Jake,




If indeed I'm angry then I'm not angry at the A-class, but rather at a sizeable portion of its sailors who at some instances celebrate the open, cool, development nature of the A-class, but when a new thing is tried become hysterical and almost immediately start throwing about "obsolete old design" and "kill off the class if not banned" kind of statements.

Most of them also reason along lines that are far less certain then they feel is the case. Hence my carbon mast example. Even if a given project results in significant jump in performance (carbon mast ?) then it is still not a given that this will impact negatively on a class (the A's in the 90's). This while many simply believe this to be something akin to a law of nature. Another example are the foiling moth, a obsolete making jump in performance if there ever was one, but the moths actually grew spectaculary internationally because of it. In deed such a development can also have very positive effects for a class. Interesting enough, there are quite a few examples of that, Upgrading the Tornado with a spi and double trapeze is another example. Still, these example are suddenly and completely forgotten whenever a new development is introduced.

Personally, I think the "raison d'etre" of the A-class is indeed development. Without it is will fall back to just a single sail solo sailor class that in time will be surpassed by other faster classes who do allow development. That is why I have so little patience with scared sailors in the A-class. If ever they get the upper hand and lock the A into a given setup by adding more rules and banning real development then they will have struck the biggest blow to the A-class in its 40 year existance. And we'll all loose an important part of the catamaran scene.

Wouter