If Bob continued to sail like he was a month or so ago - he would have won on just about any handicap number. He works really hard at being fast and it has paid off. Good on him.
The elapsed times will be interesting, but my guess (I wasn't there) is that he was close to winning on elapsed times and won handily on handicap - which is the way the system works in the US. This should validate that the F17 is a fast boat.
We had a F17 place 2nd in the spin boat fleet at BSC's Cat Caper a weekend ago. It was well sailed and won a few races outright (over I20s and F16s) on elapsed time.
Tom,
On my A-Class, I was first to the weather mark in 3 out of 4 races (it would have been 4 out of 4 but I thought I was over early in the second race and went back and re-started, I was still 3rd to the weather mark). In the light air we had (1-6 knots) I'd get killed downwind by all the boats with the chutes as everyone there was pretty competent. But then upwind I'd nearly catch most of the boats that passed me downwind. In two races, Curry passed me downwind and then I passed him again upwind. There is a US Sailing course that has an upwind finish so it might have been interesting if we had done a race with three upwind legs (LOL)! My point is that I believe the F-17 should really rate right below what the A-Class currently is (around 64.6) or close to the F-16. I asked Bob about this and even he agreed that he is sailing the boat faster than its current rating. It's quite a challenge racing against the spinnaker boats with the A-Class. You have to sail defensively downwind to try to minimize your losses as boats roll up on you and then try to close the gap again upwind. I've never raced an Open Portsmouth regatta like this in fully powered conditions where I can fly a hull downwind. I'd like to do that.
Bob Hodges
