I don't know where to start with this one.

"new to the game"? If you're referring to me, I've been a N20 owner since 2007, and sailor since 2005. I don't think that qualifies as "new to the game".

Anyone who looks at my record can tell that I'm not interested in winning. I'm not even interested in finishing top half of the fleet. I do want to compete against who I feel are sailors on equal level as me within the fleet.

What I don't want is to sail an open or formula class because some owners just up and decided that it was ok to change the rules. Thats not what I signed up for when I bought the boat, and its not whats going to cause more people to join the class. Go look at the Nacra 6.0 and what they did. Same song, different singer.

As for why would people buy boats that get beat by F16s... I'd imagine that a ton of H16 sailors would take umbrage with that statement. I didn't buy my boat because it was the fastest boat amongst all the choices available. I bought it because it was what I felt was the best boat to do the race that I loved at the time (and the price was pretty damn good).

So the whole goal of changing the rules so people all of a sudden start buying N20's isn't going to work. How is a boat that is split between two classes going to draw in more sailors?

"Gee, I can sail in a 2 boat one design fleet or a 3 boat open sails fleet. This sounds ... awesome."

*rolls eyes*

Whatever - I think its fairly clear what I think on the matter. Once again, this isn't helping me get off the hump and put the boat in the water. In fact, it makes me rather sick to look at my boat and think of this whole situation.