And the A-class, F18 class and other formula based sport classes in sailing like the Promo's and Class-5's landyachts are different in this respect ?

I mean, I can still enter a F18 worlds with a 1997 Nacra inter18 fitted with dacron sails or a pinhead Hobie Tiger and I don't see you argue that those boats are perfectly equal in performance to the say the C2, wildcat or infusion.

The fact that these boats comply to the class rules (F18 in this case) doesn't mean that they are guaranteed to be equal to all other makes, both old and new. That is not the way formula rule work.

The formula class rules only provide a cap (upper boundary) to the best performance that can be had and indeed experience and succes in both the F18 class, A-cat class and now the F16 class proof that this is beyond any doubt a realistic concept. The F18 class may needs more rules then the F16 class to achieve that, whereas the A-cat class gets by with less rules then the F16 class. Both are currently more expensive with regard to new boats then the F16 class. Having said that, all three setups have been proven to work well and do indeed provide lots of sailing enjoyment to large groups of sailors.

Against these facts the opinions of a single sailor (with or without a marketing degree) are judged to be irrelevant.

You can preach that the sky is falling till you are blue in the face, but you won't be believed until your predictions are supported by facts (not by repeated claims).

I'm sorry Macca, that is just the way it is.

Wouter