The hooter definately has potential and the class that uses these sail regulary are the 60 foot trimaran class in teh OCRA cirquit.

The problem with hooters in beach cats comes from "traditions" outside the USA. In Europe a Hooter is regarded as a different implementation of a jib and is rated as such. This results in a handicap rating under both Texel and ISAF that is so low that the owners of Hooter will not stand a change against well sail spi setups. This was the main reason why the Formula 16 class decided to disallow the hooter in the same way the F18 and iF20 classes have done. Sometimes concerns over things like this win out over what may turn out to be more efficient.

I would like to remind everyone that the Formula 16 class allows dispensation of experimental setups that are not fully compliant. So if Rick puts in a official request to race his Hooter against spis to gether experimental data than the class will probably give the hooter setup dispensation. He will then not be listed in the scores thought.

Wouter