I haven't ever visited...but can you imagine that a racing forum talks about Chevy, Ford, Toyota, etc. in the same kind of way?

Baseball is hardly about the equipment to the level that sailing is...but you could somewhat argue that sailing is not about the equipment...but most of us are so passionate about our sport and our performance that we take it to a very high level of preparedness - most of which would probably fall into the superstition category.

I also think that you misinterpret the equipment bickering. Although the claims boil down to this boat is better, etc...it's really about people trying to build the class they most closely identify with so they have more people to race against.