Steve,

Well ISAF and Texel don't ban hooters, that is a misunderstanding. They just see it as an extra jib sail in front of the normal jib. The result is that you get a rating hit that you can never sail too. If you take a look at hooter than the resemblemce to jibs is very clear; hooters are can be described as jibs with a very full cut and alot of sailarea. It is my understanding that the fact that this happens is the reason why formula classes only allow gennakers with a minimum girth of 75 %. Mind you there is no formula class who does allow hooters. So I don't really understand your comment "takes away the developement aspect from the F16 class". If you want a hooter go open class racing on handicap; if your want formula racing with first in wins but with a gennaker go F18, F16, Tornado, iF20 or F18HT.

It is also believed that a Hooter is putting alot of load on the platform.

Personally, I believe that the F16 class is setup to garantee fair (1-up and 2-up) racing between boats of different make and by disallowing the hooter I think we have improved on that goal once more. It certainly prevents an arms race about which so many sailors are scared about.

And to finish up this post, can anybody please point me to independently gethered results (no anonymous "I witnessed" claims please) where the hooter has proven to be faster than a gennaker. I would appreciate that very much.

Wouter