The fact that US sailing maintains two rating numbers and allows the use of modifiers, or even allows solo sailors to use a jib, is not my/our problem.
I never said it was the class problem... In the US... people like to "do their own thing" and the system allows this.. You just have to tell the handicapper.
The US Rating is soft because they don't have a critical mass of sailors to figure the boat out.
The top sailors are on Hobie 16's and F18's and a few I20's and they don't go out and take on all challengers in open fleets. So, the rating must be based with the F16 against many dead boat society members (old sails... non existent class). It will take a long time for the rating to be accurate. It's a known limitation of the system when you have small numbers of boats coupled with a small turnout with which you can rate the boat against.
For example, in the USA, the Nacra 5.5uni started life out at a rating of 74.5... SLOWER then a Hobie 17. After a few years, it then slowly dropped so that after 6 or so years the rating landed at 70.0 or so.
Not a problem in one design but it wasn't fair to open fleets.
It will sort itself out in time when more sailors race the boat.
Mark
