Dear Tiger sailor,



You obviously feel "ripped off" and mislead because you were sold a Tiger and apparently promised One-design or Formula racing. This is wrong of the dealer, however quite naive of you. There simply are not enough Tigers around YET to have a one-design class. Nor are there enough NAF-18 class members to have a formula race, especially on the West Coast.



The largest pockets of Tigers are currently in the NY area and in the Georgia/upper Florida area (Hobie Div 9). Even in these pockets, the numbers are not proven large enough for true one design racing (4-5 boats usually). As far as the NAF-18 class, it is strongest in the Mid-West, near its "wizard" Mark Biggers. The NAF-18 guys recently received new Nacra F-18 boats for 4-5 NAF-18 members. Hardly a great "fleet".



My point goes back to my previous posts, stating that racing these classes, as well as the F-18HT, will be best within the Portsmouth Class (scored together and separately). The numbers are not there and I don't see these classes gaining necessary DENSITY (as opposed to total numbers) to acheive more than sporatic one-design or formula racing. The F-18HT class stands the best shot of acheiving this density in the East Coast areas and they are a waiting for the next two loads of customer's boats to acheive this. Even then, the HT guys plan to sail all but their North Americans, W-1000, and World Cup within handicap class (scored separately and together).



Group ALL THE BOATS into classes of similar performance, and score them under handicap and separately as one-design or formula class (for 5 or more 1-designs or formula boats). IMHO, this is the best way to nurture catamaran racing in the USA.