Hi Sam,

I do not understand what this policy is excluding anyone from. If we did not make any provisions for them to race and said they couldn't, that would be exclusionary. The purpose of the guideline is to include non-hobies, orphan Hobies and everyone in more than 95% of all NAHCA regattas, and it does that. How would you make it more inclusive?



Nowhere in the guidelines does it say to only give open boats one lap races. It says "This start can be fit into the start sequence at a place which best promotes good sailing for all the classes. This includes the beginning Hobie 16 sailors (b and c fleet) so they do not get stuck with one-lap races while x-class boats are doing three and four lap races." It says to provide good racing for ALL THE CLASSES and not to forget about the 16 b and c fleets. Remember this is guideline to help people run there event, and yes the b and c fleeters waiting around is the RC's problem, and hopefully this will remind them that the b and c fleeters want to sail as much as everyone else.



One of the major objections to hosting an open fleet at a Hobie regatta was the scoring. Hobie fleets did not have portsmouth handicapping programs and did not want to do the scoring by hand. Therefore, requiring the open fleet to provide the corrected scores was put into the guidelines originally. The open boats sailors are not asked for anything else in terms of volunteering to help the event organizers or the class. Making sure they provided a scorer seemed like a minor demand. Secondly, in the 2 divisions I sail in most one portsmouth scorer does most of the portsmouth scoring for all events in that division. And lastly, I do not think it is rude to ask someone to bring something to the party.



This is another example of misinterpretation. I think by providing a fleet or class for boats to sail in is inclusive. You think that it is exclusive because we are grouping some boats together in one fleet or class. You state "They (the guidelines) ARE rude. They ARE insulting. They ARE exclusionary. They ARE counter-productive to all cat sailing. They ARE embarassing..." You do not explain why. I hope you take this post as an explanation and not a spin. If you do take it as a spin then there is no way to satisfy you , because you will automatically dismiss everything I write.