I had not anticipated Wouter's interpretation of the 6.1 rule. I do not actually see how allowing NEW non-compliant F16s to race as F16s can possibly benefit the class. In fact, intuitively I would have thought it counter-productive.
Without giving away the secrets I can assure everybody that the current use of the Grandfather clause is helping the F16 class very much.
Think : Datchet (UK) okt 2005 after the combined FX-one, F16 event; two new boat sails to Datchet boys, both buying full compliant F16's
Think : New G-cat 5.0 of two years ago being transformed into a full complaint F16 by its designer and vectorworks marine
Think : Cirrus Energy converging to much closer specs to F16 by virtue of the new Evolution. The fact that they mention the F16 class in their Evolution talk-up says something I think.
Think : The best way to show the strong points of our class is in direct comparison on the water. Think Datchet UK again.
Think : South African F16 class; this class is entirely build on grandfathered boats because it is so hard to get full compliant f16's in.
And so on and so on.
The grandfather clause is proving to be one of the more important tools that the F16 class has to grow the class and eventually sell more full compliant F16's = growing the class in the full compliant direction.
Besides what are we all afraid of ? The grandfather clause assured that no other design has an advantage over full compliant F16's so allow the grandfathered boats in is NEVER unfair to owners of full compliant boats !
If anything it grows participation at events that we enjoy ourselfs as well.
No please, lets the clause be as is and let me do my thing. Up till now it has always resulted in a growing class and attracting more builders to our full compliant setup. Something we all appreciate.
Wouter
