Barry, The Island Hop has always been a mixed event, has this been changed? I thought Block Island was also. If the Hobie Fleets, and especially my beloved 448 are excluding other brands from fun sails, I will have to drop my membership! I cannot support exclusion! It makes no sense to keep us apart. Ted's editorial was right on! Some of the readers of this forum may recall my past comments on Rick Bliss, and how far superior he is as a boat dealer to Cape Water Sports, or Megrew's. That and the lag in design of high performance boats in comparrison to Nacra, has led to many in our Fleets moving on, and up. If HCA wants to run Hobie only races, but agrees to inclusion of all boats for other events I can tolerate their misguided decision. If they insist on exclusion let's cut our ties, and our losses and move on. I haven't paid my dues yet, and won't until I get an answer. I will post a message on the Division 12 e-mail list, and 448 forum. I will likely be making some calls tomorrow.