Oh please! Boat builders and dealers have an interest in the promotion of the classes that they sell boats into. Everywhere you go in this sport you will find dealers and builders doing a huge amount of voluntary work to promote the classes that we enjoy sailing in. Last time I went to a UK F18 Nationals, it was sponsored by Hobie. Conflict of interest? The F18 international secretary general was, until recently, the UK Nacra representative. Conflict of interest?

Exactly what sort of conspiracy do you think is going on here? I bought my VWM Blade from Catamaranparts before the F16 association was formed, and before the Zandvoort event was even conceived. Are you seriously suggesting that there is some arrangement whereby VWM ship us slightly over-sized main sails or something so that us VWM Blade sailors can get a tiny, fractional advantage at this one event? Or is there some great conspiracy between Hans and the Zandvoort race committee to set courses that somehow favour VWM Blades over Dynautic Blades?

Or is your conspiracy theory more financial? That Piet Saarburg is going to retire on the proceeds of measuring F16s at Zandvoort, perhaps?

This class is run by volunteers, so rather than sitting around making up conspiracy theories about those people who are actually doing real work to get the class up and running, why not give them a hand and help out.

Paul