What did we all used to say about Randy Smyth ? He could sail a bath tube and still win.

Using your example, lets put a Smyth on a wave and and some newby on the M20.

I willing to bet that Smyth beats the M20 around the bouy race course.

Actually I've seen [censored] like this happen between a laser 1 monohull and a Hobie Tiger while racing around the cans. SERIOUSLY !

Would that come close to a a wave/m20 comparison.

No way how you slice it sailing skill is always more important than baot design. And when using handicap numbers the better crews ALWAYS end up higher on the list than less capable crews. Always.

Actually David several handicappers (Mark Schneider under USPN, Nico Boon in Texel and several others) have played around with corrected race results and found that in the vast majority of races you can swing ratings about to say 5 % and still get 97 % or more of the crews at the same placings. 5 % is a huge swing in handicap ratings.

Now I agree that handicap sailing has its own particular drawbacks, I'm not blind but it is also quite obvious that Hobie corp is trying to paint any class not being SMOD as suffering from these issues which is not the case. Formula racing does not suffer from these issues. And to be really honest if you combine F20, F18's and Tornado's in one fleet than you still don't have most of the issue linked to handicapped fleets containing all makes.

And yes, sailors that often race open class are definately better sailors in general. Or else how could Jennifer Lindsay and Kelly Gray beat you and anybody else during the last hangover regatta. Not to mention other events they have won or the fact that at Hangover regatta they outsailed (elapsed time) all boats expect 2 I-20's and 1 Tornado (the other 3 I-20 being beaten on elapsed time). Note how I didn't use handicap ratings yet ! Surely it is not because she has done so much OD sailing in the Taipan class is it ?

I rest my case.

Wouter


(P.S. David I understand what you are saying, but numbers don't lie and if you gether all the data over several years and proces it you will find how meaningless somethings are.)