Jake, I agree with your point on learning IF you take it to the extreme but isn't this a red herring. The issue is... two boat one design racing ... or 6 boats in a spinaker portsmouth race where 4 of the boats are virtually level rated with two boats that are aprox 3 minutes per hour faster or 9 boats in an overall race.

This situation comes up all the time for small regattas.

So, Like Timbo?? I don't understand the reasons for taking nine boats and choping them into 4 classes for the weekend.
Like him, I would want to race the other 8 teams... not just the guy in my OD class. The big fleet is how I would view the race.

Would the majority of sailors in Fla rather race two boats OD then 6 spin boats PN or 9 boats overall PN?

I also don't understand the long term strategy for keeping racing going in that area. How does a two boat one design race lead to more racers on the water.

How do you see this working?... Is it practical?

The ONLY place that you might point to would be the Tiger fleet centered in Syracuse. In this instance, the Yacht Club (Hobie Class Assn) did what any YC could do... No other boats that would compete with this boat class are allowed to race in our regional events. So... If you want to race a spin boat... you HAVE to get a Tiger.

Pat sort of refered to this. When he asked... would it not be better for the national racing scene to have 3 boats. H16, A class and F18?

Of course as soon as you have another club or those pesky f16 guys do their own thing... or the Nacra 20 guys get organized and do their thing.. the monopoly is broken and your ability to grow from two boats to 10 is limited.

So... if you can't control access to the racing.... I don't see how you can make this OD strategy work.

Mark