Draw what conclusions you want, but I think that a lot of "spinnaker snobs" punted when they found out what boat the 2004 Alter Cup was going to be sailed in. They should all be ashamed of themselves.

Matt,

I agree with 99% of what you post both here and on SA, but I have to take issue with this. Just speaking for our team, we raced nearly 100 Tiger or F18 starts this year, including the NAs and the Alter Elims - and that doesn't even include Melges 24 and 32 starts. Even if we won the Alter Elims (which we only sailed to support our Area L fleet and US Sailing), we would have declined the invite to the Alter Cup. It has nothing to do with snobery, our team weighs 360lbs combined and our focus is on F18 (and we all know that competive weight even for a Tiger is 330)- why would we expend another regatta date to fly across the country to jump in a H16 when we know that we would be uncompetitive from the get go due to weight, I am sure the N20 guys would point that out as well.

FWIW - from what I have seen this year (my first season back in cats in 15 years), the Hobie 16 should always be used as the Hobie class to promote entry for new sailors or intros into Cat sailing and should be sailed without a kite. It is a great WW fleet as is, and also a great entry boat into large competitive cat fleets. No snobery, but as experienced sailors that weigh 170-180 each, my crew and I would have no real interest in competing in the event if sailed in H16s, with or without a kite.

Really, sometimes I feel the Hobie 16 fleet has to get over itself, there is a lot of other sailing going on in the world.



Paul Andrepont
Hobie Tiger USA 2477