The only thing that I can say is that 14'cats are not 16'cats and 16'cats are not 18' cats etc etc, and as any development in "speed" occurs, it will filter through to ALL classes and sizes of cats, eventually. So there will ALWAYS be the relative difference in performance between "sizes" as there has always been, SO????
Fragmentation of classes??? Whats new??? in the seventies through to the mid eighties, there was the biggest boom in off the beach catamaran sailing that has ever been seen. At eight different yacht clubs here during that time, it was not unusual to see fleets of up to 100 (and more) cats starting at each and all of those clubs (and this was along a strip of "city" beach of about 22km's where all those clubs are spread side by side, sometimes the set courses between clubs would actually overlap). The pressure then was to divide the different classes into their own starts (some even had their own courses) I.E. Windrush start 1, Hobie 14 start 2, Sundace 14 start 3, Hobie 16 start 4, Mosquito start 5, etc etc etc. this was because, although most people posting here seem to think that large "massed" starts and large numbers of cats sailing the same course is really great, when it is experienced week after week, month in and month out, most serious sailors prefer to compete against cats that are of "similar performance" and don't want to be always harrassed by "other" cats that "are not in their class", and only interfere in the competition that is going on between "similar" sailing rivals. The reasons that I see that this attitude has apparently changed now is that that sort of club racing numbers and shear numbers of cats racing each weekend hasn't been experienced for many years, BUT the same situation will arise again, "Whatever goes around, comes around"
Darryl J Barrett