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Now you opened a completely different can of worms there! IMHO, the 20 doesn't have an advantage getting through the surf...in fact, I believe it to be quite the contrary due to the huge fat bows on the 20 really taking a big hit when they try to punch through a wave.
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Jake,

I think the F18 would have a harder time getting through the surf. The hulls are wider than the N20, the hulls are shorter than the I20 and sail plan is smaller. The only advantage I can see is the big flat transoms on the F18 might slow it down when the wave is pushing it backwards.

The only problem with the shorter penalty for not sailing a leg would be if the top teams had some problems later in the race and one of the teams that did not sail a leg won. If you were in the lead and sailed all the legs and had a ripped spin on the last leg and lost the lead to one of the teams that did not sail the whole race. I can here it now "he did not even sail the whole race and still one".

As far as the corrected time for over all Tybee winner the F18 and N20 are not equal boats they both have there strengths and weaknesses. The race has all kinds of wind conditions upwind, downwind, reach, light air, heavy air. When we sailed the Steeple Chase a couple of years ago on the F18 in high winds we did pretty good upwind against the N20 but when we turned to go down wind the F18 just kept pitchpoling and the N20 sailed on with out any problems the other F18 with us had the same problems. If I had an N20 that is the boat I would be using, it is a much easier boat to sail downwind in big air. If JC was sailing a N20 vs a F18 do you think he would have a better chance of winning? I do and if you think he does then you think the N20 has a better chance of winning.

Tad,

Bla, Bla about sponsors and all the money you are spending. You can just go buy a first place trophy and save a lot of money. My point being I think most of us do the race to have fun and because we like the sport if I looked at all the money I spent on sailing it would just scare me. I sail because I love to and if I win it is great to. Sponsors don't care if you win they just want good coverage and a professional looking team that represents them.