Hi Rob



Thank you for your continuing explanations of the NAHCA point of view. I appreciate the clarity you bring to the discussion. You asked several questions and I wanted to respond in seperate threads.



You asked. Is It Evil for NAHCA to create and support their current philosophy. No, absolutely not. I acknowledge you, Rich McVeigh, Jim Glanden for your support, time and effort in making cat racing happen. I appreciate your thoughtful responses and hope that our debate will inform NAHCA and OPEN sailors rather then fire each camp up. I would like to explain my point of view explaining why NAHCA is responsible for my upset and the upset that we see in the cat racing community.



NAHCA elected Rich McVeigh based on his agenda. He coined the phrase Hobie Centric in the NAHCA newsletter and then failed to define what he meant. I believe that it was intellectually dishonest to toss this empty phrase out without explaining what he meant to the sailors (Hobie and Non Hobie) who have been supporting NAHCA events AND JOINING NAHCA. Hobie centric philosophy redefined open class as the X class. It was insulting to me and the many open sailors to relabel the open class “the X class”.



You wrote:

As far as the x-class itself it is purely a misunderstanding. If the race committee and the sailors want to race their Hobie in the x-class that is up to them. The guideline is suppose to eliminate starts for individual classes that are not Hobie Cats. This again is to give a reason to sail a Hobie instead of something else.



The working group had suggested that X class be forced to join the NAHCA organization in order to race This would force open sailors to choose racing with an organization that proposed policies which relegate them to second class status or not racing with them (See Chris Brown’s point). The clear message is:



NAHCA ‘s Goal is to use their monopoly to force or persuade sailors to race a Hobie. (This is now clear to all sailors)



The Reality is that NO CONSENSUS of the Hobie fleet leadership could be arrived at with respect to how best to achieve this goal. (your task force report)



The Outcome or result of implementing Hobie-centric policy were guidelines to fleets and not rules or ultimatums. (your task force report)



The good news (I think) is that Div 11 appears to have changed nothing for the upcoming season. (Jim Glanden’s Div 11 report via email to the task force)



You noted that “only 4 events will be Hobie only and this was not forced on anyone”. With all due respect, you are trying to spin this now as an endorsment of “X class is welcome” Most readers of NAHCA’s policies get the message however. Open class racers are wearing a scarlet letter... X for the X class, Their feelings of being second class citizens at some events is now canonized as a policy suggestion but not a current rule. Hobie racers (Kip and several others) get the NAHCA message as well and support your viewpoint. Open and several other hobie racers reject this viewpoint. A huge question is just how much support there is among NAHCA membership for the underlying NAHCA goal.





The result has been an absolute mess. Most of the Open class sailors refuse to be identified as Class X. They get that they are not wanted and your statement of ... Well indeed they are invited or welcome despite our underylying goal is unbelievable. Officially tolerated seems a better description of NAHCA policy. Local fleets will feel the impact of NAHCA policy if as Chris Brown suggests… Hey… we can vote with our feet.



In summary, is it evil or “racist” to propose and implement this policy. No. but it was dishonest to not define Hobie centric, and it was insulting to label a group of racers with an X.

Finally, NAHCA Policy has managed to drive a large number of people towards creating a new organization, NAMSA . Why is this good for NAHCA?…. Will loosing the dissenting voices make NAHCA better? I am not convinced that cat racers are well served here by two organizations. I would much rather have seen NAHCA redefine their mission to promote all one design cat racing in North America.



I just wanted to get this off my chest and finish this part of the debate. We may not agree on this issue but I think our clear descriptions of the two points of view are helpful to the casual cat racer.



Thanks and Take Care

Mark