John Sweeney is a good sailor, good dude, and one hell of a rabble rouser!
Sailing is in a interesting position. In the US it’s lost a lot of steam. One reason is rules and another is access to learning. (let’s not forget costs! – ed) But it simply missed over the years on creating a fair base line for rating systems.
Draft is what’s changed so much since the 80s. No shit a Santa Cruz 70 gets beat by a TP52. If you put a deep draft keel on a SC70 it would be a lot faster. But having 14-18 deep keels now the norm really doesn’t work in many marinas.
Did the ratings guys screw up by not putting a limit on drafts ? I think so. My home club SFYC could berth most IOR yachts in the day but now not even a modem 40 footer.
We can’t go back now but sure seems like a transpac draft limit sure would have leveled the playing field. Just an observation as we see small 40-50 modern racers break records held by the ior draft limited sleds.
Julian Everitt knows the game and may have created a new rule that helps. Even the AC deed of gift has a draft rule!
Title inspiration is a particularly creative one, I’d say!
