I think the biggest difference is the sail. I'm pretty sure that all of us IWCA folks have a stock sail or could get one. I am willing to race with my stock sail at a Hobie class regatta.
If we can just iron out the rudder issue I think we are there. Keep in mind that we are only asking for the same consideration that the other Hobies have...those same ones that make up your existing racers.
I just don't want to sail in circles with warped rudders. I can adapt to the stock sail. If HCA-NA can get this done, then I thick the gap is very small, it it exists at all.
While nothing is "easy" when it comes to actually persuading a change to happen with the IHCA rules (and that's a major understatement), we should be able to make the rudder rule change happen over the winter. If we play it right, this could work out to help lots of the Hobie classes, not just the Wave (per Matt B's post in another thread).
So, the real question that remains is this: If HCA puts the effort into making the rudder rule change, but keeps the sail rule in place, will the IWCA sailors join Jack in accepting this as a good-faith effort and come to HCA events? The Hobie-supplied sail has been reported to now be of equal quality and performance, and are readily available, so unless there's a hidden agenda, 2010 should be an excellent year of Wave attendance for IWCA sailors with HCC sails at HCA events.
Looking forward to running some trapezoids for you.
Mike
