If the energy applied to this thread had been put into Portsmouth this year, we wouldn't have the thread. Pete, you're still counting on someone to do the measurements and certify boats - ask Scoob how that's going. When was your boat measured? I know all the Capricorns in the US have been measured (in AUS) - have any other boats in any class been certified? Estimate that level of effort, please. After you name the measurers.

We are the ones we're relying on to do the work. Portsmouth is a big tent that allows dinghies, monos and multihulls to race - it happens. Don't imagine that the way things are done at your club or beach is the way it is everywhere under the grand old flag. Portsmouth allows for a Hobie 20 with a spinnaker, a Supercat 22, a singlehand Nacra 20 or Hobie 18... other systems don't account for these not-uncommon occurrences in the US - what modifiers are available in Texel and SCHRS?

It seems to me that there is a rush to do some work to set up a new system that will replace a system that needs some work. Do you see? Work to avoid doing work... Someone's always trying to rollerskate uphill.

I hope that some of you will participate in a Skype call we've set up for the Multihull Council meeting later this month - or better yet, if you're close, come to Denver and help show that cat sailors exist beyond the five of us they normally see. This topic is expected to take some time. But make no mistake - those that run it will not always be around. That isn't some kind of warning - that's the fact. We saw what happened last time Darline stepped aside. Nothing. My spectacular failure in the past five or six years has been that I have failed to inspire anyone to service. I can make excuses like, "US Sailing is unpopular," but come November I worry that my term on the Council will be the period at the end of a sentence rather than another line in an enduring tale.


John Williams

- The harder you practice, the luckier you get -
Gary Player, pro golfer

After watching Lionel Messi play, I realize I need to sail harder.