NAHCA's decision to exclude all non-Hobies from their regattas is most likely driven by the success of Formula 18 racing. Hobie Cat Company would love to see all the other Formula 18's go away and leave only the Tiger. This sentiment is not shared by all of the Tiger sailors that I know.

Through excluding non-Hobies, Hobie Cat Company can preserve the sales pitch "Buy a Tiger and you get one-design racing as well as Formula racing". In other words buy a Tiger and you can race it at Hobie regattas and then you can take it to regattas that the rest of the world puts on and race it there. The flip side of that is what Hobie is saying to the non-Hobies. They are saying to us "Thanks for the hospitality & hard work hosting regattas but stay away from ours". Any Hobie fleet that chooses to follow the company line & exclude other F-18's from their regattas is also saying that to the rest of us.

Could this new agressive Tiger marketing be due to the high Euro / $ exchange rate which will drive up the price of the Euro manufactured Tiger?

Tom Liston