Jake,

Come on, you're not really sitting on the fence on this one are you???

I'm almost speechless, this issue is so stupid. Maybe with a Hobie 16, you'd have an argument, but even there, people are doing all kinds of things to make their boats stiffer. I know of several people who have epoxied those boats together to make them stiff.

Even the sail thing is stupid. Make them measure in to a certain sail plan tolerance, and call it good. I think the formula idea is by far the best thing to hit the world of sailing in a long time. It's finally something that appears to be reasonable.

The other hilarious thing about the tramps (and the sails, for that matter), if I recall correctly, is that Hobie used to out source most of that stuff.

My first Hobie 20 sails were made by Elliot Pattison, and the tramp was probably made by someone like Salty Dog Marine in Michigan. Now, if I wanted to have Salty Dog build me the same frigging tramp, I couldn't do it! If I wanted to have Elliot Pattison build the sail I couldn't do it.

Yet compare a set of 1995 sails to year 2000 sails, and the shape isn't even close!!!

I like one design racing. I hate the idea of needing a calculator to determine by how much I got my butt kicked, or by how much I kicked someone elses butt. It should be as obvious as when we each crossed the finish line.

That being said, however, some of the rules that NAHCA puts out for Hobie Cat racing must have been developed in a vacuum, and I would appreciate if someone within NAHCA could place this into some sort of perspective that makes sense.

Oh, and getting back to tramp materials. If one wants to play devil's advocate, when did it become ok to switch from vinyl to mesh??? Surely the newer Hobie 16s and 18s with mesh have an advantage??? I doubt it. Was NAHCA consulted when that change was made?

Enough rant. Dumb, dumb, stupid, stupid, dumb, dumb, stupid!

Tim J.