There is no injustice done to the F18 class by the Tiger Class, the Hobie Class Association or the Hobie Factories...

The Hobie Tiger Class, single sail plan, is a simplification for One-Design racing. The idea is to get more sailors sailing and limit the hassles. That is the basic Hobie Class concept as it always has been. This basic Hobie concept was put in place for the Tiger Class when Hobie decided to build the Tiger F18. Hobie Tiger sailors can sail both One-Design and F18… the best of both Worlds.

Hobie Tiger sailors don’t have to carry two sets of sails depending on what crew they have at a regatta. They are able to race with girl friends and wives or as teams that are not full-on burly men. Therefore, the lighter class crew weight and single sail plan.

Seems that most all of the competitors in the Hobie Tiger One-Design fleet fit the F18 requirement for the higher weight and the larger sail plan anyway.

For Tiger teams that are under-weight and want to sail F18 format races... the smaller sail plan is available to buy with the boat or as an second set.

There are a lot of Tiger One-Design sailors that would like to do an occasional handicap race. That would be the concept of the Tiger One-Design handicap rating. I am told that, in Tiger One-Design racing, sailing light has not been shown to be an advantage anyway. That appears to be why the rating has been set at the same as F18 at this point… Adjustments to the rating should be done using actual racing results.