Wouter,

I support all you say about the need to make sailing cool again, but Hobie 16's have an image that is way cooler than F18's or any other Cat, it is all down to the sail colours, to the average Joe on the beach all cats are alike, except those ones with the cool sails. Why do you think holiday companies use them in thier brochures and TV adverts so much.

Cool is all about image not performance. What makes you think a teenager would think that a spinaker makes a boat look cool? It just makes it look more like their freinds uncles floating caravan.

Gareth

grob,
but the Hobie 16s have spinnakers for the ISAF Youth Worlds. Is it for image or performance, or both?

I admire the French for being very enthusiastic and bold in regards to ocean sailing. The problem with the French is best summed up by the American writer and humorist, Mark Twain,

"France has neither winter, nor summer, nor morals. France is miserable because it is filled with Frenchmen, and Frenchmen are miserable because they live in France."

I'm sorry, when Wouter shouted his defense of the French, I couldn't help myself. Of course, I love their food...

David
H20 781

Mary

Its for performance, but it isn't the spinnaker that mkes it a cool boat.

So, David, what you are trying to say is that France promotes ocean racing to get Frenchmen off its soil, and French people do ocean racing to get away from France?

But, seriously, I'm curious how sailing got to be such a big deal there with the nonsailing public.

"Your mother is a hampster and your father smells of elderberies. Now, go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"

Best French quote of all time

It is phenomenal, I holiday in france with my family in the summer, last year we stayed in the Vendee region, I think it is partly to do with the fact that the local councils see the benifit of promoting the sport for thier regions.

This may be peculiar to the Vendee, but they don't seem to have any of the problems with having sailing clubs on the beaches either. i.e there were no beach devlopments other than the catamaran sailing club. It takes a supportive council to have that situation.

Gareth

Oh no ! Best quote in french still is from the matrix part deux.

(pronouce with heavy French accent)

By the Mertovingian :

"I love cursing in French, it is like wiping your butt with silk"

wouter

"So, David, what you are trying to say is that France promotes ocean racing to get Frenchmen off its soil, and French people do ocean racing to get away from France? "

Ah Mary,
You have struck to the heart of the matter.

David
H20 781

Matter of factly, You all have NO idea what you are talking about.
How many of you have a passport?
How many of you actually went to France?

I understand your irritation!
It's everybodys right to be proud off his country but.

BUT I think it is time now to fill the ditches and not to dig ditches...

Tiger, for my part, I have never been to France, so it is only based upon what I have heard and read and seen that I have the opinion that France has done more than any other country to advance the sport of multihull racing, especially on the big multihulls. But I know France also has excellent training centers for the smaller cats.
Are you saying I am wrong?

Yes, I had to have a new set of pages put in it because there was no more room for customs stamps.


Twice...and 14 other European, Middle Eastern, South American, and Asian countries. I haven't been out of the country in a couple of years - I kind of miss it but it's a love/hate relationship because it really interfered with my sailing! I actually circled the globe twice on airplanes so my birthday should technically be two days sooner than it was.

Mary



The training centre at Quiberon has to be seen to be believed, row upon row of boats. And the tuning tweaking / workshop is big, and when I say big, you can get a whole load of Hurricane 5.9's in there fully rigged to check spreader rake and the like.

Tiger,
You are correct to a point and I was making a joke, as I think were the others. I thought it was interesting to find the French rubbed Mark Twain the wrong way. When one gets past nations and associates on a people to people level, these issues usually disappear. That's why I love sailing, it brings us all to one common reality.

David
H20 781
"Every day is getting longer; Spring can't be far away."

Oh, I know my French quotes.
"I fart in your general direction."

Getting back to Orange, Have you guys noticed how fast they are going? They are already 1790 miles ahead of Fossett's pace. That boat is smokin.

Isn't it a French quotation that "you hang around like a fart in a phone box"???