Dear all,

before really voting on the new upgrades I would like to take the opportunity to discuss this a little further.





My observation is that Europe is the TIGER stronghold in the IHCA, we also see pretty much two different groups of TIGER sailors:



A. The pure TIGER sailor

B. The F18 sailor who owns a TIGER



So before we consider major changes to the boat, I am not talking about the daggerboard stoppers but more about the new sailcut and the trampoline, we should consider the consequences.



Therefore several questions circulate in my head:



Do we want that the TIGER class will be an ever changing class?

Do we attract more people to the TIGER class by changing rules and thus implementing innovations?

Or do we turn away more TIGER sailors by doing so?



Do we need to consider the F18 sailor at all, who owns a TIGER? Yes, I think so, but it must not be our first concern.





Some thoughts on this from me:



The TIGER is a more or less one design boat. Therefore we should stay mainly with the current design. We are not the F18 class association.



If we allow all of the proposed changes including the major changes to the sails, we (kind of) must agree to any other proposed changes that come from the factory, be they innovation driven or production driven (like the trampoline changes).



I think we would not be consistent enough in our class policy if we again agreed on those changes. Changing the sail plan of a pretty new boat, does not matter that much, but imagine the 49ers would change the sails right now? Everybody would have to change! So, I am asking myself, is it a marketing driven issue?

Looking into the competition in the F18 world of the TIGERS, I would say yes! So, by implementing the new sails into the TIGER it would mainly benefit the factory who then only needs to supply the new sails.



Yes, F18s need development, so for F18 sailors other sails then Hobie Sails are on the market, the new thing might be that HCE then also offers those in order to regain some of the market.



We on the other hand would tend to "upset" those average sailors amongst ourselves, especially the younger ones, that don´t have that much money, but love to sail this exciting boat. We might risk to loose them. They, as students or so cannot afford to buy new sails just to be competitive as the new sail cut promises more boat speed.

My recommendation would be:

Let HCE offer the new sails as F18 sails, BUT KEEP the existing cut due to the above mentioned reasons.

This might be a compromise.

There is another issue that was mentioned to only a few of you: ISAF obviously has inofficially uttered that they would not be so happy if the Hobie Class would change their boat rules as frequently as we are doing it right now, but this is a minor issue.

Awaiting your inputs!

Kind regards und tschüß

Fritz Klocke

Vice President IHCA