>>What is the difference between a One-Design Class and a Formula Class?



I think that the publically PRECEIVED difference is that in a oe-design class everybody sails with identical hardware and in a formula class everybody sails with comparable hardware.



It is my perceiption that -lets call him or them- ANTI TIGER FAN(s) are against the Tiger class splitting off from the F18 class for reasons of one-designess.



Each time the arguments seem to focus on the facts that Tiger class rules are almost indentical to the F18 setup apart from the fact that all stuff had to be bought through Hobie. Implicetly they are hinting at the fact that the Tiger class is in fact a class of F18 complient Tigers racing in a class event that excludes all other makes.



They consistantly attack the fact that there is no defination of a single Hobie tiger setup that would make a Tiger race a race with "indentical" boats as One-design seems to suggest.



Personally I think the anti's have a case; Tiger fans one-design tiger class is actually a Tiger Formula class which is not unlike to mother F18 class from which the Tiger has come from. Although I agree with Tiger fan that it is is easier to exchange tuning tips between tiger sailors than between say a Nacra and a Hobie F18 sailor.



With respect to your H16 example; Overhere the Hobie One-design rules were so strickt that crews were measuring the diameter of the stays of boats of other crews to discover wether they were fitted with the larger diameter and therefor stiffer US stays. When found these had to be removed. With this counter example I feel that the H16 class can claim that this class races Indentical boats and therefor rightfully refer to being a One-design class as such a class is preceived by the public



The Tiger class is getting less and less Indentical (one-design) with each passing year and even the builder Hobie cat Europe has expressed that it sees the Tiger as a F18 boat.



The most recent post on this topic on the old forum gives a describtion of all the changes made in the past. He has forgotten to metnion the fact that in 1995 the tiger had a 3 way jib sheeting setup mounted on the tramp though and that it had a pin head sail instead of a squaretop in the first years.



With these changes the difference between Tiger and Tiger could well be of the same magnitude as the difference from say a Nacra F18 to a Hobie Tiger mark 2002.



And as you say Sam, the label "One-design" or "Formula" doesn't mean a thing anymore in this particular case. And it can argumented that such a lable may even be deceptional to the general public.



And ofcourse I'm sure that some emotion is linked to the posts as Kirt says; Maybe they feel that one-design Tiger is a marketing ploy that is only hurting the F18 class to which the Tiger is intimately linked. Maybe they want to argue that hurting the F18 class will eventually also hurt the Tiger class in the end.



WOuter