First off, having sailed with one of their top 17 sailors for more than 10 years now (Bob Curry), anyone who knows Bob's ability can easily recognize the difference in talent level when looking at the 2008 NA Results. Bob has put on professional level campaingns the last several years on the N17, which have been part of the boat development. Not to even dream of taking anything away from Bob's talent (natural and developed), one could easily say Bob could beat you with an extra XX lbs onboard (i.e. heavier mast).

In case you can't tell yet, I bought into an N20 over a year ago and love the carbon stick. We all expected to see this development come eventually with the rising costs of carbon (although not sure they shouldn't come down eventually). I would like to see the list of top teams who will be doing the development, and be kept up to speed on developments and results. I don't think you should be taking Mischa or Macca and putting them up against a Joe-the-plumber weekend warrior such as myself. While I have a lot of tiller time over the 30+ years I've been sailing, this must be a realistic trial period. Only thing I've seen so far is someone in Singapore who has never sailed an N20 before. Not sure how he gets one of the first batch?