Just to let you all know we are creating a new H16 Trapseat form at http://www.hobiecat.com/community/ and there is currently a H16 forum there as well that seems to get more and more active each month.

Sense I am the one that asked Rick to create this forum to get away from the Open Forums constant anti-H16 rhetoric I feel that this forum is a special place to meet. With the recent IHCA and HCA rules changes I have been told that many of my H16 friends will now be moving from this forum to the Hobie Forums at http://www.hobiecat.com/community/ I of course plan to continue to go to this and the other forum even though the new Trapseat forum at the Hobie cat website will be our new official forum.

I would like to thank Rick for this forum but with the recent attacks or should I say crying on the Open Forum about the IHCA rule changes I don’t think many Hobie sailors will feel that this or the open forum are safe places to post anymore.

I really do not know what all the fuse is about as the Laser classes have been having Laser only regattas for years and feel that Hobie is now getting back to their roots. I also see NAMSA as a positive develop for those anti-Hobie sailors and general good all around multihull sailors, its time they started running their own show. Actually many have been running their own show for some time now, so should not be a big change. I wish both HCA and NAMSA great success, and hope the NAMSA will use their organization for supporting multihull racing and not just for complaining about the Hobie rule change.

See you on this and the other Hobie forum at http://www.hobiecat.com/community/

1. I don't think ANYONE on this board is "Anti-Hobie Sailor".

2. Safe place to post? I don't understand that? Did someone get a death threat.. ha ha ha

I am not going to point fingers at CatSailor.com or Hobie Cat. I think EVERYONE should get over this rhetoric and loosen up a little bit. This is the Internet. There are a lot more important things going on.

This is what sail-s was referring to:


A response like this to an innocent post by a 17 year old Hobie 16 sailor is just downright mean.

There are too many trolls on this forum.

All I can say is good luck. Every bulletin board on the Internet has "trolls".

It looks to me that HCA's mandate is working nicely to split up good people in a sport where the most important part is the people and not the boat.

I don't think HCA is the only one trying split up good people in the sport, its two sided actually. The way I see it there are a lot of non-Hobie sailors doing the spliting, and over reacting for nothing. Some are saying HCA did the mandate for sales reasons, actually they had a banner year in 2003, their decision is more associated with the class efforts, not sales. Still I know some will not beleive this and all I can say is whatever! mbounds post was exactly what I was saying. And Yes there are trolls on all forums but haven't really experienced it at the Hobiecat forums. Really what I want out of a forum is to just talk sailing and not be bashed for sailing a Hobie or in particular a H16.

So really my only reason for posting was to let people know about the Hobie forums. Today the Trapseat forum was established.

The problem with these forums is they are not really moderated. Yes, Rick and/or Mary stick their heads in occasionally to remind us to behave ourselves, but I don't know of anybody having their posting priviledges or HTML rights revoked for being especially nasty.

I've participated in Fark.com's forums for over a year now. Truly moderated. You violate the rules (like posting a NSFW image in a thread), you get banned. You intentionally troll, your post gets deleted. As a consequence, the forums are lively, funny and well behaved.

This place is a free-for-all - where an unsuspecting junior sailor gets bashed for nothing.

Matt, there have been several posters banned.
Rick

Rick I was wondering if you thought sail-s posts are by Matt, actually it is me Miles.

Rick,

I figured you had, I just don't know of any.

This forum has been given to us all by Rick who I bet has put a hell of a lot of effort to give us somewhere to voice our comments and pose questions. Don't let him down by swithching allegiance to another forum. It takes a hell of a long time to build up the number of contributors with the combined expertise that is on this forum. If you go, then you'll start again.

Let's all be reasonable here and not run away from what you're calling anti H16 bashing. Has anyone ever heard of sarcasm? OK, so you can't often tell sarcasm in text, but to me it's all a bit of light hearted banter that should deserve an equally sarcastic comment back if it's needed. If it's anything more malicious then I'm sure Rick will simply ban them.

Understand me that its not my goal to end this forum nor do I have the power to do this. As I indicated before I will continue to use this forum as I always have. The www.hobiecat.com/community/ forums have people who do not come here and I think its the same here, so I don't see much of a change any ways, other than some of the H16 sailors I know that visit this site indicated to me that they will also now be using the other forum. Its been great and will continue to be great to have this forum. Once again thanks Rick.

Just for your edification, this Forum is the second largest on this site in activity and posts.., so it must be good for something.
And very seldom have I ever seen anyone bashing 16s on it. Chip Collard did a little spoof last week, but that was all in fun and not to put the 16 down. How can anyone? It is still the strongest multihull class anywhere.

Also, not only is this the 2nd largest Forum, but it is on the highest ranked boating site in the world. This site is ranked higher that Boat US in links, traffic, etc. and they are in 2nd place.
The numbers fluctuate, but we are usually around 23,000th to 27,000th in the world, while Boat US is around 38,000. Sailing World is usually around 80,000th.

Don't know what that means except that cat sailors really do communicate better with each other than most boaters.

Either that or we are just of full of bull****!

Have a nice weekend,
Rick

I'm relatively new so I guess I missed that? What was the gist of criticizm(?) of the 16?

H16 was the first cat I owned and it's kinda like your first love, you never forget her!