Jonathan wrote:

Yet a question about wax will generate more conversation here.

Jonathan, if it weren't for dreamers willing to take chances, we'd never
have come ashore in the first place. Perhaps the reason a "wax thread" gets
more business here than a "why not subsidize this" thread is that practical
day-to-day people are interested in practical day-to-day" things. All
politics is local, or something similar.

I have listened to the "technical trickle-down" theory of offshore racing
for a very long time, and I must admit that there are certainly aspects of
everyday sailing that have benefited from offshore exotica. But asking
folks to pay for an individual's dream is, in many cases, just another
instance of dueling with windmills.

Not that I don't wish you guys all the best. Be careful out there.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.tripod.com