Interesting to hear this.
When I first found my Taipan 4.9 I had no people at all to talk to about what the boat was. On going to the AHPC site I read that I had bought the fastest boat on the planet which basicly s**t miracles.
I suppose I just wanted to believe all of that because I had one. It has taken a long time to find it is still a strong, high performance boat but has fallen behind because of lack of development and others emulating it. There are a whole bunch of boats that would usually whip it's A** and I am in this conversation because I felt the overenthusiastic rethoric on the site made me feel lied to. That made my sailing growth slower.
I am not saying I was lied to but it felt that way.
I was shocked that a sport that relies so much on tech and onto it inovation would be so flowery about reality.
As I tried to find out how to set the boat up I was gobsmacked about how little tech exchange there is between cat types, let alone mono/cat cross pollination. I think not trading trust and ideas slows the fleet down.
The rehoric does not stop at boats. I have also had to try to find my way through sheets and cords to understand which type and why.
The boat shops I found out after hundreds of dollars just talk rot and sell cord.
Then when I was recently going through a ropes catalogue I saw that the best trait one sheet type had was "its rugged good looks" at which point I learnt to believe nothing.
This site gives sailors a chance to try to cut through the BS and not spend stupid dollars. For those of you who have sponsorship or big wallets, that is great and good luck to you. The rest want to get the bang for the buck and need to do homework.
This discussion has grown from the first posting and it's not to bag Tigers, it has used them as a platform around which to discuss what is happening with boat types.
I am in a place where I have no physical contact with high tech cat sailing and right here is my class room.
To those who have delivered sensible debate and ideas, thanks. To the frightened who can't hear bad things about their ride. Get over it and make your feelings understood on the water.
From the whole of this thread what I have learnt is that Wouter has an unhealthy interest in off the beach race cats : ) and some lucky, tallented buggers get paid to do what I love and that PRACTICE RULES THE WAVES.