I'm sick at home so I have way to much time on hand to play to irritating know-it on catsailor. After so many hours in bad you get a little grumpy and soooo tired of just lying in bed.

So here is another Gem !





I understand that this is a definition of OD but I also think that regarding the world from that perspective may be deceptive.

The definition is a typical example of where the answer is already defined in the question.

I think the thing we are looking for is the class of boats that makes the combination of boat and crew as closely equal as possible to all the other combination boat/crews. PERIOD

By adding the condition that IT MUST ACHIEVED by using identical platforms is soley itended to exclude a different approach to the problem.

We all know people are not one-design. Mark introduced this point yet again. If you are faced with a group of sailors ranging from 120 kg ot 170 kg than no OD class that currently exists approaches the level of equality that can be had in a formula setup. Simply because a platform will either favour light, medium of heavy crews. In a OD class as you defined it one sailor is noticeably better of then others. In a formula class however ; the platform itself can be modified, just as the sails, to compensate for the NOT OD-ness of the crews. Examples like open 18 ft skiffs versus 49-ers show the same trend.

And yes when taking two crews of say 150 kg weight than two different formula boats WILL be less equal than one single boat as OD BUT when realizing that crews in a class can range from 125 kg to 175 kg we can easily see how two different formula boats over a full range of crew can be more equal then in single ID platform that favours one particular weight over all others.

So the questions is do we what large fleets of equal racing or just OD classes that favour a narrow band of crews and say to all other crews that need to suck it up ?

What is fair ? How do we defined equality ? How do we defined competitive racing ? As two boat being exactly the same when sailing by identical crews or when two different crews (but with same skill) sailing two designs optimized for them are equal in the end result ?





That is a pretty cold assesment of the Formula classes. Only one step from Open class racing. I think you will find that Formula racing is alot higher on the ladder. At least about SMOD when taking into account that we don't all measure in right at the optimal weight for that particular OD class. I MUCH rather sail at 15 kg overweight (or underweight) in the F18 class than the Hobie 16 class.

Than of course we are overlooking the setup of the various classes. Spinnaker equipped classes tend to be alot less sensitive to crew weights than non-spi classes. All this talk of OD being better is so one-sided. Significant factors are simply ignored in favour of some "perfect world" formulations. I dare say that F18 racing is alot more equal than most OD sailors think and it appears to be alot more equal than mind experiments do suggest.





How is that a problem ? All races have a cut of time. Everybody must finish 15 minutes after the first finisher or be scored (last finisher + 1 ) points. All boats still on the course can than abandon the race and group back for the next start. It is also alot more fair to unlucky sailors caught in a hole as they don't get a very large hit by being very last.

Fair racing is all about a crew not being able to buy or design an unfair advantage over others. When someone decides he is happy to put himself at an unfair DISadvantage than that doesn't translated in UNfair racing does it. He choose to do so nobody forced him and when he gets tired of it can again choose and back up to equality.

So what is the problem here ? It is just an invented problem to smack the Formula classes with.





Is that so ? We hear this all the time. How often did it exactly happen ? And more importantly how did such a thing impact on the class as whole. Even here the record is mixed. F20 / ventillo => class died, A-cat / Flyer => class grew.

Who are we kidding here. Is the problem that every few years racers need to buy new boats ? Is that it ? Name me one OD class where the true racers DON'T buy a new boat every two years. So what is different ? In case with formula classes, pretty much all improvements in sails and boards can be retro fitted to older designs. New sail design ? Get that oen for you old boat as well. To expensive ? You really think that your 3 year old sails are competitive even in classes like H16 ?

Sure it can happen that the design comes out with a faster boat but how likely is this really AND how do you know that the impact on the class is not a positive one.

Has anybody ever thought about the fact that F18 class grows because alot of still competitive boats are available on the second hand market at decent prices. Allow more people to get into to game at their budget. Happened in the A-cat class when all the top sailors moved to the Flyer. Therefor is it such a occurance really always a bad thing ?





One can have argue that with succes, however than one also has to argue that OD classes are only in an eternal survival contest always leading back to extinction. At least the formula classes are always garanteed to survive in one form or another. The may go OD like the Tornado has done and then at a later time diversify again like the 18ft skiffs did after a period of OD. All the time keeping a finger on the wrist of the sailors and adapting to the times and going with the flow.

As a system the Formula setup is actually quite a smart setup.

Wouter