What made Hobie work in multiple classes was the camaraderie of "Hobie", but we were getting thinned out by our own multiple classes and "Dude" boat mentality. Bigger, better, faster... more money, more rules and less fun. 204 has understood this all along and promotes a class that draws people in.
This is what the HCA is after as a whole... hold on to a few of the most active classes and build back on the fun. It is a bit like Harley Davidson in a way. Hobie people like to hang with other like-minded and yes, branded people. Its just the way people are... car clubs, bike clubs... whatever. They like it when things are pretty much alike. Before I EVER got into racing... we hung at a Hobie beach and Prindle had their area. It is just the way schools of fish are. Trying to stretch that to include all cats as one group is really... out there. It works in a way, but... not really tight like your own boats. H16, N20, F18 whatever. They gravitate to each other. That is the same at Yacht Clubs... the specific fleet guys hang together for the most part. When the Hobie fleets ended up with so many classes of boats and then different multihulls, the comraderie changed and thinned out. Hobie didn't kill it... its just the way things changed over time.
In Hobie Alter's interview with SA... He stated... He was told and agreed with the notion to NOT let the RACERS run the class... cause they would ruin it. Well, it turns out that the racers are the survivors here... not the Hobie Lifestyle sailors... In 2009, It is the racers who have the commitment to keep the organization needed to get a critical mass of people out to a race at a regatta. The racers definition of fun has become very similar to any one design class (big boat or dinghy or cat class) I have looked at. Good racing with lots of boats = fun
The Hobie experience is one where the overwhelming majority of sailors got their start in the Hobie 16 class where the shared experience again is racing on the course and then this experience develops into the social structure of the beach. Hobie Alter successfully turned this relationship 180 degrees. He marketed and branded "the Hobie Lifestyle" first... by Lifestye I mean, the beach experience, camraderie, etc with SMOD racing. This is not the conventional way of building a class but was a great business plan and it worked for years and years.
As you noted... many of these 16 sailors then moved on to one of the other Hobie classes, (new and better yada yada yada always sells.. = good business decision) but creating lots of H branded classes is ALSO counter to a One design class's interest. Many racers moved to those other H class and other catamaran classes (oops) or even big multihulls and so the HCA artificially creating and running lots of H branded racing classes did not work as you note and slowly melted away.
At any rate… if you separate the Yacht Club/Hobie fleet from the Hobie Class business of promoting their OD class (like every class does and should) and have each OD Class ask the local Hobie club or Yacht club to host their single One design class event… the sailors in each class in the region would own the results and the YC / Hobie Fleet could worry about the budget and how to attract more fleets (high performance monohulls and other cat OD classes) or they could worry about the Dude classes versus more family friendly classes... the type of events (distance or buoy) or work on growing a Wave class, or any other creative solution that speaks to the decline of interest that Pat B spoke about in the Question thread and every YC is struggling with. Fun is the reason any sailing class gets it together to go racing.... It just will look a bit different then back in the Hobie lifestyle days.
For example, Division 11 took advantage of the change in Hobie policy to run a Hobie 14 points regatta at Rock Hall Yacht Club which is hosting a lot of monohull and other cat fleets. A good solution for the YC, (more sailors) Good for the H16 sailors who can bring out the ol H14 without missing a beat on the H16 circuit for the one H14 event a year on the schedule.... (even though they are always invited to points regattas) and it’s good if they have kids who want to race their H16 or TheMightyHobie18 boat in the open class. Variety is the spice of life.
