You guys are starting to drown the whole point of the Alter Cup with all this boat talk and are totally missing the point. You're bringing me down. Sure, the boat is part of the pie...but it's not the largest or most important piece. The experience of participating in an Alter Cup is a memorable one - just getting there is a very serious accomplishment.

How many of you finish a regatta weekend and think about how you would reconfigure or change something on your boat for the next regatta? Or perhaps you blame a tired old sail for not finishing as well as you would like. Sound familiar? I did it for years. A few times, when I made a monumental leap and purchased a set of sails, I found that I really didn't gain as much performance that I thought I would. That recognition alone set off a chain reaction of investigation and discovery and I would find some really obvious stupid stuff I was doing all the while. I couldn't see it because I had the 'old tired sails' in my mind. Enough of that...clear the chalk board. Take away the "my sail cut is different", "my gear older", "my mast has a funny bend", "my boards really need to be faired", "my hull bottoms are really in bad shape", "my diamond wires were too tight", my....{I think you get the point}.

Now, go out on the water with all of that out of your mind because you are piloting one of ten identical boats. They're brand new, with the same cut on the sails, the same foils, the same hulls, etc. All of the sudden, you find yourself on the starting line with only a few thoughts in your mind; the start sequence, your strategy, the water, the wind, and how you are going to get in front of 9 of the best sailing teams this country has to offer. Forget the boat, forget the boom, forget who promotes what class or what nutty freakin prejudice you have against one assembly of fiberglass, aluminum, and plastic over another - you have the same things to deal with as everyone else on the water. That's what the Alter Cup is about. It's as pure as it gets.