When did we care about SCHRS and Texel ratings?
At least someone finally said it! Building a boat to a handicap rule is the quickest path to the dead boat society. I gotta get out of here before my head explodes.
To be honest if you are prepared to bury your head in the sand then by all means then we probably won't miss you.
If you think that any class can survive outside of the Texel and SCHRS then you are living on past times. The 1 boat that has done well in F16 guise, the Viper is over weight by some margins and knowingly then uses its 104 guise in most handicap races. In those races which usually have far more publicity than any of our own F16 races, it can do well under the more forgiving handicap than if it used the F16 rating. Winning events means sales, consumers are yes gullible enough to not see through the short term and plan for the long term. just look how many people have bought the Iphone 5 when it wasn't really much of an upgrade on the 4S
Now wake up everybody, winning races outside of purely F16 races is probably more important to the class than winning a purely F16 race at this time. We simply do not yet have enough boats on the water to not race in handicap events, but that will happen.
How about we then plan for the long term, swallow a bit of pride ( and yes I am an advocat and have fought hard to keep the lower weight over the years )and say yes bring the weight up to 120kgs and really really get the class established. In truth it probably only effects few manufacturers and they probably with everything onboard are around the 110 - 115kgs anyway. 5kgs of ballast is neither here nor there.
Once the class is established in numbers then perhaps the members ( who are the voters, not the manufacturers )could perhaps do what is happening now and lower the weight, a few more enlightened people may well open there minds perhaps and see that the original weight may have been a good thing.
We still have a problem though with AHPC and the Viper, if they don't get their way and raise the weight to more match their boats ( the majority of potential voters afterall ) they will begin to set up OD races excluding all other F16 boats. It will probably mean that Hobie and others will not enter the fray, meaning higher prices and less choice. We either bite the bullit now and raise the weight to compromise or we simply accept that Viper and Nacra will be the only players in town.
