Morning Folks,

I figured I would inject my 2 cents into this discussion. First of all, if you don’t sail an A class why do you give a crap about what the class does? The class is what the sailors in the class want, not what a batch of other weenies want. I am not out insisting that the F16 class should decrease their minimum weight to 90 kilos or that F18 boats should reduce their minimum weight to 120 kg and go to carbon wing masts. To me, both these things seem like smart ideas, but guess what, I don’t sail in these classes, and don’t care what they do.

As far as the A class Catamaran goes, I do race one. I bought it because it was the most fun catamaran I had ever sailed, and I have sailed a lot of boats. I did not buy this boat because it was the fastest cat in the world, it is not. My previous boat, a nacra 6.0 was faster with and without the spinnaker. So what. I have no intention of sailing the A class with a spinnaker, increasing its width, etc. To me these are all stupid ideas that detract from the simplicity and inherent efficiency of the boat.

As far as rules go, at this time the class has decided not to allow foils that would make the boat completely foil borne. There is still a discussion about whether centerboards and rudders that provide some lift will be allowed. The problem arose in that the wording of the rule was truncated from what was decided in 2002 at the general meeting. The rule as written is vague and open to interpretation. At this point the class does not seem to have a consensus as to what to do. Some of the class members want to eliminate the rule entirely, allowing foil borne sailing, others want to keep the ban in place, but word it more clearly.

As far as my own personal feelings, I think we should continue to ban completely foil borne sailing, but allow the use of curved or inward angled dagger boards and T rudders. Ultimately I think this will lead to faster boats with a decreased hull volume and wetted surface with out much increase in cost or time and effort to set the boat up and sail.

Sail for the pure joy of sailing,
Sail A class

PS, if you want to sail a really fast boat, try a DN iceyacht. Until you have sailed into a leeward mark rounding at 60 mph in a 50 boat fleet you don’t know what excitement is.

Sail Fast
Sail DN

Eric Anderson A class US 28
DN US 5193