No offense Matt, just putting the dots on the i's


Matt wrote :

The Tiger sails are built by one of the better lofts in Italy. Zuccoli Ullman. ... Same loft that built the newest mains used (and won) at the F18 Worlds. This is the mainsail that is a possible new change for the Tiger Class.


Meaning : So it is true, the hired professionals do not sail with stock Tiger sails.


>>The class will be looking at how to manage the Tiger class vs. F18 issue a little better.


Meanning : Tiger OD will go the way of F18 in ever increasing ways as there is no reason why the F18 would stop developping or even roll back the developments of the last years. That would piss off a huge F18 following only to aid a handful of OD Tiger owners that aren't even in the F18 class in any serious way.


>>Certainly the F18 class conflicts with the basic Hobie Cat philosophy in many ways. How do we stay on top as manufacturers while not alienating our current boat owners with constant changes?


Shouldn't this read : certainly the Tiger class and Hobie corp way of doing business conflicts with the basic F18 philosophy in many ways. How do we sell the points above to the OD tiger sailors without risking our F18 related boat sales too much by stagnating Tiger development. Afterall F18 is driving Tiger sales; not the OD Tiger class. Stagnation means a slow but certain death. The continious upgrades kept Tiger in the F18 game.


>>There are a lot of folks that cannot, or do not want to, spend so much money on new upgraded sails and parts again and again. Then again, there are those that will.


Shouldn't this read : The lastest developments in the European Tiger class (7 at Dutch nationals, cancelled Europeans) signal that "There are a lot of folks that cannot or do not want to spend so much money" to keep switching their Tiger F18 to a Tiger OD setup and back; they choose to go F18 instead. Only a handfull who have never made the upgrades will come to Tiger OD events and these are almost exclusively recreational sailors without any serious commitment to either the F18 class racing or Tiger OD class racing. Afterall there are only a handful of Tiger OD events in Europe. 3 or 4 Nationals and 1 Europeans per year and a worlds every two years. On the other hand there are tens of F18 events all over the place with 10+ fleets and a F18 worlds every year. In some area's there is an F18 event every second weekend. This makes for a difficult choice.



In all honesty the only way this can work out is when Tiger OD class become a sort of tornado class.

All boats must measure in to certain hull templates and there are some (general) limits on mast and beam profiles as well as the boards and materials you may use. Apart from that all F18 compliant features must be allowed. Meaning that continious changes are allowed as well.

Hobie Corp can then continiously sell the current F18 grade sails with their boats and nobody has to go out and buy a new set of sails. This safes alot of money. If they do the same with sheet lines and fittings than the F18 AND Tiger OD combo will work.

If this doesn't happen than a choice has to be made between Tiger F18 or Tiger OD. The third option is of course "doing nothing" but that will end with the Tiger F18 coming out on top as the sailors have already made their opinions clear by their Tiger OD event attendence.

Now I do understand that the Tiger OD has a head start in USA and can risk it. But in the bigger scheme of things the 800 pound heavyweight is Europe and risking it there is not very wise. Australia and other area's are pretty much leaning towards F18 already mostly because they are far more accustomed to relaxed OD classes where only big things are ruled upon (like Tornado's).

Now, seriously I like to see the Tiger around for many years, trully. That is why I hope that the OD-ers realize that they are fighting a losing battle here and needlessly trying to make the Tiger into something that it never was and never will be. Or that their claim of "armsraces are expensive" has been debunked many times. It is not much more expensive if more expensive at all than being TRULLY competitive in an OD class. In contrast to just thinking that you are while you are really NOT.

The thing that strikes my over and over is the fact that we had many many many OD classes and all have vanished over the last decade or about to vanish. Just recently I heard that the Dart 18 will not be produced anymore from 2005 onward. This leaves pretty much only the H16 as the last surviving OD class while the growth is definately in the A-cat/Formula/Tornado corner. Apparently the universe has decided that she wanted to walk down a different route. Saying that it isn't so won't change this.

best example I can give is yet again the Tornado class. Remember how the upgrade package was voted down by over 2/3rd of the class ? 2 years later the Tornado class has fully revived herself and there is not a single classic tornado sailing anymore. What happened to all those people in the majority that wanted to stay in the old setup (mindset) ? They switched themself in the first 12 months when it was apparent that the big boys had crossed over. A handfull got out of the Tornado's only to be replaced by more newcomers.

That is the situation before you.

Now I will get off my soap box. My appologies for any harsh statements I may have made. Matt, seriously, nothing against you or Hobie personally.

Wouter