I don't know the T's weight either, I know they're not the lightest of the breed, but certainly not the heaviest. But the crew on the boat is the point, too, right? If the boat has that potential, why isn't everyone crying about the T rating now? It's funny how some things are foregiven (of course we were beat by a T with an Olympic crew!) and some things are not (What? A fixed-up SC-20 beat us on corrected?).

If anybody knows how to sail an SC-20, I'd guess it's Bill Roberts. We've had two of them in our Fleet (current one is a tall rig, original jib config), as well as a 22, and even though on paper the rating looks like a gimme, our Fleet results don't show it as an automatic win, which is what people seem to think it is. Not that our Fleet is the last word... But they are heavy boats, some things are outdated, and unless you can take advantage of the beam results seem to be a mixed bag.

When the new numbers came out this year and the 22 rating dropped I thought to myself "Roger is going to have a tough time with that". He responded by sailing better, and put in some great races.

Handicap racing is a mixed bag. Some of the Supercats would seem to enjoy favorable ratings, but I don't think they're so skewed they guarantee trophies. Some of the things they're looking at will probably help. The people that complain too much about it shouldn't race handicap.

Each year the rating for the Hobie-18 seems to creep down. When I win a race in my Fleet I sometimes wonder if I'm just making it harder for myself next year! Maybe I should "sandbag" a season so my rating will be better the year after...