Bill,




I understand that.

But that still doesn't make the following comment truthful.

"The "honorable mention sailors" (dare I say "second tier" sailors) at the A-Cat Nationals is a cut above their T-500 peers. Hodges, Hall, Cogan, Oliver, Arends.........the list goes on and on...."


I would rather claim that theses names are at best on a par with Heemskerk and JC. But we don't really known from real race data as they pretty much stick to A-cat racing only. We do know however that Ashby has beaten the lot of them many times over and is finding it alot harder to win those class races where sailors like Mischa have made a name for themselves. That is the reason for dragging in the US vs EU tangent.

Smyth may have a long list of international championships of various multihull classes under his belt but Strubble and Melvin are much less celebrated with respect to cat racing. Hell, just look over Melvins record shows this as his major achievements ;

2005 A-cat world champ
1997 A-cat world champ
1996 2nd at F18 European champs (F18 class was only formed in 1994 and was a very young class at the time)
1993 4th Tornado worlds
1988 14th Olympic games Tornado


Refering to the A-cat results is like bootstrapping yourself out of quicksand. You can't proof the skill level is high (as compared to other classes) in the A-cat class because former A-cat champions are sailing in it. In that case my own club races are of very high level as the F16 world champion is participating in those. So what are we left with is :

A pretty unconclusive 2nd at the (very young) F18 Europeans in 1996
A 14th at the Olympics in Korea (out of 20 in total)

That leaves a 4th place at the 1993 Tornado worlds. I think Mischa did something like that at one time as well. But he is still young and may do better in the future, same for JC.


So yeah, Smyth and the Glasers I'll give you that. Melvin is probably somewhere between the two fleets, but I'm personally not convinced that Strubble, Guck, Cogan, Arends, etc are a "cut above the Tybee sailors" as quoted. Truly and honestly, I think that if we place them on a par with Heemskerk and JC that we give them more then enough benefit of the doubt.

And personally I don't include any DN iceboating championships when comparing soft water sailing skills between sailors. I do landyachting myself (very comparable) and it is a different sport altogether.


Personally, I think it is time some of the "A-cat only" gods do some cross training in other cataraman classes if they want to proof their superiority. Ashby did and found it alot more challenging outside of the A-cat framework then inside of it. Which may well also explain why non A-cat based sailors have shorter lists of past championships.

That was my point.


And before anybody tries that other tangent. Yes I do also do judge "my own class" that way. The F16 champ of 2007 was only about 50th at the A-cat worlds.

Wouter