Mike:
Your a nice guy, but...
On a Tornado you are not on the same boat as the F18s. You and I have had numerous conversations about you sailing F18s...mostly me trying to convince you to be part of a big competitive fleet, on the same boat. You contend that you are more competitive with us when you are on your Tornado. I really would like you to be on the same boat for fair and direct competition, it would be way more fun that way. If you are looking to be competitive there is always someone nearby to find competition, if all things are equal. Sorry you are out of sorts about SB. In defense, that was one of the last regattas before we sail the North Americans in Long Beach so there was a bit of extra voltage on the course.
By the way I only found 2 F18 sailors that knew you were joining in the F18 racing. When I voiced my concerns one of those sailors assured me that you would not be in the way a minute after the start, since a T is so much faster...
Since you prefer sailing in a Portsmouth class, tell the race committee where you would like to race. I know there was a Hobie 20 sailing by themselves. All the other boats involved in that regatta made minimum numbers for class sailing. I think the guys on the 20 would have liked to sail against you at least to the weather mark.
Later,
Dan
Dan,
You are defending an indefensible position. First off if you wanted your own start you needed to make it clear to the RC what you wanted from the get go. I know it’s unpopular to exclude teams but if that’s what you wanted and the RC was willing then someone had to stand up and be the bad guy. Once the decision was made to include other boats in your start the fleet simply needed to deal with it like adults and treat them like any other competitor.
What’s totally unacceptable is the P/S and “get off my wind” situations if that did in fact happen! We share the course with everyone else and MUST OBEY the RRS regardless of the insignia on their mainsail! This is no different than the actions of the dingy sailors in the other thread. This type of thing does nothing but turn people away from our class. We are much better than this!
Do you think Mike is more or less inclined to get involved with the F18 fleet now?
Regards,
David Ingram
NAF18 Chairman
