Hi Eric <br>Could you clarify your point of view . <br>EA wrote <br>Point #1 No amount of jockeying with sail area/weight will equalize the performance of 20 foot cats as diverse as the Dart 20, Nacra 6.0NA, CFR20,Inter 20 etc over a wide range of wind speeds. This is not to say that you could not make them all rate the same under Texel, or under the ISAF system. You can accomplish this if desired. This would be the equivalent of a level rating band in PHRF. This is not what I envision a true formula class to be. <br> <br>MS <br>I don't get your technical argument here. <br> <br>How is the F18 situation different? <br> <br>Why is Nacra producing an F18 if their I18 was optimal... Hmm perhaps chop effects the I18 a bit more then the hull volume of I18 helps it. (or so the market believes... ergo Performance needs a new boat) <br> <br>In thinking about this it seems to me your argument is really a Show Me argument. the F18's have proven over a period of 6 or so years that the boats are even on the water AND the weight correction system works well. (At least that is what we hear over here). The fact that they all measure into the formula is nice but not critical. You are persuaded by proof on the water that the racing is tight enough to be called fair. Note though that the Dart Hawk dropped out of the running in F18 because it could not keep up. <br> <br>What we are really talking about is how much prescion in different boat performance do we need to call the racing “fair” and most importantly have the racers think that its fair. <br> <br>You may be right here.... Only experience on the water will give sailors the sense of fairness. <br>The Mystere 6.0 and Nacra 6.0 rated the same in Texel and both were faster then the Classic Tornado. Reality is... Nacra was faster in light air and T was faster in breeze and the mystere never quite measured up..... Thus the portsmouth ratings. In this example, the formula is NO Comfort if you don’t feel that you have a chance. against someone who is about equal in sailing ability on a different boat. <br> <br>I had not really considered this as such a critical factor in getting a formula 20 class going If you can’t SHOW that foxes and Inter 2o’s and Mysterer X/s are really close in performance you may never get people to buy into the f20 mindset. Hmmm. Texel and the French cat championships seem to indicate that Tornado's, Foxes, and euro I20's are very close of course the Foxes and euro I20's already measure into the euro f20 rule. <br> <br>Is there any possible way that we could adopt the euro f20 rule and maintain a coherent rule AND have a huge euro database of lots of boats proving that the designs are fair on the water? <br> <br>Take Care <br>Mark <br> <br>ps <br>This should be a word of caution to the F18 versus F18 HT split... The proven fact is that the F18 formula has a number of choices which are very close on the water. EG Fair. <br> <br>The F18 HT may be a wonderful class idea... BUT... it remains to be shown on the water that the boats from different builders are really equal. You will have a lot of very small one design classes or a portmouth one off!<br><br>
