen in 10 years of the classes that now exist. I will be quite surprised if the foward thinking F-16 class… that is the tormented red headed stepchild of today… doesn’t grow to dominate the Cat sailing scene a decade from now…and all the new sailors will be sitting around laughing at the idea that their Parents/Grandparents put themselves thru hell fighting a 400# beach cat on and off the water…when it could have been built 80 to 100lbs lighter, except for their stubborn insistence to adhere to an arbitrary weight.
