John,
For some people perception is everything.

Their perception is that the more expensive the boat, the better it must be.

The perception is that the lower the Portsmouth rating, the faster it must be.

The perception is that if a boat class has a minimum crew weight, you can't be competitive if you are much over that.

It is all about marketing strategies, I guess. And your strategy is deplorable, because you are trying to sell a high-quality product for less money than its competitors.

Thank you, and I hope your boat beats the socks off all the other F16's. Of course, you probably can't afford to hire hot-shots to do that. (That is another way to create a perception that one boat is better than another.)

But in my personal opinion, one-design is the only way to race. (And not single-manufacturer one-design.) Formula is a hybrid concept that is worse than one-design racing and better than handicap racing.

The questions are: Will formula racing eventually tilt the scale toward more people going back to one-design or going to handicap racing? Or will formula racing become predominant?

And will all these options dilute sailboat racing even more and make it continally more expensive for the average person to get involved?