Dave,

Since no IHCA on HCA officers are answering these questions, I will try to give you my limited knowledge.
Yes, if you run any event where you want to use the "H****", you must then abide by their rules. This would obviously include your points regatta listed in the Division book. You can still have the race with X-class, but now must drop all referance to "H" in any way.

According to the IHCA president, "H" dropped a cool $35,000 into NAHCA last year. Along with the $30 from each and every member, well... the money is giong somewhere. It just does not necessarly get to your local fleet, but that does not mean they are not supporting you. It's just on a higher level, ie, if HCA is strong, you will be.

Letterhead... that is interesting. I guess fleets that comply are allowed to use it, but fleets that run events not in line with these rules would be subject to the legal recourse that the IHCA president threatened.

I am confused about how this plays out around the world. The IHCA president stated at the Division 4 meeting that this mandate was sent to NAHCA because we were in violation of the intent of the IHCA. All other countries already comply and were in fact shocked at what we were doing in the U.S. The two responses from outside U.S. indicate to me that this just is not so. Both Europe and South Africa stated that Hobies race as part of larger multimanufacture regattas. Which is it? When is the rest of the world going to get their letters? If not, why not?

Ken