Evidence provided to the DPN committee by regatta organizers.

Open class racing
Wind factors must be used
Only buoy racing, traditional upwind downwind with possibly a reach. The USSailing course card is your guide.

Again, if the evidence supports your claim that F18 has become faster over time then the number will be adjusted.

The only role I see the NAF18 Championship results and any championship for that matter is to show who is your top guns are in each class.

If I were on the DPN committee, I would look at the championship results to determine the top guns. Look at the results at the Alter Cup Championships and see how the skippers measured up, this is about the only place where the top guns in range of classes race each other straight up. Finally I would review all the open class results with maybe a little extra attention paid to the area qualifier which I would then use to calculate an adjustment if the evidence supported it.

There was an interesting interview with Bouwe Bekking over at the Daily Sail (subscriber section).
They talked about the design and how the software which was develop during the AC and mainly applies to displacement hulls where no longer relevant.
Ironically the new design software was borrowed from what the powerboat designers use, and thats where they got the idea to put "spray stoppers" on the bow.
http://bp2.blogger.com/_U6Cp5x-Sbr8/SGjEvRiX_RI/AAAAAAAAD-w/n2TDvpqjzkw/s1600-h/DSC_2792_1.jpg

See, this is why I think there should be an exact distance measured for the course and it should be easy now that we all have hand-held GPS available.

If every "NA's" course were a measured mile (or 1.5, or what ever, but all exactly the same) from A to C, you could easily make a valid comarison from boat type to boat type, given the exact wind speed and the time it takes each boat type to get from C to A and A to C, use that as some type of a rating system, voila, you have a better system, and you don't even have to be racing open class to do it. Just measure the distance and time at each NA's, where the best skippers are sailing their own boats. The Alter Cup is a bit skewed because if the "team" isn't right for the boat (too heavy, too light, etc), or new to that type of boat, or whatever, their times will be signifigantly slower than when the same team sails their own boat.

These guys were way ahead of the curve...

Looks like a couple of prototypes I saw about 2 years ago in various yards.

You know what, I'm done with this. I hate handicap racing and I hate talking about it even more. If you really believe in your system make it happen. If you don't want to put any more effort into creating a better system than hammering on a keyboard then it really wasn't all that good of an idea.

Ding out!

If the boats are being sailed more upright (canting keels etc.) then the whole design, particularly the hull, is affected. No wonder spray rails and chine are becoming popular.

Halloween F18

The portsmouth number gets adjusted when the regatta organizers send in their handicap racing results from their open classes that were scored on Portsmouth. These relationships to other boats finish positions are considered in a database and the first place finishers contribute to the handicap rating and a small (very) small adjustment would happen from one or two race results. Enter 12 race results and the numbers get more refined. If regatta people don't send any results then the portsmouth group has to guess at where the numbers are.

As it relates to F18, the tiger is the ONLY F18 platform that has it's own rating. This is because the Hobie Tiger class rules have differentiated from F18 rules - mostly in the crew weight area. They race under a different rule set and get a different rating. All other F18's race under the F18 rating. If one of the other F18 boats proves to be faster than the others, it will be a minor improvement in speed (as history has proven) - and the rating system will self adjust fast enough to accommodate this shift for the class' potential.

Yeah, but there are a lot of other variables that go into boat speed that you haven't yet measured; wave height, wave direction, wave period, amount of chop, amount of boat traffic/wake, wind speed, wind direction, peak wind gusts, period of wind shifts, range of wind shifts, .... there are way too many variables to try and calculate a performance based system without the boats sharing the same racing time on the same racing water.

Don't forget tides too. Wind shifts are actually the thing that separates boats. Some boats sail a shorter course to A mark. Some boats sail in more wind on their way to A mark by sailing smarter.

Mike Hill
N20 #1005

so what happens if this proposed hull shape is actually faster by a small, but noticable margin? Everyone runs out to buy the new boat? Is that what they refer to in other threads about "arms race"?

This could be a good thing. If the difference is small enough, it only matters to the best, most competitive sailors. Then they'll run out and buy a new boat and sell their older but still great boat to a less competitive sailor at a discount.

It's the trickle-down theory of class building.

Oh yeah! I forget tide and current and since the current can vary all over the course depending on the water depth....

we have a few years to worry about this atleast in the states hobie usa may wait to import them.

New designs are always faster, it works like this.....

Say you have a three year old "Design X", you've raced it pretty hard and done well. Then you test sail a brand new "Design Y" and discover it is stiffer, faster and more responsive than your current boat, therefor it must be better so you sell your boat and buy the new one.

The truth is 90% of the 2% difference is that you're comparing 3 year old gear with brand new stuff. Test sail a brand new "Design X" (identical to your current boat) and you'll probably find the same difference.

One thing most F18 sailors will tell you is all the boats (including the older designs) can have their day, More than anything else the new hobie is a marketing and fashion exercise because after 12 years the Tiger is falling out of fashion.

Well said!

Not sure if this was posted on catsailor before but this is the 2nd picture:

It must be fast because that's Gaud-awful ugly... Looks like a native warrior mask...

That some sort of spray deflection "chine"?

(I donno what to call it, I know its not a chine)