c'mon John, while you can't discount fresh and well made sails (since it's really the only variable left on these boats), Stan and Rick were 1 & 2 overall and even both of them had a couple of finishes in the back this week. I had two firsts (one of them due to a lucky find of the B mark in the early morning sun) and a few mid fleets. I went from the back to the front three times (twice in one race!), and Stan did countless times. Rick mostly stayed at the front in races he finished well in (almost all of them) and from my observations, while close on his stern, it wasn't because of any major difference in boat speed. There was a lot of passing and a lot of mixing of the finish orders - mistakes were amplified because everything was so close. From the starts, almost all the boats seemed to carry the same speed and it was only after a tack or two did the fleet get spread out. Another thing to note is that these boats were all carrying non-Hobie sails from two different manufacturers - some very new some old. 1st and 4th from one maker and 2nd and 3rd from another.