I understand what you`re saying, Jake. Besides, If the guys who owned TheMightyHobie18`s would just pitch up for regatta`s in the first place, they`d get their own start if they made a class, and wouldn`t need to be part of any new Formula type racing. What is it with sailors, spend a lot of cash on sports equipment, then leave it in the yard ? Gotta get class associations & organisers to beg them to go sailing !
I think the Formula idea came from this, try to get all the open class boats of similar peformance to just go level-rating and do away with all the scoring headaches. I`m all for it, I gotta do the scoring at our club .
We have an almost OD situation at our club, then along comes a lone Hobie Tiger and a Dart that makes me take times and figure out handicaps .
The real sad thing is there must be thousands of boats like the Hobie 18 /Prindles, Nacra`s etc just lying around at clubs or in yards, never being used.
I`m also referring to club-level here, I think if the F18 class were to allow certain boats to race within their setup, like P18/TheMightyHobie18 under special dispensation, similar to the way it is being done in F16 class, they would have no problem upholding their own class rules, these older boats could form part of a "sub-class", but it will only attract sailors if that is what they want. And if these guys are not interested in racing their boats now, what will change that ?

Steve