That's ok Stephen, I know your original comment was only meant to be light humoured. I just thought there is a lot of this sort of talk going on and it would be good to get it out on the forum, because it's an interesting topic and, of course, because I suspect that the comments about the "Favourable Mosquito handicap" are based more on rumour and knee-jerk reactions than fact. I've enjoyed reading the reactions the thread has provoked.

Unfortunately, if you sail a Mozzie, the better you sail the louder the complaints about the handicap get - we are expected to sail badly so we can fit the percieved profile of a Mozzie sailor.

Your list of names from the A-class and F18 fleets illustrates quite well what Gary said about the assumption that can be made about people from other classes (and interstate) that they are "nobodies" (or just average sailors). You are obviously quite impressed with the names you listed (right down to mid-fleet), but I have to tell you that there are only a handful of names in each list that I recognise and, of those, I've seen some of them have significant "bad days" on the race course!

It would be great if we all sailed the same class and could forget about handicaps, but I'm afraid A-classes, and F18s are not within everyones budget, and like Gary said, if you live in Victoria the biggest cat class at regattas these days is usually Mosquitos.

Just to add some more fuel I've posted the Wildcat race results and overall scores of the miscellaneous division with the first Taipan 4.9 Sloop added for comparison, on the Mozzie Web Site here.

Nice post Darryl.