Bob,



Look at the finish times for Round the Island. Year after year your looking at times ranging from 4 to 9 hours after the lead 20 foot boat. Take that and do it five days in a row.



Its not a crew/boat issue it is a race committee issue. How many people do you know who want to volunteer for 5 - 18 hour days just for you to race your boat?? This is why I am saying try to keep the DPN's close so that day after day most boats will finish with in a few hours of the lead boats.



As for the elitest boat attitude that's bull#@$*! Take a 5.5 uni (sail it solo) put a reacher on it and you have the DPN range that I'm thinking of. Also, you'll need to know that most of the course that the race is running would be downwind 85% of the time. I wouldn't do it on a SC22 without a chute! Let alone a H16. I'm not in to that kind of pain.



I'm not talking about keeping people out, I'm talking about keeping the fleet close --- best for everyone and alot safer than trying to figure out where 50 - 60 boats are at every hour of the day for 5 days. Look at the Worrell, you have 5 hours seperating identical boats what is going to happen to boats with huge DPN differences???



Just a few more thoughts.

Steve