Hello all
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<br>The philosophy of US cat racers is a greater problem then the technical merits of the formulae rule that you are trying to work out. I would encourage you to keep In mind during this process the philosophical hurdle of "I would rather just race the same type of boat... AKA one design... (if I can). The underlying philosophy of a one design fleet is solely competition. Basically.... the sailors in the larger one design fleets say to themselves.... "Change anything for a formula rule and compromise my one design status... Why? ... we worked very hard to build this fleet... change is BAD… What YOU (formula proponent) should REALLY do... is sail an XXX it is the biggest.... and therefore the best one design fleet in the area. In contrast the he formula philosophy takes the ideal of competition and adds to it inclusiveness ( all formulae boats welcome) AND weight compensation.. (different sails for different sized teams). I feel that these ideals are very important and should be celebrated in you formula philosophy. The discussion so far clearly indicates your intentions.
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<br>The major problem is the one design philosophy will not really die. Rest assured as soon as 5 boats routinely turn out… they will start arguing for a one design start because Hey.. we are the biggest one design class in the area… get this type of boat and join in… One day, we will be large enough so that we will have competition at all the weight ranges AND it will be inclusive because every one will be sailing an X boat. Moreover the racing organizations lead this effort. Look at the consequences of the debate on who will lead NAHCA over the issue of non hobie racing at Hobie regattas. Imagine the debate, if 5 Hobie tigers and 5 Nacra F18's show up at a Hobie points regatta … Hobie Policy according to McVeigh and Alter and existing Hobie rules would seem to argue that they will have two races… NOT a single formula 18 race. The Tigers will race one design as Hobie Tigers and the f18's will race in the X class. Alter has argued that this policy will cause the F18 sailors to be persuaded to convert to Tigers OR… go sail in open. (He does not even want to score the open class on corrected time.) I think that the yearly decline in one design cat racing at weekend regattas in state parks sponsored by our existing organizations is strong evidence that this policy is not working.
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<br>I really don’t have a solution to the social and political problem of one design versus formulae style of racing. I believe that a formula rule (or a Portsmouth race) will help. How could formula work in the US? Given that most cat regattas are one design AND in the case of a Hobie points regatta case require you to race in your one design fleet and not a formula fleet, I think it will be difficult. I believe that you will need leadership at the NAHCA and Division level for an 18 formula class to take off. It will also work IF… one design does not take off in an area AND you have several similar types of boats interested in the same kind of racing AND the sailors value inclusiveness and weight compensation plus competition (This is just another format of Carl’s ideal of "fair sailing").
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<br>It seems to me that you have a large I20 fleet in Michigan and pockets (5 or 6) around the country AND you have 15 or so Tornado's racing on a national basis. PLUS a handful of Hobie Foxes out west… (Alter has even suggested that this Hobie class will probably not fly and sailors should really switch to a Tiger). All told you have about 100 boats racing spinnakers around triangles in the USA.
<br> Carl wrote -Did not sign up to get in personal opinion duscusion -
<br>my opologies if I have offended any , but this class will not be successfull if we adopt existing I-f-20 -no I-20S will partisipate per posts as we see ,--If we adopt I-20 sail areas no others will partisipate . -
<br>We are forced to create an innovative solution and hopefully something better will elolve from our efforts that may become the model for others.
<br>CARL
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<br>I would frame the question as What formula rule would include these types of boats so that they race equally. The French Multihull championships rated the new Tornado, Euro I20 and Fox equally under the old texel rule. This sounds like a good start…. The advantage to sailors would be increased competition, weight correction and a larger group of sailors to associate with. Why not stop there? Trying for a formula rule that promotes development could kill the baby in delivery.
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<br>Moreover, struggling to included the current non spin classes H20 and N6.0 and the older members of the dead boat society Tornado’s, Mysteres, Prindles and Supercats probably does not payoff in participation. They are probably not going to upgrade their old equipment in large numbers to worry about in the construction of a formula rule class. (What was the conversion rate in Europe for boats meeting the F18 rule?)
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<br>I feel the sociology (pathology pending your point of view) is more difficult to resolve then the particular formula rule. I would poll the I20 fleet and see where they stand on a formula versus one design race format for most racing. If these sailors are flexible about racing 10 foot wide Tornado’s (There is no way I will cut down my tornado) and Hobie Foxes even up then I believe that you will have the start of a formulae class. Down the road, other builders might choose to compete with performance and offer a superior boat or one that costs less and allows you to compete even up with the defacto US i20 formula. You will always be able to rescore the I20, Tornado and Fox fleets separately as one design and in Portsmouth.
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<br>Take Care Mark
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