In response to the post that you can learn more in an open class; I pretty much sailed open class for 3 years before finally getting into F18. I have learned more in 3 months than I did in that 3 years. I had terrible upwind habits and my performance in open class suffered horribly. There was always the questionable rating system that I could point to as a mental excuse for my lack of performance - but even then, what do I change? I can't look at the Hobie 18 that's pointing higher than me to figure out what I'm doing wrong on my Nacra 6.0; there's no point of reference hence the learning curve is small. I was terrible when I got into F18 but once I got to where I could stay within sight of the other boats on the course, a flood of information followed. Lately we've been in the top 1/3 of the buoy regattas we've been to and we're still learning.