I was sailing the Europeans in La Baule (with no good result unfortanly) and i do sail A-class already from 1981 when the first Bim made a big change in the A-class these days when most people where sailing Unicorn.
I was with my boat next to Marstrom at the beach and to be honest i did not see that the boat even used by Erik or by Goran where having canted hulls. I only noticed that Goran had a bid different boat than Erik and this was not with the canting and the others who where sailing Marstrom boats had no canted hulls. If they have it ,it is almost nothing and maybe less then 1 degree, it is not noticable.

I can tell you ( i was there ) that it was very tricky to sail and you had to made the right choice in going the good way of the course and when you made the wrong choice you where mid fleet. Maybe the boat of Bob together with his skills where on some days a good combination but Landy was also good in some days and made the right choices, he told me that he was lucky one race to have the good side of the course which was a first place. He was flying in the first race and nobody could beat him.

The only thing why i can see people are against it or afraid for it is that it can have affect at the price of the second hand boats with not having this banana type future. When you just made an investment in a new design or modified design you want to try to protect this investment, i think personally that is the discussion.

I will make some and try them on my boat to see if there is a real advantage because i can have a look at others but you have to experience it by your self to be sure if it is better.

It was by the way a nice sailing event with good atmosphere and good sailing and a lot of discussion as always. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Cheers,

Hans Klok