One last thought on why North Americans did poorly (that was not my observation,realistically I thought they did well).Jeff Alter was the top North American,Jeff is 50 + years old and has not seriously raced the Hobie 16 since 2004.In fact my sources tell me he has not been on a 16 since that time.Look at the average age of the Top North Americans.The sad fact,and believe me it hurts me to say this is the Hobie 16 Class is aging.
Now look the New Caledonia team ,and as the guy that was on the Race committee stated (well you can read his post on what he thought of them),the fact of the matter is they are all pretty young.Not sure how many people have Raced in a Major Laser Class Regatta lately but most of the really good guys are Young ,**** and push the Rules very hard. they are also very good at inventing ways to make the boat go faster using Kenitics.In fact ,at the 2009 North Americans I had a guy from Puerto Rico crew for me (had also previously crewed for Enrique and Legal),this guy did more sail pumping and Oohing then I was comfortable with. Not saying this is right,just saying that is how it is with some younger sailors.Hence why the Laser Masters Class is so much more popular with the aging Laser Sailors. The Lasers Master Class is more like your normal Hobie 16 Class,where for the most part the Sailors are pretty well behaved ,and obviously Older.
When Brett Dryland won his first Worlds he was 18 years Old.I don,t see any Young Hobie Sailors here in North America that are close to World Class Level.Apperantly as one guy posted that is a good thing.
Hey My days of visioning of winning the Worlds have long since come and gone.Is there going to be new young blood come up and do it from North America?as much as I would like to see that happen,I and not optimistic.When I started sailing the 16 back in 1976 it was a fast,sexy looking craft that was fun to sail and go fast,especially coming from sailing on Windmills,Lasers ,Albacores and Lightenings.Time has moved on and the Young Sailors of today have so many other choices for fast attractive looking Classes.I now own a 49er myself and have a list an arms length long of kids that want to crew on it or buy it.
Unfortunatly this is not only the situation here in North America ,but Colby (World Champion) himself has stated even in Australia the Class is dying a Slow death.
I would be interested to know what they are doing in New Caledonia and if in fact the Class is thriving?