It is very hard for me to understand why everyone would not prefer to race against identical boats. To me it is a lot more exciting to race a Lightning one-design than catamarans on handicap.

Maybe it's because I was raised believing that sailboat racing is about determining who is the fastest sailor, not which is the fastest boat -- and that can only really be determined in a one-design fleet.

And if you think the fastest guy in a one-design fleet is only fastest because he has the fastest boat, you can have a race where everybody switches boats, with the fastest sailor taking the "slowest" boat in the fleet, and see what happens.

Maybe there are too many people these days who care more about having the fastest boat and don't care about improving their sailing/racing skills.

Maybe some people just don't want to know they are not as good as another sailor and would rather be able to blame it on their boat or on their handicap rating? I don't know. You tell me.

If you want to go fast and don't want to spend the time and energy to improve your skills, why don't you just get a personal watercraft? Want to go faster, just get one with a bigger engine.

Sorry, I am just frustrated because I don't understand it.