I wonder as whether the opinion to keep things maximally open is more inspired by not wanting to give up ones own "pets" rather then a serious evaluation of effectively launching a F12 class the world over. And yes, I readily admit to having my own pets.

I do however feel that Phill has made a great point about "the right specs being the ones that get the most kids on the water"

Still, I do not see much succesful precendent in allowing wildly different craft from succesfully launching a serious youth program. Afterall, there are 10's of different 14 foot classes and we still don't have a viable catamaran youth program. I think an very convincing argument can be had where large differences between boats of the same hull length is actually a major obstacle to success.

Remember the F12 project was intended to solve that issue as well. I should remind everybody here that the F12 project didn't start when Phill first mentioned his idea for a 12 foot with an unstayed rig some 5 years ago. His program is actually called the Blade 12. I changed the name a long time ago to seperate both programs. The F12 project here on catsailor started last winter, (dec 2006) because of a youth sailing program discussion on the main forum. I also underscore that this F12 project is not entirely the same as my own efforts in this field prior to dec 2006 either (the craft that I really like to own myself).

I fear we must all seriously consider letting go of some of our own pets in order to arrive at a well balanced F12 concept that actually solves the issue of a viable international youth catamaran program c.q. class that gets to the youth sailors early on and feeds them into the larger cat classes.

Allowing wildly open class rules does not have a particulary great potential of succes at that. Especially not in comparison to highly organised and regulated monohull classes in that age group. We'll look like a ragtag band of eternally disagreeing hippies in comparison.

This is not to say that the F12 class may not use surf rigs and other rig or construction alternatives. It just means that the basic class needs to be well balanced and possibly more strict in it international setup then allowing a wide range of different designs. At a local level the regulations can be relaxed if that improves youth participation as long as serious youths gravitate to a single F12 design when they get into more serious (away of their own club) F12 racing.

Wouter