Hi Steve

I agree with you about the need to bite the bullet and declare the race F18's only if the goal is to develop an international race.

I also think that the only way you get any kind of turnout of F18's will be if that is the only boat you can race. Nobody wants to be DFL to the beach and bringing a knife to a gunfight won't be fun and so nobody brings the F18 for that reason (Hell it's easier to get a 20 to do the race)

When the Tybee 500 was concieved by Chuck Bargeron, the notion was that this race would be doable by a weekend distance racer who would stretch to accomplish this race. I believe that is still the philosophy behind the race. (The international push resulted in the worell fiasco.)

In the USA almost all of the distance racers are sailing a 20 footer, In fact just a handful of F18's choose to compete in the popular distance races around the country.

My take on this is that the majority of F18 sailors in North America are just not interested in competing in distance races and if they are... they go find a 20 to do the race on.

So, I don't think it would be a wise move to toss the N20 and replace it with the F18 until you know for a fact that you will at least match the number N20 racers on the beach

Mark