Hey Mark -

The Multihull Council does not administer the Area Qualifiers - the Area Reps do as part of their volunteer work. While it is true that the Area Reps make up almost the entire excom of the Council, they actually run the eliminations for the Multihull Championship Committee. The Committee is free to decide to change handicap systems.

To put it another way, the Council can't tell the Committee how to administer the Championship or the Ladder Events.

And, Lee - let's chat soon. I'd love to get your perspective.

John, I'll see you at Alter Cup. I've got a couch if you or Dennis Kee need a place to stay. Small place till I get my house built but can handle one guest. PM me and I can give you the address if you want.

Even if all F18s have to comply to the class rules (dimensions, sail area, etc.), why do they have to have the same Texel rating? I think we can agree upon that more recent models are faster than early ones - actually this has made the F18 field of Texel finishers as such faster. If F18s race among each other, no rating is used - but in a mixed regatta the new ratings penalise early F18s like old Tigers, Inter 18s, etc. a lot.

There is no old tired flexible boat discount in any reasonable handicap system.

Put the same rock stars on brand new Tigers and what is your guess at the time difference between this Tiger and a Wildcat in an hour?

It will never happen but my guess is ...that it is not "much faster"

You realize that the precision of these rating schemes is only 1 % (they round the rating off for a reason).

If you had a perfect formula that reflected the small speed difference between a Tiger and a Wildcat...or a Cap 1 and 2 or a F18 and Infusion... it would be rounded off in practical use because the far larger factor in time around the course is the sailor. (Olympic races have spreads of 3 to 5%)

My point being that using a rating with more precision is not going to make the handicap game any fairer or allow handicap racing to manage the differences between F18 Tigers versus F18 Wildcats.

On the other hand... getting an accurate rating is essential! Texel's vetting of their rule by comparing the middle of the fleet times versus Portsmouth's approach of comparing the performance of only the first place boat gets you to an accurate rating system much faster.

I believe in the the Box Rule that makes up the Formula 18. If you took all the "old" boats and put them on the water as brand new boats I think you would see that the formula is working. Each owner is able to update their boat with newer equipment, such as sails. If you think that old boat with old equipment should get some consideration with a better rating I have to disagree. What would denote a change to the same time penalty as they make upgrades to their boat? There are conditions that Tigers and even Inter-18s shine. I feel it would be a huge disservice to the class to make these distinctions. We are growing great with the setup and the goal is class racing in the end.

Dan DeLave

Texel ratings are based on specs, not age, sorry. Tigers are still really fast in the right conditions as well. Don't make it more complicated dude.