Hi Wouter,
It is a bit of a mystery why everyone professes a love of one-design (the pluses are self-evident) yet the classes get very fractured at the upper end of the beach cat spectrum. In our area the H20 almost killed off the TheMightyHobie18 class. As I understand it because I wasn't there, the H20 was developed to respond to the Nacra 18. The Nacra 20 was then developed to respond to the H20. When the I20 came out it decimated the H20 fleet in my area. Now the I20 fleet is suffering as it lost members to the 18HT boats. My point is that a lot of skippers at this level are looking for the next home run boat; to show up with the lastest and greatest.

When I got my H20, I was in awe of it, but I noticed that it didn't get any respect at the regattas as everyone was "cooing" over the I20s; my boat and I were definitely "not happening"

This pattern will continue forever, I think. When I got into cat racing I always wondered why the cat sailors didn't maintain long time fleets (the H16 being possibly the only exception). In dinghy racing one can think of many examples; Lightning, Snipe, Lazer, Albacore, Flying Scot...some of these boats are over 60 years old and have only slightly, slowly evolved. People race them their whole lives. Cat sailors seem to be different--but I think I'm touching on a new thread here.

David
H20 781