To say that a single sponsor can have total control of how regatta is run by a local fleet seems a bit extreme to me. I certianly wouldn't let West Marine say that all competitors that use WM sailing gloves can attend and all others can piss off.
As for the "stop whining and put on your own regatta" comment well, it's not all that black and white either. Say the regional Hobie Division holds 4 regatta's a year. That's four events that only Hobie sailors can attend and probably about as many as the average racer would be willing to attend. So the open events and the Hobie only events end up competing for the same small pool of sailors hurting both groups. So, no I don't think the Hobie edict is good for multihull growth, either for Hobie or any other manufacturer for that matter.
"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda "Excuses are the tools of the weak and incompetent" - Two sista's I overheard in the hall "You don't have to be a brain surgeon to be a complete idiot, but it helps"
