This is amazing!!!

I am a newbie to this forum but I can see why I will not spend too much time here in the future.

This thread was started to praise the efforts of a certain team in Australia and has progressed to throwing stones at manufacturers, sailmakers, and anyone who would supposedly have a reason to undermine the fairness of the sport in an effort to win at all costs.

GIVE ME A BREAK.

The reason these people win, as it was pointed out earlier by Pat and seconded by Mark, is that they sail. They spend time on the water. Hobie cat racing is the purest and largest one design racing class in the world. There is none like it. Is it any wonder that the most competitive and most successful competitors come from this class?

I look at Enrique from PR. He is a dear friend, a great competitor and probably one of the, if not the greatest catamaran sailor in the world. I have seen him dominate H16 events, go to a H20 event (having never even sailed the boat) and dominate and now he goes into the Tiger NAs, dominates only to come back to the H16 a short time later to dominate again. I do not even think Randy Smythe (as good as Randy is) can do that. I remember Randy having a bit of a difficult time on the H16 at the 1st Carlton Tucker memorial event in 1999.

Greg and Jacques are two of the finest sailors I know. Greg is an old friend from our "Brat Pack" days of our crewing around the country. Both are humble in their ways and are the first to give you a clue as to what you can do to improve your efforts. A true Carlton spirit exists in these guys. If you don't know what I mean by that you didn't know one of the greatest sportsmen I have ever known in Carlton Tucker.

I just cannot believe the replies and the innuendos over the type of equipment being used, is it a smoking gun, is it legal, maybe we should have more classes, more rules, etc.

I'll tell you what, get off your butts, out from behind the computer screen and start sailing your boats. Put some water under your hulls and begin to see what it takes to become a great sailor.

IT ISN'T ABOUT THE BOAT!

Mark