You must be talking about monohulls. In the hobie one designs, the specs are tight enough that the best sailors can win with any boat built in the last 10 years (assuming it hasn't been abused in those 10 years.) Last years hobie 16 North American Champion sailed that regatta with sails that were at least 4 years old. At the Saturday night parties at these regattas, most of the class hot shots go out of their way to make the newbies welcome. What I am referring to is the Hobie Way of Life. We are a group of ultra competitive people on the water and ultra social people on land. Handicap racing would not satisify our competitive zeal. No handicap system yet devised is fair to all boats in all conditions and even if it were, it detracts from the game to wonder if I should be covering the boat right behind me with a similar rating or the one behind him with a slower rating that might in fact be in front of the whole fleet on corrected time!