A new thread, for Rick and John (and me and anyone else):

On Jan 26, 8:56 am, John Cochrane
wrote:

Rick asked about the insane (my opinion) 13.5 meter class, including
the momentous issue of water ballast.

People will race anything they can. I support that.

I don't support supporting more than about 3 classes at the
international level though. It's absurdly expensive and just dilutes
the intensity and prestige of the thing. My own personal view is that
any sort of handicap racing is a waste of time at the international
level. No handicapping system is truly fair and at that level of
competition arguments of "low cost" and accessibility really don't
wash. So I'd toss all the handicapped comps. Oh, and I'd prohibit
motor gliders... or at least restrict them to one of those three
classes. Have I offended everyone yet?

My three: open (pure glider), 18m (motor permitted), 15m (pure
glider). Feel free to explain to me why this would not be sufficient.

So: you guys want to race lawn darts or handicapped club class or 2-
seaters, have a ball. But I object strenuously to sanctioning so many
classes for international comps.

I realize these comments fall outside the current igc agenda. What
the igc should realize is that their willful deafness on this issue of
class proliferation hasn't caused general acceptance.

-Evan Ludeman / T8