The point is that the A cat is an open rule. You get to build the boat you sail for the conditions of the championship you want to win.
If you plan to win the A cat worlds at Ilse Morada... you better have rudder foils that you can clear weed from.... Other locations... not so important. If you plan on winning the worlds held in the Gorge in Washington State...... you might beef the mast and boat up... (my pre owned mast has that feature) design and build a small sail, etc etc. Building the proper boat is part of the game... Moreover, A cats sets a 22 knot max limit. The Class B Rule spawned the Tornado design which spawned lots of builders... Tornadoes once upon the time had the reputation as being disposable boats... they Oil Canned in waves... Marstrom figured out how to build a bullet proof boat that was seaworthy for the conditions spece'd by the class.. true 25 with big gusts... Continual improvement optimized the boat for the Olympic game..
The rules determine the game...
My point is that ISAF runs this new game lock stock and barrel.... They screwed up... They believed they could get an olympic caliber boat because they were really smart.. Nope!....
The N17 boat needs a fix to restore the game to high performance sailboat racing... NOT crash and burn survivor sailing.... Or they need a rule change that lowers the wind limits plus gusts so that crash and burn don't determine the medals. (A benefit would be fewer sailors with catastrophic injuries)
My preference is to fix the boat... I am convinced that NACRA would want to fix the boat.... they would begin to sell them to weekend warriors then.
