Tom,

To sum up, I think you will always see a "well sailed" A-Cat still probably finish slightly ahead of a "well sailed" I-17 boat for boat in buoy racing. But as long as the ratings remain what they are, that A-boat will probably have a tough time correcting out against the "well sailed" I-17 as we saw in November. Distance racing is a different scenario. If you guys have a long downwind leg, we're in trouble. Just be sure we don't have a long upwind leg to catch back up to you!

Regarding A-boats in the south and how we "dilute" the singlehanded racing. We currently have 8 active boats in LA and TX (which will grow to 10 in September), two in the Fort Walton area, 3 in Atlanta, and I believe 10-12 boats in central and south Florida. Mark Ederer in Ocean Springs is ready to buy a boat and I had gotten him in contact with a seller in Annapolis last week.

Besides our Midwinter Race Week this past January with 42 boats racing, we were the largest one design fleet at the Deep South Regatta in Lake Charles in April, the largest one design fleet at the Galveston Bay Catamaran Championship in May, and the largest one design fleet at the Wayward Winds Regatta (also on Galveston Bay) last October. Each of these local events had 7 A-cats racing. The Gulfport, FL A-Class/F-16 event had 9 A-boats racing. I have told my district chairmen for central and south Florida and the Gulf coast that we want to make it a priority to try to get more boats in the Panhandle. With the availibility of the excellent Bim XJ being built by Vectorworks in Titusville, we hope to see that happen. So if you, Chris Sawyer,and Bob MUR get tired of just racing each other, we'll be happy to welcome you all to our fleet.

Regards,

Bob Hodges
A2 USA 230