Mr Miller is correct in his assertion that Hobie should never have allowed the open class in the first place. The reason is obvious, if Mr Miller doesn't like to admit it: allowing the open class in allowed sailors to directly, empirically that is, compare different makes of boats. And it became obvious that certain boats were just...BETTER.
Once Pandora's Box was opened, it was a worse mistake to try to close it, though. What should have been done was to immediately produce comparable product. It was a long while before the H-20 came out, and it took Europe to produce the H-Tiger. What's done is done, though, and Hobie is not in the business of the Hobie Way of Life, they're in business to make money. The Hobie Way of Life ain't gonna feed Mr Miller and his family. Or keep the Alter clan in the manner to which they've become accustomed up there in the Great Northwest.
(BTW, Mr Miller, it would not have been that much trouble to oversize a sailplan to match the I-20, would it? It's common knowledge that all the wind in the US is taken up by Congress and the great suck of Texas, therefore the US tends to have lighter airs to sail in.)
As best I can tell, any interesting boats Hobie is producing is pretty much Hobie Europe. I've seen the ads in the French/Aussie/Euro multihull mags. Hobie's got boats over there I'd never even heard of, and I bet most of the US hasn't either. There's a pity.
This sig would be something witty, but the censors are against that.
