... And on the count of three, thou shalt lobbist thy holy handgrenade at thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it....

the interesting thing is .... It seems to take as much money to keep at the pointy end of a SMOD fleet as it does a open or boxed rules fleet..

SMOD hulls get old and soft and slow.. Thus every few years the gun skippers seem to have new hulls whether it is a smod class or a formula... I recall in lazers the best skippers always seem to purchase a hull from on particular factory and one colour as it was stiffer and lighter...

As for high tech... Apart from this new material.. what new materials have been used in boat hulls in the last 30 years?
Kevlar? nope.. was being used in skiffs in the 80s.. Carbon nope ditto... epoxy? 70s.. nomex 80s..

Stewart

Ouch! Fat wallets and high tech! I suppose you don't check out the Volvo Extreme 40 cats because they're too high tech and fat wallet. I don't know about you, but as a sailor I love knowing about the tech stuff, expensive or not, whether I'll buy it or not. Because some day it will used and affordable, and you might just learn a trick or two to apply on your current ride. In the mean time I still enjoy sailing boats made of good old fiberglass and foam and aluminum. They have just morphed from a H-14 to H-18 to H-20 to N6.0, all used with no fat wallet investment. Even the "high tech" spinnaker I put on the 18 was almost all used gear, certainly no fat wallet there. There was a day when all that was high tech, and so were H-16s. Good thing you weren't sailing then, you'd be upset we weren't all talking about plywood hard deck boats (now the Shark and Cougar guys will be mad).

The point is to go sailing! Sail what gives you joy! And don't get pissed that there are options and equipment out there that are different from what you like, choose, or could afford! Look at it, talk about it, enjoy its existence! Then go sail what you like and be happy!

This discussion reminds me of the "Calvin and Hobbs" comic where Calvin and Hobbs are arguing over the Club Minutes. I tried finding it on the internet but couldn't. It would have been sooooooo.... appropriate.