[quote=badfish]I see both sides of the discussion.
It was originally done on H16s against the prevailing winds in horrific conditions, so I'm not interested in hearing how F18 or Carbon 20 or any number of other boats aren't robust enough.
That said, I can understand that you can't just have any Joe Blow show up with his '81 H16 with enough epoxy injected into soft spots to make another boat, enter and race in the Worrell. There has to be more options than taking $20k+, $30k+ boats and putting them through what is widely considered to be absolute torture though. I mean just look at Cat in the Hat. Such a pretty, new boat, severely damaged in rather mild conditions.
F18 is more than capable and has the numbers, but are there enough people willing to subject their expensive toys to that environment?
I think unless they can find a way to allow more inexpensive boats to compete, they're going to continue to have participation problems unless they get back to heavily sponsored teams and all the crap that went along with that, which in my mind is what led to its decline in the first place. (I'm not a Worrell historian, someone will explain in detail what led to its decline, I'm sure)
I know the Great Texas 300 has The Dash, where they bring in anyone and everyone who wants to race for the last leg (~40 NM). The Dash always has a great turnout, so the desire is there. We just have to figure out how to include them and still make sure people are safe. (Whatever that means)[/quote]
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