First, Congrats to Jay and JC and Rick and Brandy for their respective First place finishes... great job and exciting all the way! Also, congrats to Steve and Kenny and Kenny and Brian for the first place Atlantic 1000 finish! Congrats also to all of you who had the courage to get out there and give it a run!

It was fun seeing all of you at Tybee this year, sorry you missed breakfast (Rick White)... also great hanging out with Todd and Bart and the rest of Team Cat Fever!

I was wondering what folks were thinking for 2005. Are we going to see more or less Nacra 6.0's? Will the Eagle 20 be the boat of choice for the rock stars? Will there be any F-18 teams making the run? Do we need to move towards a F-20E ("extreme") class (I just made the "E" part up), something that is based on the F-20 rules in effect in Europe and perhaps modified ala Carl's suggestions and allowances made for safety such as reefing mains, etc.???

A few observations from my involvement as a racer, sponsor, and team manager/boat guy over the last five years:

1. Standing rigging is custom on more than half the boats...lengthened forestays, shortened shrouds, shortened trapeze, etc. Non-factory rigging of equal and often greater strength than the factory rigging.

2. Trampolines are highly modified for spinnaker bag, gear storage, rerigging of mast rotation lines, throw cushion pockets sewn under the trampoline, etc.

3. Rudder gudgeons are rewelded and refinished for extra strength, rudders themselves have reinforced areas post factory, etc.

4. The biggest obstacle I see right now to some type of F-20 class is the sailmaker restrictions imposed by the factories. I like my I-20 sails from Skip, but would also like to try something from Jay Glaser, Randy Smyth, or Dave Calvert also. Not an arms race, just a choice... the rock stars are going to beat us ham and eggers flying my used up practice sails so I'm not delusional.

Whatever happens... God willing, I'll be there next year going as fast as I can on my ol' I-20...enjoying the ride all the way.

Jim Stone
Tybee Island
Team Soul Surfer
I-20 (F-20E)
Devoti Finn