Sam-

I agree with you NAMSA should essentially divest itself of handicaps IF we want to cont. w/ PN. However, I DO think NAMSA could go far towards improving handicap racing by:

1) Resurrecting the old "Monterrey Multihull Classic" type regatta where the manufacturers/classes get to provide ONE boat each and then everybody races (Could break down into relatively comparable groups if desired). For new boats this could be very valuable for setting handicap numbers and for "evolving" classes it could help "adjust" the numbers as well as serve as a "check" for the current numbers.

2) Presuming NAMSA will be conducting/supervising handicap regattas it can repeatedly "measure" the performance of many boats and/or crews and provide this information in a standard format for handicapping assessment.

3) Again, assuming it is involved with regattas, it stands to reason that a particular handicap "system" (PN, Texel, ISAF, etc.) will be "endorsed" by NAMSA and NAMSA can standardize boat/crew "configurations" hopefully minimizing boat variability for the sake of comparison (like NAHCA rules for Hobies are more "strict" than for "open" regattas so one never knows if one is racing a H 16 that is Hobie class "legal" or PN "optimized").

What do you think?



Kirt