Steve,

I just finished catching up on all the posts (dribble?) since I posted on Friday (was busy at work). A couple of things shine through to me as I read all the exchanges. To keep hashing and re-hashing Hobie's and NAHCA's supposed sins gets us no where and its frankly getting to be a very old refrain.



You said: "Matt, Where is this split between Nahca and HCUSA? This is part of the discussion here. How much does NAHCA "owe" HCUSA -- in the areas of support."



DN: NAHCA is a separate organization from the Hobie Cat company and they have many shared interests. Is there support, yes; is there influence, yes, that follows, its real life.



You said: "I have not said that Nahca does not have the right to promote one design racing and I have not said that HCUSA does not have the right to support NAHCA"



DN: Thanks for making that clear; from your earlier posts I was unsure. At least we can put to bed a few issues that have been argued here.

1. NAHCA is not the same as HCUSA.

2. NAHCA and HCUSA can promote one design racing (I assume you mean Hobies). Thanks, I know they will be relieved to have your blessing.



You said: "What I have said loud and clear is that NAHCA does not have the right to exclude people or suggest that "its" fleets do"



DN: So we get to the heart of your discontent? That NAHCA (possibly under the encouragement of HCUSA?) wants to take the outrageous step of making a "suggestion" to the fleets in its organization! Wow, the gall! How could they be so presumptious? As a Hobie fleet commodore, I and the fleet members take the suggestion to be just that, a suggestion.



You said: "We need to have alittle vision here, choke down the medicine and try to get healthy."



DN: You said it. I don't know quite what you mean about choking down the medicine, although I'm sure you know exactly what medicine will be good for the rest of us. But we do need a little vision. I propose that an expression of vision would allow one to go beyond attack and fault finding, opening or re-opening wounds in the cat sailing body, to an expression of the future and how it will be better and how we will get there; with an understanding that there are some things we don't control such as demographics and competition for people's time. Let me be so presumptious as to offer a few starting points for those who want to exercise some form vision.

1. We accept the fact that the Hobie Cat company did much to build the sport in its early days.

2. We accept the fact that along with their success, they developed an extremely successful one design organization (NAHCA) on a continent-wide level with a corresponding system of organized racing for Hobie one-design catamarans.

3. This system has made them in the eyes of many the 800 or 1000 lb. gorilla in the cat community.

4. Most cat sailors have benefited from this competition organization.

5. It is the dependence, to some extent, on this structure that has non-Hobie owners concerned with NAHCA's pronouncements regarding the open fleet. (If this were a small, insignificant racing organization, who would be making such a fuss?).

6. We accept the fact that NAHCA should operate first and formost in the interests of Hobie cat owners to support and build Hobie racing fleets; as should other manufacturers.

7. We accept that the economic reality in these times is that many Hobie fleets need to include the open class in their regattas.

8. We recognize that in many parts of the country this is being done and everyone benefits.

9. We recognize that the suggestions from NAHCA are just that and fleets will have to make up their own minds about the open class. All fleets will act in a way they (the members) perceive to be in their best interests as they have money on the line when they put on a regatta.

10. We accpet the legitimacy of one-design, whether it is a Lightning regatta, a Hobie regatta, the Performance Nationals, a Tornado regatta, and that one-design interests can co-exist along with open class-portsmouth racing.

11. And lastly, if there is a significant need for a national umbrella organization to represent catamaran sailing interests, such as promoting the sport in general, gaining better access to the water, improving our PR with yacht clubs, improving our standing in US Sailing, organizing open class regattas outside of the Hobie racing structure, then we should look to an organization other than a one-design group or a manufacture to pursue these goals. We would expect each manufacturer and one-design organization to lend support to such an organization.



Sorry to be so long winded; a fault I find in others, I now demonstrate on my own.



David Nees



PS By the way, Steve, although new to cat sailing, I have been sailing all my life and am fully involved with trying to grow my fleet. Beyond that statement, in answer to your earlier post addressed to me, I don't think I need to list in detail my "bona fides" to you in order to participate in this dialogue.